While I wait on my dragon to get here I am trying out Windows 7′s built in speech recognition. Although it is pretty buggy, Microsoft’s speech recognition on Windows 7 works better than I originally and expected. After a short training session, it is working well enough that I am able to write this post in notepad and transfer it to my blog using my voice.

I am running a Dell studio 15 laptop with 4GB of RAM and an Intel Core2 Duo CPU P8700 @ 2.53GHz. What I have found so far:

• It works well enough for me to write emails in Microsoft Outlook and yahoo web mail in Internet explorer.  -With a little luck I was even able to figure out how to navigate these mail clients without looking up the directions.
• I am able to do some navigation of my WordPress blog’s backend to submit this post.
• It helps to speak swiftly but clearly (especially when giving commands).
• Does not work as well in browser as in some other applications.
• I can not enter passwords into my browser using win seven speech recognition.
• Firefox does not respond well when windows seven speech recognition is running. – Even if I am trying to type instead of using my voice, Firefox keeps “Not Responding” and going slow.
• Extra sounds, such as the heater running, pet birds chirping, or a kid playing in the next room can cause a lot of errors. But it does know to record nothing about 2/3 of the time when I cough or sneeze.

What does this client do to my resource usage?

CPU usage:
• 15% while speech recognition not open.
• 15% while speech recognition opened but not running.
• 32% while speech recognition in use.

Ram usage:
• 2.05 GB when speech recognition not open.
• 2.16 GB when speech recognition open but not running.
• 2.20 GB when speech recognition in use.

How well does it work as a pet language interpreter?

Here is what I got when I let two our cheerful parakeets to do the talking:

“It’s it’s it’s it’s it’s”

At this Point I decided to join their conversation. All it record for me was “cheap”.

Then my boyfriend brought out some cooked spaghetti noodles – one of their favorites. The birds had a lot to say about that. ” it’s eats Its its its trying out a string it next thing and Ching Tseng “.

I guess I will get a lot more experience with this this speech recognition stuff over the next few weeks, months, and maybe even years. I think the windows seven version will be good for a lot of people who casually use the computer. (although I am not sure how would it work for someone with an accent) But since my job depends on my ability to use the computer efficiently, I need something that makes less mistakes. I can’t wait to see her dragon compares!

Pros:
1. Takes pretty sharp 12MP images in good light, that can comfortably be printed out at 8?x10?, even after a bit of cropping.
2. I paid $59+s&h for it (Excellent price! I didn’t know you could get a good camera that cheap.)
3. Has an ISO priority option over the full ISO range of ISO80-3200
4. Has a manual “cue-card” type white balance setting, which yields excellent color fidelity, WHEN I REMEMBER TO SET IT…lol
5. I can zoom in on photos in review mode, all the way to a 1×1 crop, great for checking to be sure exactly how well that shot will turn out on your computer (and know if you need to re-adjust a few settings and try it again)
6. There is the option to retouch (3 levels), apply Nikon’s “D-lighting” effect, or crop pictures in-camera after you’ve taken them
7. Good wide-angle view at 4.9mm (actual focal distance, sorry I’m not sure what the 35mm equiv. on this one is) max wide-angle setting
8. The battery/SD card door is far enough away from the tripod mount that I can still access them w/out removing the cam from my tripod (I LOVE when camera manufacturers do this!)
9. Multi-zone (I think 16 or 20 points) manual autofocus area select option.
10. On the 12*MP setting (yes, that’s 12[star]) it actually takes some very well NOT compressed pics (avg about 3.4MB filesize) with pretty much 0 noticeable JPEG compression noise in the output.

Cons:
1. Proprietary USB connector that’s shaped enough like Kodak’s proprietary connector that I almost broke it when trying to install the wrong USB cable (OOPS!) (Yikes! … I have given up on keeping my proprietary USB cables straight. I just use my computer’s card reader.)
2. Autofocus doesn’t seem to like me a lot of times…the red AF assist light is BRIGHT!! and washes out the subject on low-light shots, resulting in an AF FAIL 95% of the time (rectifiable frequently by manually moving AF zone away from center, so the AF assist light doesn’t fire)
3. Fixed aperture, any DOF adjustments require skillful fiddling with the (rather limited) “4.9mm-19.6mm” (aka 4x) focal distance (aka zoom).
4. No manual focus option.
5. No RAW format capability (what do you expect from a $59 “snapshot” camera)
6. Auto ISO mode (3 settings: full auto[I think 80-3200ISO], auto range 1[80-400ISO], or auto range 2[80-800ISO]) likes selecting higher ISO settings than I normally prefer, resulting in a somewhat grainy image (though, with a fixed aperture, the only other option is often a 1/2second or more exposure time)
7. Auto white-balance is a little buggy at times (like every other digicam I’ve ever owned)
8. No filter threads for me to attach filters (or, more likely, macro/tele. conversion lenses) to in order to expand the functionality (and somewhat dismal focal range) of the camera
9. No “infinity” option for the AF, so moon shots (or any other celestial shots) are definitely out

Overall Impression:
This is a “snapshot” type camera that can be had (refurbished) for $59+s&h that performs WAY above my expectations for a camera of that class & price-range.

