As I mentioned before, I decided to get myself a new Surface pro 4 tablet. And since today it finally arrived, I thought I share with you few first impressions, and why I actually bought it.

This is my third tablet, after an Ipad 2 and a Nexus 7 2013. My main reason to have a tablet, is that I don’t like to cary a laptop with me when I’m traveling. So over the years I tried using iOS and Android, but not really to my satisfactions. The limitations on what one can do on those devices is just too much to handle. Even trying a simple tasks, like creating a new blog post, was just too much. Copy/paste without a mouse is just so strange and slow. And of course, not being able to have Lightroom and Photoshop is quite a big problem.

So when I seen the first Surface Pro, I knew I want one. Of course due to the availability outside US and some money constraints, I got one only now, in the 4th generations. But always better late then newer.

So let’s take a look at my first impressions after few hours of use.

Hardware

I went here for the midrange model, with the Intel i5 processor, 8gb of RAM and 256gb ssd drive. I wold have been probably OK also with a slower version, but I really wanted the 8gb of ram for Photoshop.

The Surface pro 4 looks great. A bit heavier than I would though, but the metal build screams quality. The stand is nice and sturdy, so it does not wobble at all. Having no need for a dedicated tablet stand makes having it on the table so easy. The magnets on the pen and the power connector are crazy strong. When I attach the pen, it feels it it suck it out from my hand :)

The high resolution screen is just beautiful. Very colorful and very bright. I did notice a slight light leak on the bottom edge, but it’s very minimal and only visible during the boot, when the whole screen is black. One thing I learned from my LG monitor is, that a small light leak has no effect on the usage of a device. One forgets about it very quickly (also, I seen few articles, that all IPS screens suffer from this problem).

I’m not used to using a pen on a tablet, so it’s a bit strange for me. Does not completely feel like a normal pen on a paper. Still, it works fine, I haven’t seen any noticeable lag in OneNote or Photoshop.

The Surface got warmer while I tested it, but not really hot. The only time until now I heard the fan, was when I was performing windows update. Still, it’s quite quiet, and I had to turn of all the other sounds in the room to hear it at all.

I don’t yet have the type cover, so can’t tell how that is. I plan to get one, but since I ordered the Surface Pro 4 form Germany, and I want an English keyboard, I have to get that separately.

Software

With software this is a little more hit and miss. After I first started the Surface, I of course did all the updates. There was a new Windows build recently, and also new firmwares for the surface line. For some strange reason, when I was connected to a 2.4ghz wifi, the downloads were very slow (under 1 megabyte per second), but switching to the 5ghz wifi solved this right away (not sure how it is after the update, haven’t yet tried switching back).

Then, between two updates, I got a blue screen error. This is so unusual for Windows 10 in my experience, as on my main desktop PC, I have been using Windows 10 since the first preview, and I never seen one. But it showed up only once, and looks to be gone after the rest of updates (these errors are mostly a hardware problem or bad drivers, here I bet it’s the drivers).

Additionally I run into two smaller problems. One is the task manager showing wrongly the SDD speeds. It shows 100% usage already by few megabytes read per second, while a benchmark program was able to measure much higher numbers (1500mb/s read, 300mb/s write). Still, this does not effect anything.

Secondly, the Intel video driver crashed on me few times. Again, this is more of an annoyance, as it only causes the system to be unresponsive for few seconds, and it than refreshes back. I seen that this has been a problem with most of the users, so hopefully Intel updates the drivers soon.

On the positive side, this tablet is fast, really fast. Using store apps is a breeze, with them loading and switching instantly. I tried Photoshop and Lightroom, and booth start pretty fast, comparable to my desktop PC.

I really like the tablet interface. Just swiping from the left edge opens a list of open programs, swiping form the right opes notifications and quick settings. I do prefer this to having to look for some button or double clicking and similar. It’s really nice to see in the Microsoft apps, how they try to provide a consistent experience through them all, and I hope all other developers will follow suit. Regrettably, some of the apps still use the Windows 8 approach which means that they are controlled a bit differently.

Having a real desktop browser on a tablet is just wonderful. No limitations, no mobile websites and similar. Edge is fast and very responsive. Windows Hello works as advertised, recognizing me withing seconds. The system even recognized my horrible hand writing once I got a little used to writing on the screen.

