It’s been a long time since I’ve posted an iTunes tip here, so I thought I would share something that recently came up for me.

As I’ve said many times before, I listen to lots of photography related podcasts, and I usually listen to them on my iPod Touch. But I was recently trying to catch up on a series of video shows so I had the iTunes Mini Player up on my computer (it’s really not a great idea to watch them while driving your vehicle!).

As always I was trying to get other some work done at the same time and the iTunes Video window kept disappearing behind the window I was working in. This made it very difficult to see the show I was watching! No problem, I’ll just go into the preferences menu and click the box to keep the video window on top. But I couldn’t find it!

I knew that this option had to be there, so I kept looking for it. After searching for way too long, I finally figured out that the option was available, but it was not in the “Playback” tab of the preferences window; instead it was on the “Advanced” tab.

If you want to set iTunes to keep the Video or Mini Player playback window on top of all your other windows, try changing your Advanced Preferences as follows:

1. Click “Edit“, “Preferences…“
2. Choose the “Advanced” tab
3. Ensure the checkbox for the “Keep Mini Player on top of all other windows” is checked
4. Ensure the checkbox for the “Keep Movie Window on top of all other windows” is checked

Keep iTunes Playback Window on Top

There are many resources on the internet that help new and experienced photographers alike to learn more about their craft. These range from websites, to blogs, to iPhone apps, and to online training services. While some of these resources do cost money, many of them are relatively inexpensive, or even free. And the simple truth is that the cost may have no bearing on the quality. Some of the most expensive resources aren’t as well produced or as useful as some others that are free.

Because I spend so much time in my car, my favorite class of learning resource is the Podcast. If you aren’t familiar with podcasts you owe it to yourself to check them out. Basically podcasts are audio or video files that are released in a series of episodes similar to syndicated radio or TV programming. They are generally (always?) free and they often command huge audiences.

Over the last several years I have been a regular listener of many photography related podcasts. As I mentioned above these are great resources for learning about technology, art, business, marketing, and just about any other aspect of photography you could think of.

These shows come and go, so the list of podcasts is always changing, but here is my current list of favorites. Most of these are weekly, but some are produced biweekly, monthly, or even randomly:

1. This Week in Photography – Audio
2. PhotoNetCast – Audio
3. Camera Dojo – Audio
4. The Pro Photography Show – Audio
5. The Digital Story – Audio
6. The Image Doctors (Nikonians) – Audio
7. LightSource – Audio
8. Exif and Beyond – Audio
9. Photoshop User TV (NAPP) – Video
10. D-Town TV (NAPP) – Video

NOTE – I shoot Canon but the Nikonians are still very interesting. They do occasionally talk about very specific Nikon topics, but most of their shows contain broadly photography related information and even the Nikon stuff can generally be applied to everyone else…

All of these shows have their own website, to which I have linked above, but they can also be subscribed to in an RSS reader or in iTunes. There are many other photography podcasts out there in addition to these. A quick search of Podcast Alley, iTunes, or even Google will surely help you find more if this list doesn’t have enough good stuff for you!

I’d love to know about any other really great podcasts that I should be listening to. What are your favorite shows? Please drop me a comment down below to let me know what you’re listening to.

I don’t typically get too excited about beta software, particularly for my production environment, but this is one that I’ve really been waiting for! The first public beta of Lightroom 3 didn’t get me too excited. It didn’t really offer enough new stuff for me to bother with the hassles of the fact that it was beta, and in fact it had certain features that were disabled that made it problematic to use (like luminance noise reduction). But the new beta offers several new features that I’ve been hoping to see in Lightroom and I will definitely be giving this version a full workout.

One final word before I talk any further… This is Beta software. Your results may vary, and there is significant potential that you could really do some damage to your photography collection if you use this software. It hasn’t been released for production yet because it’s not ready. Be careful.