It gives me enough faith that digital photography has finally matured enough that I can be more comfortable shelling out $200+ on a “bridge” camera, or entry-level DSLR and not wish immediately to have my 35mm film camera back. (Which is actually saying QUITE a lot, since I haven’t yet bought a “serious” digital camera for just that reason. Nothing under about $1.5K produced images that could BEGIN to rival 35mm film.)

Unfortunately, this is NOT a “bridge” camera, so I’ll never be truly satisfied with it as my “good” camera. But it is quite impressive as my “don’t have to cry if/when I break it” camera.

Here is my real-life Google AdSense story

2006
In October 2006 I signed up for Google AdSense and added it to SnugharborProductions.com , a low-traffic website selling family-specific genealogy CDs and handmade clocks. At this point I knew very little about the AdSense program. I just wanted some sort of residual income to help pay for my new life as an independent, self sufficient single mom. Maybe I would even get my first check before Christmas

… It didn’t take long for me to realize that my little website, averaging less than 10 page views per day, was not the traffic-rich advertising goldmine I thought it was.

In those first few months, I:

• Learned the importance of actually tracking your traffic levels instead of just assuming that making a few sales and being listed in a few newsletters meant my website was popular.
• Decided that I need to learn more about SEO (search engine optimization) and website promotion
• Earned 37 cents from AdSense
• And realized that my website that was already successfully selling stuff was not the best #1 choice for AdSense.

2007
In 2007 I removed AdSense from SnugHarborProductions.com and placed it on two of my hobby websites, TexasCarnivals.com and MyBlueCrayon.com . I knew that AdSense wasn’t going to be a big money maker on any of my current websites, but it did at least have the potential to stop me from loosing so much money on my “for fun” and “practice” websites.

2007 was a busy year. Most of my time was spent putting in overtime at the office and taking care of my little girl. I didn’t have much time for improving my hobby websites, but they still managed to bring in $5 for the year.

2008
2008 was filled with its own drama in my personal life. But I did accomplish the following:

• Learned more about optimization and promotion
• Cleaned up my existing webpages – giving them a cleaner, faster loading, more uniform look for future visitors.
• Sign up for Google Analytics so I could start collecting a detailed history about my visitors.
• Tripled my traffic and earned about $17.50 for my efforts.

2009
2008 was spent getting ready. And 2009 was when I really got to work, adding content and finding places to properly promote my websites. I:

• Researched, researched, researched and wrote informative articles about the topics that interest me.
• Found appropriate forums where I could participate in conversations and post a link back to my relevant webpage(s).
• Created sitemaps to help major search engines find my pages.
• Looked at my Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools to find out where my visitors were coming from and what they were interested in.
• Wrote more articles based on common interests. (things that I and my visitors were interested in)
• Started noticing trends where the ads for some topics perform MUCH better than others.
• More than tripled my traffic and earned about $45.

2010
2010 was a VERY exciting year in my AdSense career. The efforts implemented in 2009 continued to pay off and I received my first payment in May 2010! My second $100 payment threshold was reached in December 2010. I got that payment in January 2011.

In 2010 I also:

• Added Google AdSense to my other websites
• Made sure I had appropriate privacy policies on all of my websites
• Encouraged visitor interaction by adding a comment box to many of my pages
• Continued finding relevant places to talk about my websites
• And continued adding fresh content as I found the time to show that my websites are “alive”.
• Earned $168 for my efforts

2011
2011 is getting off to an excellent start So far I am consistently earning $25-$40 per month.

___

Many people have called me crazy for all of the hard work I put into my websites for such a small AdSense return. But I don’t do this just for the adsense money.

I admit, the money is a very helpful bonus. The payment I received in January 2011 paid for my daughter’s glasses. But there is something rewarding about being in charge of my own content and seeing that people appreciate my work enough to come look and tell their friends.

I make websites because I want to.

I also point out to those who think I am crazy that although I may not be getting a flat $10 per hour for the work I do on my AdSense-using websites, a well written article can pay very well. My 3 most popular pages took a combined total of 3 or 4 hours to write. Over the last 2 years, those 3 pages have brought me a combine total of over $100. And they are still going strong!

There is another set of pages that I have spent about 8 hours researching and perfecting. I expect its popularity to be high but short lived. It has brought me about $9 in its first few weeks. Only time will tell if it takes off in May like I expect. But that’s the fun of this project!

My Windows 7 pro laptop was running slow, as it often does after a week or so of me running several notepads, browser windows , word documents, excel sheets,  graphics programs and files, FTP connections, bat files , dreamweaver, notepad++ , messenger clients, a webserver, etc … (In other words, I use my computer’s resources heavily. It has every right to feel bogged down after a week or so of use.) My computer was clearly in need of a reboot.

