crash landing to 350D, OMG!

Went to the store to get a Cristmas present for my son, a 350D.
Knowing him, knowing me, I had to make sure that once he gets hold of it everything runs smoothly. My father was an engineer, while his is widely known for his short fuse...

So I took tha camera from the package, loved its slender features and compact design. Loaded the battery and took it out for some test shots.

Beautiful handling, intuitive interface!

Got home, took the card from the camera, slid it in the SCSI-adapter and waited for the pictures to show up. The JPEGs did, OK, but my CS2 di not recognize the new RAW format. So I went to the Adobe site, downloaded the latest version of Camera RAW, changed the plug-in and nearly got what I was supposed to. No thumbnails, though, so lucky I shot with JPEG and RAW.

I loaded the Canon software included, had the machine crash until I understood that some of the old stuff had to be discarded before new could be installed.

Then I came to this site and learned that there is a new firmware. No problem, instructions were idiot proof and the upgrade caused no sweat.

But stil I am missing the smooth 20D "everything works", as I have to either do JPG and RAW to see what I am doing on CS2 or resort to Canon tools.

I am starting to understand a couple of things here: The first is Adobe's enthu to get the D-neg as a standard. Then I suddenly saw, what the Apple guys probably had seen with their friends ramassing plugins from here and there to get their fleet working nicely, with no need to mess around with different apps and plugs and upgrades.

Well, tomorrow will be another day and I wish I get things going as they are supposed to. If not, I am stuck with the 350D and the 20D goes to my son...plus all the accessories.

Tell me, do you think that these gadgets are consumer stuff?

Put the card in the reader and launch Adobe's DNG to convert the files as you download them... I do this because my 5D RAW files will not open in my Adobe CS, as I only have version 1...

Thanks, I'll do exactly that.
Is it just Hasselblad that is DNG native?

According to this page (at the bottom) http://www.adobe.com …/photoshop/came​raraw.html there's a Hasselblad, Leica, Ricoh and Samsung that are DNG native.

To get my 350d raw files working in CS2 i had to update the camera raw.8bi file in- C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Plug-Ins\CS2\File Formats.

I didi it but still no thumbnails (Mac)
So now trying .dng. Nice app, renames the files, converts them and places on an external hard drive...

Adobe's DNG now covers most cameras RAW data and they are adding new models to the list all the time...

DNG converter is a free app downloadable from http://www.adobe.com/s​upport/downloads/main.​html
"lossless compression" it states...I wonder how much infe gets lost in the process?
Anyway, it is a cross-platform format. Like .pdf, so happy about it!

According to the March/April PCPhoto,you need to condition Li-ion & NiMH batteries with THREE full charge to discharge cycles before the first partial discharge/charge use. If a battery isn't properly charged the 1st two times, it may never carry a full charge after that.

A couple things I've read:
When the charger first shows full, it's not. It's a good idea to leave it on for a half hour or so more.
Lithium batteries deteriorate even when they sit in the warehouse before sale. Useful total life may be between 2-3 years only after manufacture.
And, the LCD is a power hog. Leave it on for faster discharge.
Don't forget that the battery also runs your focus & IS, etc. One persons 1,000 shot life may be electrically equivalent to anothers 300 with a different lens.

"the camera automatically shuts itself off after a few minutes.": You should be able to change that setting in a menu. Some cams have a cable to connect to the computer. Maybe that would keep it awake longer when you're discharging the battery.

To my disappointment the 20D battery (the spare ones I have) did not fit in the 350D. It seems they have shrunk everything to get the package as compact as possible. I have the feeling that the next 20D upgrade will look more like the 350 than its precedessor.

here's what I read from Wise Geek:

Unlike its predecessor, the nickel-cadmium, lithium-ion batteries do not suffer from the “memory effect.” That is, the battery does not have to be fully discharged before being recharged. On the other hand, earlier nickel-cadmium batteries would “remember” where they were recharged, leading them to charge only to that point again. Later developed nickel-metal-hydride batteries also solved this problem.

Though the batteries do not suffer from the memory effect, it is just the opposite that users should be wary of. Lithium ion batteries shouldn’t be run all the way down before charging; they respond much better with constant recharges. Battery gauges, on the other hand, are often impacted and display incorrect readings from this practice. This leads some people to believe a memory effect exists, when in fact it’s the meter that needs to be reset. Draining the battery all the way down every 30 charges or so can recalibrate the gauge.

Elsewhere I read that one should absolutely avoid overcharging a Li-ion battery as it can decompose. The "trickle" current used to top up Ni-Cads is of no use in Li-ion batteries.

So I thinki i just continue doing as I am used to.

powerelectronics.com/m​ag/504PET23.pdf
http://www.wisegeek.co​m …thiumionbattery​_ad=010201

garbidz wrote:
DNG converter is a free app downloadable from http://www.adobe.com/s​upport/downloads/main.​html
"lossless compression" it states...I wonder how much infe gets lost in the process?
Anyway, it is a cross-platform format. Like .pdf, so happy about it!

lossless compression does not loose any data. There are two types of compression, lossless and lossy. Lossless compression generates the EXACT same data, where as lossy does not.

Think of the difference between an MP3 file compared to Zipping a WAV file.
The MP3 is lossy and the Zipped WAV (or FLAC ) is lossless.

From the MP3, you can never get your original CD back. But from the FLAC or the ZIPped WAV, you can make the same exact CD

a small lesson in compression.

If they say it's "Lossless" it's lossless. completely. This doesn't mean that there is a utility to convert your DNGs back however

I use the Apple lossless compression for my iTunes music files on the iPod and convert to Mp3 to listen on my cell phone. On classical music, the Mp3 makes itself audible. Apple lossless doesn't allow for cell-phone use as the files remain too big and Nokia does not recognise them so no choice.

It was just a thought..I read something about the EXIF files not being transferred properly. Maybe there something else, too that we'll learn with time?

Sorry, no source available any longer. I do not take anything stated by the manufacturer at face value. Lossless can be lossless or "lossless". That aside, the format seem to be well-accepted by Adobe and Mac. Let's hope there will be some sense in the format world from here on...

I think you may have misunderstood what I said. You may as well "continue doing as I am used to", since the "forming" needs to be done before the 1st partial use of the batteries.
Wise Geek is right but I was addressing "Pre-forming" a Lithium ion battery, not "Memory effect".

* Hasselblad H2D
* Leica Digital-Modul-R
* Ricoh GR Digital
* Samsung Pro 815

Are all capable of recording DNG native files...

The Ricoh GR Digital looks like something I could start carrying around.
It has only been introduced in November so there are no labtests as yet. I'd like to see how it handles low light situations. The price is ...well, it is..but so they are, as the GR is not one for the Masses but rather a nice gesture towards the Serious (har-har) like myself.
The lens is 28-equivalent f:2.5 and there is a converter to 21mm-equivalent.

About priming li-ion batteries before use: I could not find any documentation as to the usefullness of the procedure. Can I have a reference?