Robert Potter – Blog

This will save you loads of time as you will no longer need to load up a specific application like Canon’s DPP or Photoshop, etc just to see a quick thumbnail preview of any CR2 RAW file. Make sure you have XP’s service pack 3 installed.

1. Download and install Canon’s latest CR2 Codec for windows

2. Download and install Arcsoft’s RAW thumbnail viewer.

Reboot your computer and you should be able to see those CR2 files as thumbnail previews in Explorer.

Whilst on a weekend trip my Canon 40D camera stopped working and came up with Err99. What the hell is Err99 I thought? I went on the internet and discovered that it’s Canon being lazy, it can mean loads of different problems (read more here). My Err99 turned out to be a defective shutter, mirror and mirror box after only 14,500 actuations, Canon state a shutter’s average life for the 40D should be 100,000 actuations. I guess they didn’t do enough life cycle tests and going by the comments on flickr it seems there are quite a few upset 40D owners whose shutter failed long before hitting 100,000 actuations. It’s rare for the shutter, mirror and mirror box to fail at the same time so I got the super short straw.

I had the camera repaired via an authorized Canon workshop in Leon – Guanajuato, Mexico and the repair price came to $2,800 Mexican Pesos or $224USD. I’ve read that the same repair in the USA is at least $360USD as the labour rates are far higher compared to Mexico. They say that Canon has improved the manufacturing of these faulty parts, but if the camera is out of warranty you still pay even though the Canon original parts weren’t up to doing the job.

The repair time was 10 days as the mirror and the mirror box were out of stock and they ended up taking roughly six days to arrive from Canon’s main office in Mexico City. Hopefully the workshop has done a good job and the camera will never need repairing again within it’s lifetime. The repair has a three month warranty so I’d better do some serious shooting to give it a good test.

It’s so annoying when your external hard drive falls asleep whilst working in Photoshop or come to think of it when using any other software program. Then it takes up to one minute to come back to life. This can happen countless times within a day’s work. It would have been so easy for the makers of USB external drives to put a stay live button on the unit, but no that’s too logical.

My frustration came to an end when I discovered some free software to help me avoid this big problem. Ashutosh Agarwal is the creator of NoSleepHD a tiny program that writes and erases a file to your chosen external hard drive at set intervals thus keeping the USB hard drive on it’s toes and constantly awake.

I bought this wireless no PC Skype phone about a year ago, I’m quite happy about the sound quality it gives, but the battery is terrible as reported by many other users and it finally died about three months ago. So I went on the hunt for a new lithium rechargeable battery, it took me a long time in Google to find anyone selling a replacement battery which I thought was specially made for the WSKP100.  One place in the UK was selling the original replacement battery totally over priced once the P+P was included. I searched some more and then I found a thread on a forum with someone stating that the same battery is used in other electronic devices and the type is called a NP60.  The original battery has the specification 3.7v 1300mAh, as you might know it’s the voltage that should be the same when finding a replacement battery the current should be the same or more than the original. I couldn’t find a NP60 with the specs 3.7v 1300mAh on ebay.co.uk, but I did find a NP60 with the specs 3.7v 1400mAh via several Chinese sellers. One deal included two batteries, a USA wall charger which is also ok for use in Mexico and a car charger all for $18 USD inc P+P to the UK, bargain. It was exempt from import tax to the UK as the price was so low.  So if you have got one of these phones and a duff battery just do a search on ebay for "NP60 3.7v 1400mAh" and you’ll find several vendors in China selling them for a fair price.

Recently one of my 2GB Kingston Elite Pro cards wouldn’t initialize when I put in a Fujifilm S2 Pro camera, it came up with a read error. So I thought it’s no problem I’ll just reformat it in XP using FAT16 as the S2 can’t handle FAT32, but to my surprise no luck. I tried several times more but still the little bugger didn’t want to play.

Then I remembered that there are several other software programs out there which also let you format your CF cards, USB keys, etc. So after a quick look around on the net I found a free HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, I quickly installed the program and reformatted the CF memory card. I then tested the card once again in the S2 Pro and it worked perfectly.  So don’t always trust your MS operating system when it comes to reformatting your memory cards or USB keys.

How many photos have you seen of friends or family looking so stiff they could be mistaken for a member of the armed forces on parade? Directing a photo shoot can be a tricky art when the participants are feeling super self conscious. I would guess to say over 50% of people having their picture taken by a professional photographer go super tense as soon as they are in front of the lens. There is one big exception to the rule and that’s the under 12 year olds, well at least when they aren’t throwing a tantrum. Good communication skills come in handy in these situations, some people have it naturally and the rest of us learn it the hard way bit by bit.

I always try to achieve that natural look when shooting people as the photos come out looking ten times better than the old school tin soldiers. I recently did a family group shot were the children were playing around so much it became difficult to get one shot where I could see all the faces at the same time with a decent expression.  I did take some good ones, but didn’t bag the shot I really wanted. I resorted to using image editing software to combine three photos into one. I’m happy with the end result which looks natural and you would have never guessed the picture had been doctored.

1. Original photo.

2. Mothers’s new smiling face added.

3. Final color version with youngest boy’s head changed.

4. B&W version.