Tonight was a particularly slow shutdown experience. Windows only needed to do 3 updates, but they were taking  forever. I went out for a while. When I returned home, I decided I better boot up tonight – just in case it needed to do more updates before being usable at the office tomorrow.

That was when things got worrisome! …

I pressed the power button and got my regular login screen. But when I selected my admin account I was taken to a screen that was almost all black – except for an Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 window. – It was not minimized. It opened the files I was previously working on as usual, but it also opened LMIR0001.tmp.bat.js located at C:\Users\Michelle\AppData\Local\Temp\LMIR0001.tmp.bat.js .

After I closed dreamweaver, my regular Windows 7 desktop loaded … Then Dreamweaver opened again with a second copy of the same file! By this point I was getting pretty worried. I did not think I had a virus. But did dreamweaver release a faulty update? I turned to my favorite search engine for answers.

Between the information contained in search results, knowing what ‘out of the ordinary’ things I have done over the past week, and my own ability to wade through code (and my ability to ask a more advanced programmer friend for help), here is what I concluded:

• LMIR0001 stands for a Log Me In Rescue.
• LogMeIn Rescue is a remote connection that allows tech support departments to use your computer while they troubleshoot or debug your problem(s).
• I must have gotten this file a few days ago when I downloaded and installed Support-LogMeInRescue.exe from http://www.brother-usa.com/remote . ( I was having problems with a Brother HL 2170w printer. )
• LMIR0001.tmp.bat.js was actually supposed to use Windows scripting host ( Wscript ) to run a javascript batch file.
• Apparently the reason this didn’t run quite as planned was because I have Dreamweaver set as the default program to open .js files. – This is intentional since as a programmer, I spend more time editing the .js files stored on my computer than running them.

So what do the involved files look like? And what exactly are they supposed to do?

LMIR0001.tmp.bat.js

First, the file that was opened in my Dreamweaver looked something like this:

function DeleteCleanup() {
var fso = new ActiveXObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”);
var scriptFile = WScript.ScriptFullName;
while(fso.FileExists(scriptFile)) {try { fso.DeleteFile(scriptFile, true); } catch (e) {}}
var batchFile = “\”C:/Users/MyUsername/AppData/Local/Temp/LMIR0001.tmp.bat\”";
while(fso.FileExists(batchFile)) {
try { fso.DeleteFile(batchFile, true); } catch (e) {}
}
}
try {
var so = new ActiveXObject(“Wscript.Shell”);
so.Run(“\”C:/Users/MyUsername/AppData/Local/Temp/LMIR0001.tmp.bat\”", 0);
DeleteCleanup();
} catch (e) {
}

The above code’s main job is to run LMIR0001.tmp.bat , if it exists.

LMIR0001.tmp.bat

The batch file looks something like this:

@echo off
:RemoveFiles
if not exist “C:\Users\MyUsername\AppData\Local\Temp\LMIR0001.tmp\” goto :end
ping -n 2 127.0.0.1 >NUL
del “C:\Users\MyUsername\AppData\Local\Temp\LMIR0001.tmp\*.*” /f /q > nul
rmdir “C:\Users\MyUsername\AppData\Local\Temp\LMIR0001.tmp\” > nul
goto :RemoveFiles
:end
del “C:\Users\MyUsername\AppData\Local\Temp\LMIR0001.tmp.bat”

This file’s jobs appear to be to:

• Delete the files that were created when you ran ” Support-LogMeInRescue.exe “
• Delete the directory that was created when you ran ” Support-LogMeInRescue.exe “
• Delete itself. – After it has successfully ran, there is really no reason for you to keep it.

The first two jobs worked nicely even though I saw the .js file that calls this bat file open in Dreamweaver. … I guess it somehow still ran in the background? … Like it opened in the right place in addition to dreamweaver? Not sure.

The part where it is supposed to delete itself did not work automatically. It did, however, work when I ran the bat file again after it had already deleted the files and directory. I did read on one website that the bat file is only supposed to run once. Perhaps this is why it didn’t get to the “if not exist “C:\Users\Michelle\AppData\Local\Temp\LMIR0001.tmp\” goto :end” part.

What about next time you restart your computer?

I am happy to report that when I restarted my computer again, all was well. LMIR0001.tmp.bat.js was apparently set to run just once, so that it could do its job of cleaning up the files LogMeIn left behind.

I was hoping that restarting would run the bat files mentioned above just 1 more time so that they could get rid of themselves. It did not work out this way, and that is why I had to run LMIR0001.tmp.bat myself the second time. … I also tried running LMIR0001.tmp.bat in a cmd window. It did not appear to do anything. Guess I will have to delete this file the old fashioned way.

This may sound easy to those of you who have never tried or to those of you who have only taken a picture of the moon in a pretty daytime blue or evening blue sky. But if you have tried to take a picture of the moon in a dark night time sky, I am sure your results looked something like this:

Night-time moon pic taken with camera's auto settings

I started out, like I am sure many people have, trying to shoot the moon with my camera’s auto settings.  Then I moved on to scene settings such as fireworks and night time landscape. Every attempt resulted in blown out bright blobs on an otherwise black (other than an occasional star or planet) background.