I haven’t yet tried to edit a photo on the Surface Pro 4, but it the next step, and I will go more about the Photoshop, Lightroom and other software usage in my review (in a week or so), where I will focus more on that. If you would like to know something specific I can check with the surface pro 4, feel free to ask in the comets.

Btw. If you would like the wallpaper that I used in the Surface photos, you can get it from the Wallpapers page.

I mentioned quite a few plugins from Topaz before and today they are introducing a new one Topaz Texture Effects. And since I had the opportunity to already try it, today I will show you what it is about, and what I think about it.

As the name already suggest, this plugin is mostly about adding textures overlays to your photos. But you would be mistaken to think that all it’s about. In a way it’s similar to Nik Analog Efex, but without the focus on trying to emulate vintage cameras. Topaz Texture Efex comes with a set of tools (which I will get to in a moment) and a huge collection of over 275 textures, all over 5000x5000px in size. Of course this makes the installation file a little bigger (1.5Gb+), but that’s to be expected.

Working with presets

When you open Texture Effects you are greeted with a set of default presets. These are quite diverse and use all of the available tools the plugin provides.

 
Still, if you want to tweak any of them, replace the texture or any other adjustment, you can easily edit the presets and save new ones.

 
Additionally, you can download more presets from Topaz website, and if you register, also upload your, for other users to use. From what I seen, no registration is needed to be able to download presets.

Performance

Before I get to adjustments, a little about performance. On my work PC (i7, 16gb Ram, SSD driver, gtx660) the plugin was very snappy, with most of the adjustments taking effect almost instantly. The only time you will experience a big slowdown, is when you try browse the pressets gallery, when between downloading and creating previews, it get really slow.

Standard Adjustments

In the first group of adjustments, you will find some very standard ones, well known from other editing programs. Adjustments like basick adjustments (brightness, shadows…), diffusion, film grain, posterize, split tone and vignette are well known. Two more different that it also provides is Edge blur, which allows you to soften the borders of your image and Edge exposure, which allows you to change the exposure and color of the edges. One very nice touch here is, that you can edit every edge separately, so you can create light leak effects very easily.

 
Another nice feature is, that you can apply the same adjustment as many times as you want, and each adjustment has it’s own opacity slider. Like this you can easily layer as many as you need.

Texture Adjustments

The second group of adjustments is all about included textures. You can add borders, color overlay, dust/scratches, light leaks and textures. Additionally, you can do double exposures, by blending two different photos.

 
All this adjustments offer the same flexibility as the standard ones, so you can use the multiple times and change the opacity as you want (among other tweaks). For each of those, you also have the ability to import your own textures or just stick to the ones provided.

 
You also get all the classic blending modes for all the texture effects, so you can choose how it’s overlayed over your photo.

Overall

Overall, this is a quite nice plugin. It gives a huge amount of options and you even get a good texture library with it. I like to split the plugins based on who are they better for. It’s either for those who want more realistic photo edits, or for those who want a more artistic result. This one is really more for the second group. Texture effects creates a very artistic and vintage camera looking results.

So if this is what you are looking for, you should give it a try. You can find more info on the Topaz Labs website. Also, since it’s a new product, Topaz is giving a big discount for the next 10 days for both, the PC and MAC versions.

All over the Internet you see reviews of the new Sony a7R II, but since I have the first one, today I will share with you some thoughts about that one. This is my first mirorless camera and most my observations are how it compares to the Canon 5D mark II, that I used before (and a bit to the Canon 450D I had before that). Also I still use Canon lenses with it, so I will stay away from the issue of slow focusing, as thats is hard to judge when using an adapter.

So first, what’s my overall feeling after few months of use. Mixed. Thats how I would describe it. The a7R in my mind, is a pro level sensor, with a entry to medium level body and software. It’s like (in car terms) you would take an engine from a Ferrari and put in in a tiny Peugeot (or any other brand). This makes for some very nice photos, but very awkward usage and handling. But let’s go point by point.

Camera design

There are some really strange choices here, that I have no idea why Sony went with. From what I seen from the a7R II, they corrected some, but some are still there. Actually, quite in a few spots the a7R II look more like a pro level DSLR, so it’s easy to see where they took their inspiration.

