I got a Canon EOS Rebel XS/1000D over two years ago but never tried shooting in RAW format until this month, when my second daughter was born. The camera can shoot in either RAW or RAW+JPEG format, and I picked the latter, figuring the PC laptop I brought with me to the hospital would not be able to view pure RAW files.
As expected, the PC picked up the JPEG's just fine. When I later imported the data to my iMac, the JPEG's also appeared as normal but the accompanying RAW files appeared as black rectangles. I didn't worry too much about it, figuring, "Well, these are digital 'negatives' and they will only be converted to viewable images if I edit them in iPhoto."
Nearly a month later (today), I finally tried editing one of these RAW files and... nothing happened. Double-clicking the little black box did not magically convert the raw data into an image, it just opened up a big black box. WTF?
After some investigating, I realized these are not RAW files at all. The dead giveaway is that they are all the exact same size as their JPEG counterparts, meaning they contain no extra data. Something got messed up in the iPhoto import process, and all of the actual RAW data was lost!
Thinking that I had lost the precious image data files from one of the most important days in my life, I had a minor panic attack before realizing I had not yet erased the original SD card in my camera. Thanks for the coronary, Apple!
I spent hours searching Apple's site and found a page claiming Mac OS 10.5 supports my camera. Obviously, this is not entirely true.
But it is partly true. As an experiment, I shot a photo in RAW-only format, and it imported properly as a large (10MB) file with a viewable thumbnail instead of a black box. So iPhoto does support my camera's pure RAW files, just not the RAW+JPEG files.
After more hours of googling the rest of the interwebs, I came across two separate discussion threads confirming that this is the case. Sadly, the complaints I found date back to September 2008 -- well over two years ago -- yet Apple still has not fixed the problem. They've deployed multiple RAW compatibility software updates, one as recently as 4 days ago, but none have patched this major glitch.
I tried completely uninstalling and reinstalling the RAW compatibility drivers, but this didn't help.
So it looks like I am going to have to manually delete several hundred corrupted RAW files, import them using the Canon software (or my PC), then re-import the true RAW files into iPhoto. I'm looking forward to that about as much as my federal income tax filing.
References:
February 20, 2011
January 7, 2011
3rd Generation iPod cannot charge via USB
I have an old 3rd generation iPod that I bought in 2003. No, not the iPhone 3G, not the 3G iPod Touch, not the 3G iPod Shuffle, not the 3G iPod Nano. Not an iPod Mini, not an iPod Video, not even an iPod Classic... just plain "iPod," that's how old it is. It's got 15GB, a black and white screen, no click wheel, and I still love it.
This model used to be called the "iPod with Dock Connector," since it was the first model to feature a 30-pin port on the bottom. Of course, now all iPods (and iPhones) have one now, so that moniker is pretty meaningless.
Worse, as I discovered, not all Dock Connectors are the same. Which means not all iPod accessories that utilize the Dock Connector actually work with the 3rd generation iPod.
In fact, almost none of the accessories on the market today work with the 3rd generation iPod! That includes power chargers.
As it turns out, 3G iPods like mine cannot charge via USB like almost every other iPod still in use today.
I found out the hard way when, in an attempt to reduce the amount of cabling on my iMac, I removed my FireWire dock and started plugging my iPod into the USB-to-iPod cable that came with my wife's Nano. It synced up just fine, which led me to believe it did exactly the same thing as the FW cable. Wrong!
The iPod kept running out of juice and I had no idea why. I researched the issue and learned that USB ports can lose power when an iMac goes to sleep. But when I turned off the sleep function, the iPod still drained while connected.
After more hours of Internet searches, I finally discovered that the 3G iPod cannot in fact charge over USB because USB doesn't provide enough voltage. USB provides 5V, and the 3G iPod needs 9-12V. I'm not sure how the newer iPods get around this, but there you have it.
Years later, having forgotten all that I learned on this subject, I found myself in the same loop of frustration when buying a car charger for my 3G iPod. I ordered and returned two different models because neither worked, even though they both fit with the iPod Dock Connector. Granted, the manufacturers did not mention support for the 3G iPod, but I just assumed they didn't bother listing it because it's so ancient. I couldn't see any reason why these accessories wouldn't work with mine.