After trying every auto setting my camera had to offer, I realized that this is a job for those rarely used [by me] PASM marks on my dial.

After some unsuccessful trial and error, I turned to the major search engines to tell me what numbers I should be setting my apeture (f-stop), ISO, and shutter speed to. I saw some amazing images. But they were captured with more advanced cameras than mine. – What is a person without an f/16 or even f/11 capable camera to do?

I got a rough idea of what the ratios should be from the websites. Finally, a good starting point for where to set my camera! Below are some of the pictures I have taken and the settings I used. Scroll to the bottom of the pics for tips and tools.

12x zoom, Landscape scene. - Notice that the camera's auto settings can capture a nice moon pic when there is the right amount of contrast between the brightness of the moon and the bluness of the sky.

Another daytime picture taken with 12x zoom and landscape setting

Full moon shot with f/4.8 , speed 1/160 sec. , ISO-200

Full moon shot with f/4.8 , speed 1/160 sec. , ISO-100

Full moon shot with f/4.8 , speed 1/200 sec. , ISO-200

Full moon shot with f/4.8 , speed 1/200 sec. , ISO-64

gallery

Tips:

First tip. The one that has caused me much frustration – The “perfect” settings that you find one night won’t necessarily work the next. Remember, the moon is constantly moving and changing brightness levels. (More specificallly, the earth’s atmosphere and shadow affect how much light the moon sends us.) You will have to make some minor adjustments to your setting almost every time you go a few days, or even hours between pictures.

Zoom

The moon is a huge object. But it appears far away and small in the night time sky. If you don’t have your camera hooked up to a telescope, try to use a camera with at least 10x optical zoom to capture more detail.

Also, when you are using a lot of zoom and/or a slow shutter speed, a small shake of the hand can make a big difference. Many photographers will need a tripod.

Focussing

There is a good chance you will have to explore your camera’s manual focus settings when shooting the moon.

The moon is not “to infinity and beyond”, so don’t be surprised if setting the manual focus on “infinity” does not work.

And remember what I said about how the settings you use one night probably won’t work the next? This is true when using manual focus too. One of my above pictures was achieved by setting the focus range about 3/4 of the way between close-up and infinity. A few nights later, I was about 9/10 of the way to infinity. I huge jump in my opinion!

Tools

I have not had the chance to explore this tool in depth yet. But I would like to share the calculator I found at http://www.adidap.com/2006/12/06/moon-exposure-calculator/ .

This calculator isn’t too intuitive, but maybe you can figure it out. And the numbers it gives may not match your camera’s exact capabilities. But they should help you find an approximate starting point.

I have been a fan of High Dynamic Range photography for years. I just didn’t know what to call it until recently. Perhaps you too have an appreciation for this style but, like me, have a hard time laying your finger on what it is that makes it “pop”.

HDR photos are created by combining two or more pictures of the same scene. Each picture is exposed for a different part of the scene. One photo may capture more detail in the shadowed areas, but bright skies will be too washed out to see what’s going on with the clouds. Another picture may beautifully capture the detail of the sky, but the shadows will be too dark to tell what is lurking inside.

The job of the “HDR-izing” process is to find a nice balance in brightness, contrast, and color saturation to show more detail than what could be seen in any of the original images.

Below is a quick overview of different ways to create HDR photos, including one that will let you give an HDR-effect to single pictures. Keep in mind that all HDR software I have tried does create some “noise”. The severity varies by image and by program. Take advantage of trials when available to make sure you will be happy with the results.

Photoshop CS5 Merge to HDR Pro

This is a built-in part of Photoshop CS5

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/photoshop/

Owners of Adobe Photoshop creative suite version 5 (and I am assuming later versions) will be happy to see that it comes with built a built in HDR process!

Simply open photoshop and click on File > Automate > Merce to HDR Pro…

From there you can select the files you want to merge. Make sure “Attempt to Automatically Align Source Images” is selected and click OK. It will take several seconds for Merge to HDR Pro to work its magic.

There will be several settings you can adjust to further improve your image. If you select to “Remove Ghosts”, the program will remove inconsistencies, such as a bird that was flying by as you took the picture.

Here is my first picture with Merge to HDR Pro:

Photomatix

$39 – $119 depending on version chosen version
www.hdrsoft.com

Photomatix is one of the more popular HDR programs. Versions range from plugins to stand-alone applications. The pro version (priced at $99) can even do “Selective deghosting”! Example: Say your pictures include a dog running across a field. You can select which dog image(s) you want to keep. The rest of the “ghosts” will be removed as usual.

Here is my first attempt at using Photomatix Pro:

Dynamic Photo HDR

$54

http://www.mediachance.com/hdri/index.html

Dynamic Photo HDR is a stand alone application that can be used for 1 image or multiple images. I personally think it overdoes the HDR processing a bit, giving files an “unreal” look. Like the other programs I have reviewed, Dynamic Photo HDR’s end results can be adjusted if you prefer a different look.