• Horribly placed shutter button. If you take the camera into your hands, you will immediately place the index finger to the spot you think the shutter button should be, but it’s just not there (this is better on the a7R II, where it look exactly like on a DSLR :))
• Horribly placed menu and zoom buttons – this is a problem with quite a few buttons, they just don’t stand out enough, so they are harder to press quickly. Also this two especially are around the viewfinder, and it very easy to trigger the sensor that switches between the screen and the viewfinder and it’s so frustrating, when you press the menu button, for the screen to turn off for a second or two and than come back.
• Same problem with the aperture and time scrolling wheels, they just not so easy to use. Again, I see on the new one they stand much more out.
• The record button is pointless, you either press it accidentally or you use a remote instead.
• Not the most comfortable to hold, especially if you have bigger hands.
• Hard to control without looking. I took my 5D into my hands after months of not using it, and I can still change most settings without even looking at the camera. After few months with the a7R, I can change maybe 2-3. For all else, I have to look at the screen.
• Personally I also don’t like the camera strap attachments, as I don’t use a strap and they make a rattling sound, that I find annoying. But that’s really just a personal preference.

Performance

Next, let’s talk about the day to day performance of the camera.

• It can be painfully slow. The startup time is still OK, but the speed with which it works with photos is horrible. The camera just can’t handle the 36Mpix images. Just zoom in a photo and try to switch to the next one. The camera will get unresponsive for few seconds while it loads the other photo (btw. I use fast quality memory cards). Or you take a photo and want to see it immediately? You are greeted with a nice message “Writing to memory card”. I never ever seen a message like that on the 450D or the 5D. Why it can’t hold the last photo in memory for this case I don’t know. It’s better when you have the automatic preview enabled, but I had to turn it off, as when I do manual series, that slows down the work very noticeably.
• Battery performance is better than expected. I usually go out to take photos for 2-4 hours and most of the time, I managed to do a session like that, without having to change the battery. And one has to take into account, that I use manual focusing for all my photos, so the big screen is almost always on. So overall, I feared that I would have a much worse experience with it. But forget about having the camera, without buying the external charger. It charges slowly when in the camera and the camera is of course not usable at that time. The camera also does not use the power sparingly, with the screen being on during long exposures, when it’s completely pointless.
• The screen lags very noticeably. Especially, if you use a higher ISO, the screen refresh rate changes into a slideshow. This makes manual focusing a huge pain, as sometime, until the screen refreshes, you already missed the spot. I haven’t seen such an issue before, and it really is a shame.
• The screen looks great. It’s very high resolution and can be tilted easily. The photos look just wonderful on it.

Image quality

Ok, until now it was mostly about the negative points. So let’s look at a more positive side.

• The image quality is great. The resolution, the dynamic range, the ISO performance, are all much better than the 5D. This is all of course due to the great sensor inside that is a real power horse.
• Much better white balance on Auto. Where I could not use Auto white balance on the Canon, I have no problems with the Sony. The photos ten to be shifted a little bit towards green, but most of the time this is not noticeable (the 5D mark II likes to make a huge shift towards red when by artificial lights. )
• I feel that the sharpness is a little worse than on the 5D. But since I only use Canon lenses, this can be an issue with the Metabones adapter, not the camera itself.
• There are strange lens flares on the photos sometime, I haven’t seen before. Again, this can be an issue with the Metabones adapter, than the camera itself.

Software

If you go from a camera with Magic Lantern firmware to almost anything, it will look very bare bone. And it’s similar here.

• For my use, the options for bracketing are very limited. For 5 exposures, you can only get 0.7EV difference, which is not enough. And this is all just software, so the limitation is artificial.
• There is no easy way to do exposures longer than 30s. The bracketing is limited and the bulb mode only shows empty screen, instead of a timer. When I use my camera, I really hate using a second device to just be able to time it.
• Some options are combined into the same selection, which than limits them, as you can’t use both at once. Again the best example is self timer and bracketing. They are the same selection, so you can’t use both at once.
• Customization options are limited. For instance, there are three scroll wheels on the camera. I can switch the top two between aperture and time, but I can’t set any of those on the third one. That one can only do ISO. I would love to have time there, as its the one thats the can be scrolled the fastest, but no luck.
• Camera restarts randomly when I use the Canon 24-70mm f2.8 lens with it. I really have no idea what could cause this, as I haven’t noticed this problem with other lenses. At first I though that there is a problem with the lens contacts, but I found nothing.