One was a simple iPod-to-USB cable that came with a USB-to-car-charger piece. I got it because it also split off the audio feed from the iPod so I could plug it into my car's auxiliary port. The aux-in worked great, but the charger did nothing. Well, actually, it was putting out juice, as indicated by the status lights, but the amount was insufficient for my 3G iPod.
The other charger I tried was a more sophisticated one with play/pause, prev/next controls. I own other iPod accessories that have these controls, so I assumed this one would work, too... nope. Not only did this charger not charge (even with no USB involved), but it did nothing but freeze up my iPod when I pressed the control buttons on the charger.
I later learned that Apple totally changed the Dock Connector interface for modern iPods and iPhones. Since most current accessories are built for modern iPods and iPhones, they don't send the right commands to my antique iPod.
So I just ordered a third car charger, this one with no controls and no audio aux-in, and I made sure it is 12V and not USB-based. You'd be amazed how hard this is. Even the websites that specifically list the 3rd generation iPod to help folks search for compatible accessories suggest USB-based chargers that are clearly not compatible.
We'll see if the third time's the charm. I'm not holding my breath.
References:
This model used to be called the "iPod with Dock Connector," since it was the first model to feature a 30-pin port on the bottom. Of course, now all iPods (and iPhones) have one now, so that moniker is pretty meaningless.
Worse, as I discovered, not all Dock Connectors are the same. Which means not all iPod accessories that utilize the Dock Connector actually work with the 3rd generation iPod.
In fact, almost none of the accessories on the market today work with the 3rd generation iPod! That includes power chargers.
As it turns out, 3G iPods like mine cannot charge via USB like almost every other iPod still in use today.
I found out the hard way when, in an attempt to reduce the amount of cabling on my iMac, I removed my FireWire dock and started plugging my iPod into the USB-to-iPod cable that came with my wife's Nano. It synced up just fine, which led me to believe it did exactly the same thing as the FW cable. Wrong!
The iPod kept running out of juice and I had no idea why. I researched the issue and learned that USB ports can lose power when an iMac goes to sleep. But when I turned off the sleep function, the iPod still drained while connected.
After more hours of Internet searches, I finally discovered that the 3G iPod cannot in fact charge over USB because USB doesn't provide enough voltage. USB provides 5V, and the 3G iPod needs 9-12V. I'm not sure how the newer iPods get around this, but there you have it.
Years later, having forgotten all that I learned on this subject, I found myself in the same loop of frustration when buying a car charger for my 3G iPod. I ordered and returned two different models because neither worked, even though they both fit with the iPod Dock Connector. Granted, the manufacturers did not mention support for the 3G iPod, but I just assumed they didn't bother listing it because it's so ancient. I couldn't see any reason why these accessories wouldn't work with mine.
One was a simple iPod-to-USB cable that came with a USB-to-car-charger piece. I got it because it also split off the audio feed from the iPod so I could plug it into my car's auxiliary port. The aux-in worked great, but the charger did nothing. Well, actually, it was putting out juice, as indicated by the status lights, but the amount was insufficient for my 3G iPod.
The other charger I tried was a more sophisticated one with play/pause, prev/next controls. I own other iPod accessories that have these controls, so I assumed this one would work, too... nope. Not only did this charger not charge (even with no USB involved), but it did nothing but freeze up my iPod when I pressed the control buttons on the charger.
I later learned that Apple totally changed the Dock Connector interface for modern iPods and iPhones. Since most current accessories are built for modern iPods and iPhones, they don't send the right commands to my antique iPod.
So I just ordered a third car charger, this one with no controls and no audio aux-in, and I made sure it is 12V and not USB-based. You'd be amazed how hard this is. Even the websites that specifically list the 3rd generation iPod to help folks search for compatible accessories suggest USB-based chargers that are clearly not compatible.
We'll see if the third time's the charm. I'm not holding my breath.
References:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)