ReDynamix (Photoshop Plugin)

$16 – Works with Photoshop Elements! (Photoshop Elements – $79)

http://www.mediachance.com/plugins/redynamix.html

ReDynamix is very similar to Dynamic Photo HDR. The main differences? It is a Photoshop plugin – you must have photoshop to use it. It only works on 1 file at a time (meaning you cannot merge multiple files … they will not be true HDR). It doesn’t have as many auto-options. And, it is the cheapest easy to use HDR-like software I know of.

Original image

ReDynamix version

I like how ReDynamix was able to bring out the detail in this picture I took of a cactus at Zilker Botanical Garden, right next to Zilker Park in Austin, TX. But I think this plugin went a bit overboard on the rocks.

Built-in to your camera

From what I have seen, the built in HDR option started popping up in high-end cameras around late 2008. This trend is slowly spreading. Currently you can start finding cameras with built-in HDR around the $300 mark. Check out the picture I took with my Kodak EasyShare z990!

??

Most digital cameras at least have something called autobracket. Autobracket can take 3 pictures in a row with different exposures to help you create an HDR image. – Check out your user manual to figure out how to turn this feature on.

DIY – Do it yourself in the photo editing program of your choice.

This option is the most time consuming and requires a higher mastery of photo manipulation. But it can be done for no additional charge through many photo editing softwares. Simply stack your pictures into different layers, do any necessary color editing, then mask and fade out the non-optimized parts of the different layers.

I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of my Kodak EasyShare Max z990 for weeks now. It was so close that I could almost feel the new camera in my hand

But now, Kodak has changed the release date of their new amazing camera from March 9, 2011 to April 5, 2011 to April 9, 2011. … I guess that gives me more time to work on other technical skills before I explore my new obsession. But I have to admit, I am pretty disappointed. I wonder why they changed the release date.

Feel free to share your assumptions below. I am guessing they found a small flaw in the firmware and are working that bug out so that they can deliver the camera in tip-top condition I hope this camera will be my best yet!

Update …

I see from search engine traffic that I am not the only one curious about why Kodak has delayed shipment of the EasyShare Max Z990. So, I contacted them to see what I could find out. Here are some quotes from Mark (the Kodak rep I spoke with):

Hi, Michelle. We apologize for the inconvenience but due to unforeseen delivery issues, our warehouse still has not received the shipment of cameras. We are working on trying to resolve the delay and make the cameras available as soon as possible.

We also do not have information if retailers will have it earlier since we still haven’t received the stocks for the camera. Our warehouse will ship it if the stocks are recieved earlier.

The Kodak website still says April 5 for Expected Availability. If April 5 gets here and the stores have this camera before Kodak ships it out, I think I will be changing where I get it from.

Update – April 10, 2011

It’s getting closer! Kodak last said they would ship my camera on April 8, and they did! Although, I did expect them to send it out a bit earlier in the day. …

Anyhow, check this out! My camera is getting so close. It’s only a couple of hours away from my home! If only UPS would let me go pick it up in person.

Contrary to complaints I have seen online
• The setup process was easy. (see my detailed notes below)
• It was easy on my system’s resources.
• I was able to read the card with my normal SD card reader
• I was still able to use the wireless function after removing the USB card reader from my laptop
• And I was not forced to save my pictures in oddly formatted sub-folders.

There were a few questionable and negative qualities about this card
• You need Adobe Air on your computer. … Free to download and use, nothing really wrong with it, but also not commonly used by any of the “big boys” I have used stuff from.
• The card is oddly sized. In comparison to my PNY and SanDisk brand cards, it did not “pop” out of my camera and my card reader as easily as expected.
• I found out as I was writing this review that the Eye-Fi has invaded my privacy by storing my pics on their servers!

Other comments
• I have seen complaints about having to “open a hole” in your firewall for the card to communicate with your computer. Really, I would think this is to be expected.
• I have seen more complaints from Mac users than Windows users.
• And although I have not experienced it first hand, I have seen 3 complaints (out of hundreds) from people saying that their pictures got corrupted by this card. I urge everybody to make their first hundred or so pictures on a new card unimportant ones. – I have purchased bad SD cards too. It happens even with the better known brands.
• There are three versions of the Eye-Fi. Be sure to select the right one for you. The Connect x2 (blue sticker) has the least features. You can get Geotagging and Hotspot access with the Explore x2 (red sticker). And you will need the Pro x2 version for RAW and Ad hoc transfers.
• The Eye-Fi card does not work with all cameras. Check their website at ____________ to make sure your camera is compatible!
• Every time I plug in to my regular card reader, the my computer wants to format the Eye-Fi.

My Setup Experience

Setup of the Eye-Fi went fairly smoothly for me. I plugged the adapter and card into my USB port, browsed to the Start Here > Windows > setup file, and followed the directions on my screen. First thing it wanted to do after installing the software was to download and install an update.