• Video Support: We didn’t get full on video editing yet, but at least we finally have some rudimentary management tools that allow viewing, flagging, keywording, and captioning of video files in exactly the same way that still images are cataloged. I certainly hope that they expand this further to include basic edits (clipping, exporting, and global exposure adjustments) but for now this is a huge step over the old version!
• Tethered Shooting: With this version they have added support importing live images directly into Lightroom when shooting while a camera is connected to the computer. This is a studio and product shooters dream. I won’t use it a lot, but every once in awhile it will be very useful.
• Performance Improvements: I haven’t tested the new version enough to fully buy into this one yet, but I really hope that this one is true, and the new version does seem to be a little bit snappier. I will definitely be watching to see how this pans out.

For a complete list of the new and upgraded features the best place to go is the Lightroom Team Blog. You can also check out the release notes included with the update.

To download the program head on over to the Adobe Labs site.

Here are a few more sites you can check for additional information and commentary:

• Jeffrey Friedl’s: Lightroom 3 Beta 2 and My Plugins
• The Lightroom Queen: What’s New in Lightroom 3.0 Beta 2?
• Terry White: Lightroom 3 Public Beta 2: What’s New?

In another widely anticipated move, Canon has finally announced an update to the firmware for their extremely popular Canon EOS 5D Mark II SLR camera. This update is mainly aimed at the video users that have been very disappointed (and very vocal about it) with the video controls that were included with the original camera.

This update brings several updates and improvements to the video controls for the camera, including manual control over the audio input level, and several new recording formats as well:

NOTE – Firmware Version 2.0.3 was very quickly superseded by 2.04 which fixed a few bugs that were introduced in 2.0.3. The major changes in 2.0.4 are the same as in 2.0.3.

Firmware Version 2.0.4 incorporates five enhancements to the
movie function and a fix to the manual sensor cleaning function
of the EOS 5D Mark II camera.

1. Adds or changes the following movie frame rates
   NTSC:
   1920×1080:30 fps (changed – actual 29.97fps)
   1920×1080:24 fps (added – actual 23.976 fps)
   640×480:30 fps (changed – actual 29.97fps)
   PAL:
   1920×1080:25 fps (added – actual 25.0 fps)
   1920×1080:24 fps (added – actual 23.976 fps)
   640×480:25 fps (added – actual 25.0 fps)
2. Adds a function for manually adjusting the sound recording level (64 levels).
3. Adds a histogram display (brightness or RGB) for shooting movies in manual exposure.
4. Adds shutter-priority AE mode (Tv) and aperture-priority AE (Av) mode to the exposure modes for shooting movies.
5. Changes the audio sampling frequency from 44.1 KHz to 48 KHz.
6. Fixes a phenomenon where communication between the camera and the attached lens is sometimes interrupted after manual sensor cleaning. (This phenomenon only affects units with Firmware Version 1.2.4.)

For all the details about the firmware update including a download and installation instructions head over to the official Canon site.

I’ve had my new Canon EOS 1D Mark IV camera for a little over a week now and I thought I would share a little bit about my experience with it so far. This is my first pro level 1D series camera and it really is a different beast than the Canon EOS 40D that I’ve been using for the last couple of years. I have definitely had a steep learning curve while figuring out the differences between the 1D and the 40D. Regardless, I have some definite thoughts already and I wanted to share them here. I’d love to hear some feedback from other people who have already made the jump or are planning to do so soon. Please hit me in the comments below!

