Build Yourself a Faster Mac
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I have a few Macs that I use for my various jobs, but the main machines that I use are a MacBook Pro, and a Dual 2.7 GHz G5 tower. Since the tower is connected to a large monitor, it’s what I use as my primary image editing workstation. After a few recent jobs, including a computationally-intensive video gig, I started to wonder if it wasn’t time to think about upgrading to a faster machine. A friend mentioned that he was going to build a Hackintosh. As his machine came together, and he sent me some benchmarks, I decided that this was the upgrade path that I would choose. The result? A machine with Mac-Pro like performance that crushes all the other Macs in my house, and cost only about $1000. |
HP’s Photosmart Pro B8850 reviewed
Printerville this week has a review of HP’s new Photosmart Pro B8850, an eight-ink photo printer that produces archival-quality prints for $550. The B8850 is based on HP’s B9180 printer, omitting a few features like Ethernet and an onboard status display, but using the same Vivera pigment inks.
The review compares the B8850 not only with the B9180, but also Epson’s new Stylus Photo R1900 and the older R2400.
The result is a strong, solid printer that produces very good prints, especially on fine-art papers and HP’s Professional Satin paper. By including innovative features that support third-party papers, HP is also recognizing that there is an ecosystem beyond itself. That said, we’d like to see HP work a bit on expanding the media options for the B8850 and the B9180. The company needs to come up with smaller print sizes for some of the Pro paper types, and, more importantly, they need to come up with a better glossy paper than Advanced Glossy. The paper is as important to the process as the ink and the print engine, and this is really the only place where the B8850 comes up short. But if you’re new to pigment printing – or you’d like an inexpensive printer that produces very good archival black-and-white prints – the B8850 is a very good printer at a good price.
Click here for the full review.
Epson R1900 reviewed
Our sister site Printerville has posted a review of Epson’s new Stylus Photo R1900, the company’s entry-level pigment-based photo printer. The R1900, priced at $550, was designed to produce stunning glossy photos with archival print life, and Epson appears to have succeeded. From the review:
“What‚Äôs astounding about the R1900 is that it is at the entry level for pigment printing. It‚Äôs not perfect: if you you print a lot of images, or, if you want the best possible black-and-white prints, you really will want a printer with higher-capacity ink tanks and light-density black inks. But, for $550, its possible to create stunning output on glossy or semigloss papers that outshine nearly any other printer in its class, and it does a great job on matte-based papers as well.”
Click here to read the full review, which includes specs, speed test results and more.
Viveza – A Unique Plug-in For Photoshop and Aperture
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Users of Nikon’s Capture NX are already familiar with the incredible image editing power provided by that program’s uPoint technology. However, if your workflow is Photoshop- or Aperture-based, then you may be hesitant to invest in yet another image editor. Fortunately, Nik Software, the co-developers of Capture NX, have taken their uPoint technology and rolled it into plug-in form, so that you can use these powerful tools from within Photoshop or Aperture. The result is Viveza. |
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