Conclusion

As I said in the beginning of this article, my feelings on the Sony a7R are mixed. If the sensor wasn’t as good as it is, this would be quiet a disappointment. This sensor needs a better body, faster processor and much more memory. And for a camera in this price range, that should be a given. It looks like they corrected some of the issue with the a7R II, so I hope I get my hands on it so I can compare. For now, I’m not yet completely convinced about a mirrorless camera. They are the future, but maybe they need few generations more to be on par with the best DSLRS.

Around two months ago I posted a review of the LG 34UM95 ultra-wide monitor, and today I share with you some of my observations after two months of using it.

Issues

Let’s first look at the two problems I noticed right at start. The shaking stand and the back-light bleed. Of course both are still there after two months. But none of them are a deal breaker.

The shaking is there only when I type. I type quiet fast and that can create quite a lot of shaking. Other than that, I have seen none, either when editing or playing games.

The back-light bleed is exactly the same as it was in the beginning, but I’m not sure if I got used to it, or I just ignore it. I almost never notice it. I really thought it would be a bigger problem, but it’s exactly the same as the one burnt pixel on my old monitor. If I don’t look for it, I don’t see it.

Movies

Before I look at work performance, lets first look at the other uses. Watching movies on it is just wonderful. Especially 4K content is great. The monitor on it’s own is not 4K, but it’s close enough for the 21:9 content.

HD content still looks good on it, except for the black bars on 16:9 content. Especially thats the moment when you will be able to see the back-light bleed. But again, it’s not such a huge problem that one could not live with it.

Then there is SD content, and on-line videos, especially Youtube. Both look horrible for different reasons. SD content (anything under 720p) just looks too pixelated on a screen this size. It’s OK when you sit far enough, but not up close. Youtube videos are even worse. Even if they are in 21:9 aspect ration (trailers for instance), Youtube adds black bars on top and bottom to them, so they are 16:9. So when you go full-screen with a video like that, you will have a huge black border around it. The only solution is to download the video and then use a player that can scale it, to get it into a usable full-screen.

Games

I love gaming on this monitor. My PC is not one of the strongest, but it runs all games older than 1 year in a very nice 2560×1080 resolution. That’s actually the smallest 21:9 resolution that is available, so anything smaller and you won’t get fullscreen.

It made me even play more games. Especially first person games are so much impressive on this monitor, than on a 16:10 one. You just see so much more. I play mostly RPGs and strategies, so I don’t really care that much about some huge refresh rates, and I never noticed any lag from the screen.

It’s nice to see that more and more games support this aspect ration natively, and with a little tweaking, I managed to get around 90% of games in my Steam library working quite well. Actually, if you are curious how some of them look, you can check the screenshots under my Steam account, where I uploaded quite a lot of them.

Btw. playing turn based strategies in a 2560×1080 window (Civilization mostly), while you watch a video on the side is just perfect :)

Work

And we are getting to the most important thing, how it is to work on this huge monitor. It’s just great to have so much space to work with. Just wonderful for multitasking.

Either if working with multiple browsers, while editing the blog, huge Lightroom window, to see the images, or editing big panoramas in Photoshop, and seeing the whole image all at once.

It’s quite interesting, that for most things one just does not need the whole screen. Even for Photoshop, I have it only on about 2/3rds of the screen most of the time. I like to have a video playing on the side, so that works very well for me.

Also, if you work with modern windows apps, the size works great with the window snapping. Having a Skype chat snapped on the side works just perfectly, and due to the ration it does not even feel like it’s taking up space.

Overall

Overall I don’t regret buying it. It’s a very impressive monitor, and it was well worth the money.

A little later than I planed, but today I have for you a review the 34 inch monitor LG 34UM95. Due to some problem I had to return the first one, and I’m now on a second, but I will get to it soon. So let’s take a look at it.