Once the software was installed, it started up and I was prompted to register with my email address and a password. – No other personal information required!

Once registered, I was prompted to do a firmware update on the SD card. This failed the first time. I removed the card, plugged it back in, and started back over with the registration (email and password) step.

The firmware upgrade worked perfectly the second time. I proceeded to add my Eye-Fi’s MAC address to my wireless router. This is the security setup I have chosen for my home. The MAC address was easy to find. I just had to right-click on the Eye-Fi icon in my task bar.

From there I was able to set up my personal preferences. I selected which WiFi signal I wanted to connect to. I tested the connection with my first picture. I told it which networks I wanted to share pictures with (Facebook, Flickr, etc.. I chose none). And I selected how I wanted to sub-folders pictures were sent to formatted. (%Y-%M-%D for 2011-02-25)

Eye-Fi got extra cool points for allowing me to connect to popular photo and video sharing sites such as Flick-r, YouTube, and Facebook AND allowing you to send pictures to your own FTP or FTPS. (SFTP not supported)
After all of this was set up, I put my Eye-Fi to the test! … I tried turning off and on my camera to take more pictures. It took a little longer than expected for the software to realize I was using the Eye-Fi and automatically download the pictures, but not too bad. … I turned off the Eye-Fi software for a few pictures. As expected, after turning it back on and taking a new picture, the download process began. … I also just took several random pics and videos to test the speed of this card. It did well!

My Privacy Problem

While checking out the Eye-Fi wireless SDHC card’s features to write this review, I did come across one BIG complaint. By default, the Eye-Fi card sends pictures from my camera to the software on my computer – Good J . But once the image has been received, the Eye-Fi software passes my images along to their servers for 7 days storage – BAD!!

I did see something about my pictures being available for 7 days while setting the software up. But it was not clear what they were talking about until I logged into my online account and saw my pictures. … This feature and the upgrade which keeps your pictures available long-term could be very useful if you want them. But there is something unsettling about logging on and seeing pictures I never intended to share.

Selective Transfer To The Rescue!

I will try not to hold the shock of seeing my pics online against them too much. There is an option to turn this online sharing off – once you understand that it is going on in the first place.

• First, plug the card into your computer (using the USB adapter or directly).
• In your Eye-Fi Center (the software on your computer), select File > Settings > Eye-Fi Card.
• Click the Transfer Mode icon and the Selective Transfer tab.
• From there you can change the radio button from Automatic to Selective Share or Selective Transfer.

Now it will be a pain to send the pics online (you will have to use your camera’s built in “Protect” function, which I never have liked to take the time to mess with.) But as somebody who never expected the pics to be put online in the first place, I do not see this as a problem.

Time To Return The Card

Ultimately I ended up returning my Eye-Fi to Walmart. I had specifically purchased it for the Ad hoc and RAW capabilities, which I found out after getting home did not come with my version. However, I would recommend the Eye-Fi connect to any average user who is tired of forgetting their SD card in the reader. And I will definitely be keeping an eye out for good deals on the Eye-Fi Pro!

Multi-Page Article
Page 1 – Initial Impression , HDR, Photo Booth, Panorama, Low Light
Page 2 – Film effects , focus , scenes, borders, color tints
Page 3 – Video, SD cards, Batteries, other specs

51 long days after pre-ordering, my Kodak EasyShare Max has finally arrived! … With its $329.95 price tag, I thought long and hard before ordering this camera. For that price I could have gotten a low-end or used DSLR, or chosen a camera that has already been out for a while and received good reviews. But in the end, excitement over the advances in HDR, panoramic, pictures taken in low light, the 1080p video resolution, and 30x zoom won me over! … So, was it worth it?

Note: This page is a work-in-progress. I mainly focus on nature photography and the weather (and wildlife) weren’t very cooperative the week I got my camera. I will update it with more pictures as I take them. … Feel free to make requests if there is a particular feature you want to see!

I found 2 ducks crossing the street at the lake This picture is a sample of what you can get with minimal editing. I used Adobe Fireworks to crop, sharpen, and make slight color adjustments. No other pictures on this page have been edited (beyond scaling down) unless otherwise noted.

Initial Impressions

Open With Caution!
Kodak shipped my camera in a smallish box with one of those nice air pillows to protect it from the sometimes too rough UPS guys. The packing that took place inside the box, however, was not as nice.

I carefully cut the tape, removed the user guide, and tried to slide out the inner cardboard insert that contained the camera and accessories. At first, the cardboard did not want to come out. Then it came out super easy, giving me a scare when half the contents of my box dumped on the floor! Luckily they were just the batteries, charger, lenscap, etc… At first I thought I had already broken my new camera before it even left the box!

The camera was better secured. But I still suggest you be careful when opening the box so that you do not break your charger.