The Things I Really Like

1. High ISO Performance: Simply put, this camera shots in the dark. I’m not a major pixel peeper and I haven’t done any measurements using a microscope or by zooming in to 10000%, but it’s very clear just by looking at the images shot at ISO 5000 that they are cleaner than images at 1000 on my 40D. I have no problem just letting the Auto ISO pick whatever ISO it needs.
2. Dynamic Range: Not only is the ISO performance better, but this camera also finds detail in the shadows unlike any camera I’ve ever used before. Some of the images right out of the camera have some of that surreal tonemapped look that HDR images often display. In fact some of my images see into dark areas that I could barely see with my eyes. It’s really quite incredible.
3. Auto ISO: I typically shoot in aperture priority and with my 40D I often had to manually choose a higher ISO than that camera would pick in auto mode just to maintain an acceptable shutter speed. The Mark IV knows what ISO it needs to pick to prevent motion blur and it has such a huge range of acceptable ISO’s that it has a huge amount of leeway to do so. This is absolutely my favorite feature of the new camera!
4. 7 Stop Auto Exposure Brackets: I do a lot of exposure blending and I love to have 5 to 7 images to choose from. I don’t always use them all, but it’s nice to have them. The 40D will shoot a maximum of 3 images per bracket and as a result I always had to shoot 2 brackets to get the shots I wanted. This often caused a slight shift in the camera position while I was changing the exposure setting, and resulting images were out of register. I love that I can now just tell the camera to shoot 7 images and then use the self timer to let it rip!
5. Better Autofocus: The autofocus system on this camera is so different than the 40D that it’s still a little bit alien to me. I haven’t quite figured out how to use best it in every situation, but two things are really great. The first is the AF speed. Every one of my lenses focuses faster and more accurately on this camera than they did on my 40D. I know that my 40D needs an overhaul and I will be sending it to Canon soon. But even when it was brand new it didn’t perform anywhere near as well as this one. The other thing is that I can now shoot with lenses (or combination’s of lenses and teleconverters) having a maximum aperture of only f/8. Previously when I used a TC on my Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS lens (which has an effective maximum aperture of f/8) on the 40D I had to manually focus the lens. The 1D Mark IV has no problem focusing with this combination, even in the relatively low light after the sun sets or before it rises. It is fast and accurate and that’s a good thing! (Yes, I realize that this combination is not recommended, but sometimes that extra length is the most important factor…)
6. 2 Card Slots: I love that every one of my images can be immediately backed up onto a second card at the time of capture. I’m a backup fanatic and this is a huge improvement over having only 1 card slot. Unfortunately video can only be saved on one card, so it doesn’t get backed up in camera.
7. Video: Speaking of video… I’ve never been much of a videographer, but I have been doing more and more of it lately and I’m increasingly excited that this camera has a 1080p HD video mode. I will definitely be using it, but I also have a lot to learn before I can do it effectively.

The Things I Don’t Like

1. No Custom Exposure Modes: My 40D has three programmable modes on the mode dial (C1, C2, and C3) that could be programmed with shooting settings for instantly access in different shooting settings. I used these all the time and the fact that the 1D cameras don’t have them surprised me a lot. I knew that there was no mode dial, but I still expected to be able to choose the custom modes using the same mode button and menu used to choose the other exposure modes. I think the rationale for not having them is that most pros will carry 2 (or more) cameras and each camera will be set up for a specific type of shooting. But it would be so easy to include them for those of us that don’t want to carry 2 big cameras all the time that I just can’t understand why Canon would leave them out.
2. 2 Types of Card Slots: I love that there are two slots, but I hate that I now need 2 different types of memory cards. I’ve been shooting solely on CompactFlash cards for a long time and now I also need to carry SDHC cards. Fortunately SDHC cards are relatively cheap and I was able to pick up a few at very reasonable prices over the holiday season.
3. No Dedicated Video Start Button: The live view mode can be used to control the still shooting settings, or for shooting video, but not both. If you want to switch between them then you must first go into the menu to tell the camera if live view should be used for stills or for video. This is really annoying for anyone that uses the camera for both video and for landscape shooting, and there should be a way to switch between the modes without having to dive into the menus.

The Things that are Just Different (not better, not worse)

• Size: the 1D is much bigger and heavier than the 40D. I don’t mind this, but it does take some getting used to.
• Integral Battery Grip: this is a big part of the reason why it is bigger and heavier. Some people will love this as it gives a lot more battery power and also provides an extra set of shooting controls for when the camera is in the portrait orientation. I’ve never really had a burning need for either of these features, so it’s not really a big advantage for me. I will definitely use the extra controls for shooting portrait, but I’ve never had a problem with battery life before.
• No Pop-Up Flash: I almost never used the flash on my 40D, so not having one on the Mark IV won’t hurt me. I’m more than a little dissapointed that the 1D didn’t get the built in wireless flash controller that the Canon EOS 7D recently came out with, but even that’s not that big a loss. I normally use radio frequency remote triggers for my flashes anyway.

Well that’s everything I have to say for now. These are just my initial impressions and I’m sure that these lists will grow over the coming weeks and months as I learn more about my camera. Like I said above, I’d love to hear about your thoughts and experiences, so please leave a comment with anything you’ve got!