Earthbound Light - Nature photography from the Pacific Northwest and beyond
Do you calibrate your monitor, or do you profile it? In discussions on color management, the terms "calibrating" and "profiling" are often used somewhat interchangeably. In point of fact though, they refer to quite distinct processes....

Color Management: Calibrating versus Profiling
If you think that USB 2.0 is fast compared to earlier USB 1.1 standards, you're right. At 480 megabits per second, the current 2.0 version of USB operates at speeds up to 14 times faster than the older version. But by next year that will be, well... last year's news. Or something like that. This week Intel released the controller specifications for "SuperSpeed" USB 3.0 that will run up to 10 times faster still    up to 4.8 gigabits per second. And for fans of FireWire, last month the IEEE approved specs for the upcoming IEEE 1394-2008 that will run at up to 3.2 gigabits per second....

Get Ready For SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ... and a New Version of FireWire Too
Nikon this week announced the COOLPIX P6000, the new flagship model in the COOLPIX line of compact digital cameras. I've long wanted a good small camera that can shoot RAW and allows full metering control. It's been a long time since the days of the COOLPIX 5700, 8800 and others that supported RAW. But is the P6000 a worthy successor?....

Nikon COOLPIX P6000: Finally a New Pro-Quality COOLPIX?
I wrote recently that Nikon exposure meters generally read right to left while Canon meters read left to right. True enough. But if you have one of the newer Nikon bodies such as the D3 or D300 you can change reverse the orientation if you want....

Right to Left, or Left to Right: The Choice is Now Yours (Finally)
So how do you know if you are looking at a gray object in average light, or a white one in dim light, or even a black one in very bright light? Generally this dilemma isn't a very challenging one since we can see that object in context and our brains automatically help us figure such things out. But what about your camera?....