Finally got around to trying out Swift today. Literally within thirty seconds of actually writing code, it started crashing the Swift compiler. And almost anything I could come up with crashed it. In fact, I spent about an hour just trying to figure out how to create an NSDirectoryEnumerator without crashing the compiler, before just… Read more
Evidently, when Time Machine encounters a file that’s open and being written to (e.g. a Safari download), it sits and watches the file, periodically copying the new data to the backup. As opposed to going off and copying everything else first, and then coming back to the open file. This has the lovely effect that… Read more
I’m still working on my opinion of the Sigma 18-35/1.8. And still tackling AF accuracy and reliability problems. I think (in part thanks to my AF tuning) I’ve got the accuracy issues mostly worked out… it’s not hard to demonstrate really bad AF consistency in synthetic settings, but whenever I actually go out and shoot for… Read more
Just thought I’d share what my AF calibration settings are, at least initially, for the Sigma 18-35/1.8 on a Nikon D5200. And some comments on the process. As you can see, on my particular D5200 it has an overall tendency to back-focus (negative adjustment values mean “the subject was closer than AF thought”). It took a… Read more
Grrr. You get a shiny new lens and find out that it’s back-focusing horribly. Luckily it’s an awesome new Sigma lens which lets you adjust the autofocus system, via the handy Sigma USB Dock. Unfortunately, you use USB Overdrive. So when you connect the dock up, attach the lens, and launch Sigma’s “Sigma Optimisation Pro”… Read more
I’ve been looking forward to trying Mac OS X 10.9’s “advanced” (i.e. not-transmitting-my-life-story-to-Apple) dictation, as a potential competitor to Dragon Dictate. Unfortunately, it’s – against all odds – even more embarrassing than Siri. For example: This test, of the coolest names built-in dictation.) Nope, not important. If you’re..Reasonably built night, That was true Samaritan and… Read more
I like circular polarising filters. I hate glare, and I like strong – but natural – contrast. So until recently I used them a lot. The only downside, I figured, was the loss of light. Sometimes my photos using the filter seemed a bit soft, but I assumed that was because of the slower shutter… Read more