Size & Resolution

This monitor is just huge. I upgraded from a 24 inch monitor, and the difference is really recognizable. It’s not a 4k monitor, as the resolution of 3440×1440 is only aroud 2.5k. You could look at this as a downside, but I think it’s actually a plus. Due to this resolution, your PC does not have to be crazy strong to be able to run it, and also, the ppi is still low enough, so you don’t have to scale the operating system. Operating systems and programs are just not yet all ready for a high ppi screens, and scaled UI elements just look ugly. On this screen, you can keep the default scaling, and it’s still really usable.

Panorama on whole screen

Panorama on whole screen

Working on it

Working on it is just a pleasure. You have so much space as on two 20 inch screens, without the ugly border in between. After a few days I rearanged my Photoshop to show all I’m using at once and I still can have a panorama photo opened in a nice size. Also if you are editing a lot with Lightroom, creating a nice setup is very easy.

For other work, you can easily have three pages opened next to each other will everything having a proper size. This makes for instance editing my blog much easier, as I can have the page preview, page edit and my portfolio opened all at once and just copy and past from one into another.

Working with Photoshop

Working with Lightroom

All this splitting is made easier with a bundled piece of software called Screen Split. In this small utility, you can choose how you want to have the screen split, and all windows you then drag around the screen will automatically snap to the predefined areas. It’s very handy if you tent to use the same (or similar) setup all the time.

Movies

As this is a 21:9 resolution screen, you movie experience differs very much based on a movie you watch. If you watch a movie in this aspect ratio, it’s just a huge pleasure. No black bars, great colors, huge viewing area. Of course if you wantch a movie with the aspect 16:9 or even 4:3, this gets much much worse. You will get huge black bars from the sides and the viewing experience is greatly diminished.

4K trailer 2.35:1 ratio

Full HD trailer 16:9 ratio

For me this is perfect as I don’t own a TV, and all my movie watching is on my PC. Just not good for watching TV shows full screen.

Games

Similar to movies, you game experience will greatly vary based on one thing. If the game supports a 21:9 aspect ratio resolutions (2560×1080 or 3440×1440) you will get a perfect experience. The wide viewing area is very immerssive and the new look will get you playing games you finished a long time ago. Again, if you play something that is not 21:9 this gets much worse. You can choose either stretched view or the black bars on the sides. Neither of this options is that great.

Bioshock Infinity

NFS Most Wanted

To make things a little more complicated, even games that support the required resolution, don’t always have the UI and the menus working correctly. So you get cropped off parts, missing UI and similar. In some cases you can use a program like Flawless Widescreen to correct this, but in my experience that does not work in all cases. Either way, some experimenting and PC knowledge is required.

Problems

There are three problems with this monitor. First is the still very new aspect ratio. Not yet everything supports it, but I believe this will get better over time, as more monitors with this aspect ratio are release.

Secondly the stand is not the best. It’s too low, with the hight not being adjustable. It’s also not that stable, and any stronger shakes to the table will result in the whole screen shaking. Sometimes even just typing on the keyboard a little faster can cause this. Luckily, the monitor includes a VESA mount, so in the worst case one can replace the stand with a different one or a mounting arm.

Backlit problem on first piece

Backlit problem on replacement piece

Thirdly, the biggest problem, is a backlit bleed. This was the reason I replaced the first one I got, but the second one has almost the same problem, even if not so visible. Maybe you will be luckier and there will be none, but I haven’t seen one like that. The problem is mostly visible at night and if you are running a content that does not fill the full screen. From my view, it varies. Sometimes I don’t see it at all even with dark content on the screen, sometimes it’s very distracting.

In the end

So after two weeks with the monitor, I decided to keep it, even with the problems. I just can’t go back to a smaller one, this size and aspect ratio are just perfect for me. I found out, that I can see the backlit bleed only about 3-5% of the time I use the monitor, and I can live with it (even if maybe I send it back for a repair some months later) If you are looking for a new monitor, you should definitively have a look at this one or a similar one of the same size (there is only one from AOC currently and that is hard to get by, Samsung and Dell will have some later on, sometime next year). But if you can, be sure to try it before buying or buy from a place where you can return it. Maybe you get lucky to get a one without any problems, but why take the risk :)

You can find more photos and my initial thoughts in this post.. Also if you are curious about the current price of this monitor, here it is on Amazon – LG 34UM95