Heavy camera
I knew that the Z990 would be heavier than my previous cameras. What I did not realize was how much of a difference that extra half a pound would make. Once I inserted the batteries and SD card and attached the neck strap, my camera weighed a total of 1.40 pounds. (1 pound 6.4 ounces) … With my arthritis that is a little worrisome. But I am glad to report that the neck strap is nice and wide for extra comfort while I carry it. (my last neck strap was so thin that it felt like it was cutting into me after a few minutes)

The weight advertised in the specs is 1.3 pounds. I am not sure why I got an extra tenth of a pound when I weighed it myself. – Perhaps because I added the lense cap and neck strap?

Sturdy
In addition to being heavy, this camera has a “well built” feeling to it. Particularly, I am glad to see that the lense cap attaches well. The one on my previous camera fell off so easy – It has a few scratches even though I was always so careful.

The bad thing about the lense cover being securely fastened is that I have to undo my bad habit of letting the camera’s lense push it off.

Red Light!
Once again, Kodak has created a camera with an uncomfortably bright light that comes on during focus. Happily, this one does not make me squint But it is enough to make me see spots for a while after the photo session has ended. (if I was lined up just right for it to shine brightly into my eyes)

Pushing my buttons
One of the first things I noticed while setting the time and date on this camera is how easily the buttons push! They are a bit awkwardly sized and positioned – especially the right, left, up, and down arrows. I may be a bit fumble fingered for a while. But I think this layout will grow on me.

I will say that with all the features it has packed, it does appear that there will be a bit more scrolling and clicking around the menus than I am use to to find the “perfect” settings.

Complaints
I did have a few complaints about this camera. Some of them were improved by formatting the internal memory and SD card and by resetting the camera:

• It was originally slow to capture pictures. (trying to find that “perfect” focus) … After resetting the camera, it it still slow from time to time. But usually takes about 1.5 seconds.
• Manual focus is slow. … Then again, it was too fast on my previous camera. I would like to see the ability to quickly go to the rough area where you want to manual focus then slowly step into the range you want.
• There were a few small smudges on the lense when I opened my new camera. These did not noticeably affect picture quality. But I was still surprised to see a brand new camera in less than perfectly clean condition.
• Color quality not as good as what I got from my z1012. – This camera came nowhere near capturing the beautiful vibrance of the roses at our local botanical garden.
• Whiny automatic panorama mode – It took several “decent” panoramic pictures. But then it started complaining about sweeping the wrong direction. I did no such thing! … It worked again after a 20 minute rest.
• Picture count restarted the first few times I emptied my SD card! Kodak’s response:
  “Regarding your concern, when a file is deleted on the camera, it fills up the missing file name.”
  – I prefer that each picture be given a unique name. Not only does this lower the chances of me accidentally overwriting a pic I wanted to save to the same folder – It also helps me count how many pics I get out of a camera before it wears out.
  – I am happy to report that after I took a few hundred pictures, my camera kicked in with proper file naming. Maybe they have some sort of test-environment setting where if the camera’s picture count was less than 100, it starts over when given a blank SD card?
• AND, this camera just doesn’t seem very intuitive in general. I am finding myself spending a lot more time in the online extended user guide (http://resources.kodak.com/support/shtml/en/manuals/urg01212/urg01212toc.shtml) than I usually would for a new camera.

Built-in HDR Image capability

True HDR Images are created by taking multiple shots of the same scene, with different exposures. Some shots will better capture the bright areas, while other shots collect more detail from the shadows. The HDR process then combines the best of both pictures, creating a beautiful balance of light, detail, and color.

This camera has an HDR setting which does exactly that. I was hoping that the camera would save all of the images per HDR capture (the originals plus the final product) , but it turns out that it only saves the final one. … I took the below pictures on my way to the lake.

Picture taken with auto / smart capture

Picture taken with dial turned to HDR - Camera in hand (tripod was in the trunk)

Notes about HDR images:

• This camera was originally advertised to do a cool affect where if you take an HDR picture and one of the subjects is moving (their example was somebody riding a dirtbike down hill), the result would be a cool picture where you saw the moving subject 3 times, in the 3 different positions they were when you took the picture. … I tried several times to get a picture like this. Instead I ended up with a few ghostly streaks that had been mostly edited out. Either Kodak had to back out of this feature, or I am trying to do it wrong.
• If your hand or too much of the subject moves while trying to take an HDR picture you will get the message “  Image capture failed, hold camera steady for best results. ” … Because of this I have been unable to use HDR for landscape pictures on windy days and I have been unable to use it for super-macro pictures, even though I used a tripod.

Panoramic and Photobooth Style Pictures

Photo Booth

You can access the automatic panorama and photobooth tools by turning your dial to “Creative Modes” (the one that looks like a paintbrush) and using your arrows to scroll to which one you want. Click OK to select it.

There is no way to change “creative modes” or SCNs without giving the dial another turn. (Example: say I just want to go from photobooth to panorama or go from flower to landscape) .. When I asked Kodak if I was just overlooking something, I got this response “Obviously you have to turn the dial to change scenes”.

