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DXO NIK Collection 6

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I have recently purchased DXO NIK Collection 6 , here I'll give an outline of why I wanted this software and what my history of using the product is, along with some of the pros and cons as I now see them. Back in 2012 my then photography tutor recommended I look at Silver Efex as it was considered one of the best tools for processing digital images for black and white. At that time NIK sold the tools separately or, for the price of a couple of the tools, you could buy the set as a bundle which is what I did. I got on well with the tools and made extensive use of both Silver Efex and later Color Efex. Around 2014 I swapped computers and was unable to activate the NIK licenses on the new machine, I found Google had taken over the software and via their support team I was able to get an installable version. Subsequently I could reinstall that version as I changed computers a couple of times but when I started using Capture One Pro I intended to manage without it. DXO took over the N...
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Choosing a new laptop - the Elimina Pro

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With my old laptop being 10 years old it felt overdue for replacement. It could not be upgraded to Windows 11, the battery charge would not last more than a few minutes and performance was generally slow so time to see what the latest tech could offer. Elimina Pro I was looking for something that would be good for photo editing along with a little video editing and maybe a little gaming. I would expect to mostly use the laptop plugged in to a power supply and not on the move so a larger high-res screen would be the preference. This in turn suggests a dedicated GPU which means ultra thin cases would not be an option. As off the shelf laptop configurations often have poor screens, are usually short on memory and short on storage space I was therefore looking for a custom build. As a company I've used before, PC Specialist came to mind. I based the build on one of their Elimina Pro laptops, choosing a 16 inch screen (diagonal measurement) as a good compromise size and opted for highes...
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Affinity Photo 2

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Following the proposed changes to the perpetual licenses for Capture One I've been starting to look at other options. Affinity Photo recently released a major update, Affinity Photo 2 , with a special promotion price so I had a closer look. Although I was aware Affinity have a good following I'd previously ruled it out as being an Apple only option, however it seems I was mistaken, this was only true in their very early days and their packages now come with Windows as an option.       For those that are familiar with Photoshop they will find that Affinity Photo works in a similar way. It is split into a few different modules, which they call personas, the main two being Photo (like Adobe's ACR) and Develop (along with personas for Liquify, Tone Mapping and Export). The RAW module has a good list of cameras supported and includes support for Fujifilm xtrans sensors. With Photo 2 they describe the RAW as non-destructive, in reality it was anyway, what they really mea...
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View RAW files with Windows 11

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The Raw Image Extension adds native viewing support for images captured in raw file formats and allows you to see thumbnails in Explorer without needing to open them with additional software.   RAW Image Extension from Microsoft This is very easy to setup and free, from Windows desktop run the Microsoft Store , go to Apps and search for "Raw Image Extension". Under "System requirements" it should state if your device is suitable for installation and if so then just install (needs to be Windows 11 or one of the more recent versions of Windows 10). NB Although this installs like an App it does not run as an App, it will run in the background, just use the Windows File Explorer to see thumbnails and view metadata. It uses the LibRAW Image Decoder, a list of supported cameras can be found here: https://www.libraw.org/supported-cameras
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Capture One - Changes to perpetual license

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I've been taking alternate major releases of Capture One Pro over the last few years and was waiting for a good upgrade offer to move from 21 to the current release 23. Can't say there is anything too exciting in it but the previous release 22 did have some functionality that I would like.  Then the following announcement drops into my mailbox:  " Over the past few years many of you have told us you want access to new tools and improvements sooner, rather than have them all in one ‘major’ version of Capture One Pro at the end of each year. That’s why we’ve been investing heavily in our technology to be able release features to you as soon as they are ready. Now we’re ready to fully embrace this approach. From 2023 we will no longer be tied to an annual cycle for major releases. As a result, there will not be a Capture One 24. Instead, we will continuously release new tools and features on a rolling basis throughout the year. Alongside this, we will also be making changes...
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Browning Recon Force Edge Trail Camera

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Seeing some recent hedgehog activity prompted me to setup an old trail cam that had not been used in sometime. The resulting footage from the old trail cam could have been better quality and so this prompted the purchase of a new trail cam, the Browning Recon Force Edge . Here I'll outline the issues with the old trail cam, the factors in the selection of the new one and how it has performed so far. Still from Browning video - Hedgehog Back in 2018 I reviewed my new Victure HC200 trail cam , a no-glow IR unit that I would describe as cheap and cheerful ( still available, the current variant is now about £60 ). It did the job in detecting what was moving about but it was awkward to setup, image quality was poor and USB file transfers were painfully slow. With these factors in mind I looked for a new trail cam that might deliver better image quality and generally be better all round. It didn't seem to make much sense to pay for a 4k camera when it would mostly be shooting in the ...
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Location: Four Oaks, Glencruitten, Oban PA34 4QB, UK
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A monitor for photo editing that you can also play games on

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I last swapped monitors back in 2015 and at that time I placed my emphasis on colour accuracy, looking for a wide-gamut monitor that could be easily calibrated. My choice back then was an Eizo Coloredge CX271 which claimed to show up to 98% of AdobeRGB. It had a 27 inch screen with QHD at 2560 x 1440 resolution, running at 60Hz via a DisplayPort and in my case being driven by an Nvidia GTX 1080. Over the years this proved an excellent choice, I had been very happy with it (the only little problem in later years had been some occasional flickering of the screen on and off which looked to be due to a loose connector on the old display port cable). However, like many people, my PC is used for more than photo editing and one of these is game playing. With advances in graphic card (GPU) capabilities it seemed like it was finally time to jump up to 4k resolution and to look for higher refresh rates with supporting technologies such as G-Sync (where the monitor synchronises it's frame rat...
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