Photo booth fun, wherever you go!
I can already see that my daughter and her friends are going to have a blast with the photo booth setting of this camera! Come to think of it, us grownups are enjoying it too

Photobooth takes a series of four 2016×1512 images. You have a few seconds between each picture to change your pose and it does beep and flash the red light to let you know when the next picture is coming. Once all four pictures have been taken, they are stacked photo booth style.

Automatic Panorama – a little buggy
Panoramic pictures are extra wide or extra tall. They are often created by taking a series of side by side shots and “stitching” them together.

The Kodak Max z990 features an “automatic panorama” setting where you can hold down the shutter button as you move the camera from side to side.

Set the sweep direction by clicking OK on the small arrow icon. Use your left and right arrows to select the image that represents the direction you want to “sweep” (left, right, up, or down). Click OK when you have highlighted the one you want.

Automatic panorama image size and quality are too low for poster prints. But it still fall under the category of “neat to have”!

The first bug came when my daughter and I were taking several auto pan shots. – It started accusing us of sweeping the wrong direction! We were using a tripod, so I know we weren’t going up or down too much when we were supposed to go from left to right. We tried changing our direction and speed. Nothing worked until we turned off the camera for a 20 minute break. Now automatic panorama appears to be working fine!

The other bug came when I realized that Automatic Panorama doesn’t always capture the whole thing you are telling it to. … Maybe my hand is getting shaky at the end and I should just consider myself lucky to get what I get. But it often kicks off well before the 180 degrees it is supposed to be capable of. (Still appears to be capturing the image until you look at the final result.)

There is also a regular panoramic mode, where you take 1 picture at a time and line them up for the next, located under SCN on the dial.

BSI CMOS = better pictures in low light

Here is a picture of our parakeets, Justin and Feathers. Yes, the image quality is on the low side in comparison to if I had used the flash. But keep in mind that the picture was taken indoors, with the birds sitting under a sheet (to give them a dark area in their cage.) I think it turned out pretty well all things considered! .. Click on the image to see it full-size. After adding my watermark I saved the JPG with 100% quality, which is supposed to be “lossless” in the areas that I did not edit.

It has also been requested that I show images with really low light. … Since I don’t have time to go camping or throw a birthday party for myself, I compromised by sending my daughter’s barbies camping. Their camp fire is actually a small tea light.

Barbies camping by tea / candle light. That is a gorilla in the blond Barbie's lap. This picture was taken using the camera’s Smart capture setting, no flash.

Barbies camping by tea / candle light. Barbie is still holding that gorilla in her lap! This picture was taken using the camera’s SCN – Candlelight setting. … Much more impressive!

Multi-Page Article
Page 1 – Initial Impression , HDR, Photo Booth, Panorama, Low Light
Page 2 – Film effects , focus , scenes, borders, color tints
Page 3 – Video, SD cards, Batteries, other specs

Today, I am here to share one of the parts I love – The photo quality!

Earth’s Moon

THE MOON - Kodak EasyShare Z1012, Landscape, 12x zoom Taken by Michelle Hestand October 15, 2010 at 6:14 PM

Isn’t it lovely? Our moon … It seems like with this camera, there is an optimal time of day to take a picture of the moon. (using auto settings) And I caught it!

I have tried earlier in the day. The results were too faded to catch this kind of detail. I tried again 30 minutes later and my camera just couldn’t handle contrast between the darker blue sky and the shine of the moon.

Check out my “Shooting the Moon” post for some info about using manual settings at less optimal times of day and night.

Jupiter on Night Landscape

JUPITER AND MOONS - Kodak EasyShare Z1012, Night time Landscape, 12x zoom Taken by Michelle Hestand October 4, 2010 at 9:26 PM

My first attempt taking a picture of Jupiter was not quite what I expected. Apparently Earth rotates a bit more than I expected during 16 seconds of night time exposure. But I was very pleased to see that I seem to have captured some of Jupiter’s moons!

Jupiter on Regular Landscape

JUPITER AND MOONS - Kodak EasyShare Z1012, Landscape, 12x zoom Taken by Michelle Hestand October 14, 2010 7:52PM

A few nights later I decided to try again, once again on Landscape setting so that the camera would try to focus far off. But this time I told my camera it was still day time Much shorter exposure time, nicer picture.

Close Ups

A small bouquet of Marigolds, photographed from a distance of about 5 inches.

Portraits

Thumbnail of Picture taken by my EasyShare z1012 in Sprint 2009Click to see the full image (scaled down)

This camera has also taken some nice pictures for the purpose of printing out and framing. The above image (like all others on this page) has been cropped so that you can see how good the results are at full resolution. Click it to see a scalled down (20%) copy of the full image for color quality. This picture was taken outside with natural light. I was standing 10 – 15 ft away from the subject. The results were when printed as an 8×10 photo were beautiful!

Other Photos

Here are a few of my other favorites, taken with the Kodak EasyShare Z1012 IS:

I zoomed in and took this spider picture from about 5 ft away. Click the image to see in full resolution!