Importance of FireWire, Replacement Battery Advice, RAM for WallStreet PowerBooks, and More

• The Importance of FireWire
• iBook G4 Replacement Battery Advice
• What Use Is IrDA?
• Memory for WallStreet PowerBook
• Kodachrome: Subtle, Rich Color
• Kodachrome Moments
• Velvia 50 and Medium Format Cameras

The Importance of FireWire

From Jim in response to Low-end MacBook Pros: SD Card and FireWire In, ExpressCard Out:

Dear Charles,

You so hit this one on the head. I was all set to buy a 13" Unibody MacBook, but the lack of FireWire changed my decision. I work in an elem. middle school. We have all these video cameras - all FireWire!!! I do lot of movies. I'm sure this is true of many schools/colleges/universities. What was Apple thinking? This was a show stopper for me.

At 61 years of age, I can afford pretty much any computer I want. The MacBook Pros are beautiful machines! I just like small laptops. They are just easier to lug around. I'm sure Apple will not go back, but I'll continue to stick to my 12" PowerBook till it quits.

Thanks again for giving expression to my pain! ;-)

Jim

Hi Jim,

As we've now seen, Apple has fixed that deficiency with the 13" MacBook Pro and sweetened the spec in several other ways.

Charles

iBook G4 Replacement Battery Advice

From Yoram:

Greetings Charles, and thanks as always for your help.

My trusty 1.33 GHz, 12" iBook G4 battery is coming to the end of its life (about 50% capacity after 314 cycles), and I am wondering about a replacement battery. One option is the one from Newer Technology for ~$119, another one is from IntelligentBatteries for $49. Obviously they are not identical, the NT is 55.5 Watt-Hour and IB 48 WH, so I will get a little less time. The NT is tempting, but I do wonder if the extra cost is worth it given the computer does not get younger.

What do you think? Any other options come to mind?

Regards,
Yoram

Hi Yoram,

I can't really comment on the IntelligentBatteries product, because I have no firsthand knowledge of it, but the price is certainly attractive.

I do have a Newer Technology extended life battery for my Pismos, and it's been excellent. Gives me a good, long runtime and has been reliable for several years.

To further complicate your decision making, another supplier at a price between your two candidates is FastMac, whose extended life iBook G4 battery is currently selling for $99.95. I have a couple of FastMac TruePower Pismo batteries, and they've been good performers as well.

In your shoes, it would partly depend on how long I expected to use the computer. If you're planning on upgrading your system in the not too distant future, the IntelligentBattery would probably make the most sense. OTOH, if I was thinking in years and not months, I would go with one of the more expensive unit.

I'm just guessing, but I suppose there is a reason for the wide disparity in pricing.

Charles

What Use Is IrDA?

From Scott:

The Pismo is running Panther just fine on the Seagate 120 GB hard drive, so I guess this particular ATA-100 hard drive is one of the drives that works with the Pismo. I'm typing this on the Pismo now in fact. Like you, I've never had a hard drive fail, except for one that was in my Roland VS-890 digital audio workstation.

A lot of my friends have lost all their work on cheap hard drives though. One of my friends lost all his work two or three times with one particular brand. I finally sold him a Seagate drive, and he hasn't had any more trouble. People should back up their work though, no matter what hard drive they use.

Just out of curiosity, what, if anything, is the IrDA port on the Pismo good for in today's world?

Scott

Hi Scott,

Indeed. The only hard drive I've had outright fail was a 6 GB Fujitsu 2.5" unit in a Que external FireWire housing. It had less than 50 hours on it, so it was likely defective.

I don't think the IrDA port is much use these days unless you have some old IR peripherals. The only thing I've ever used IrDA ports for is file transfers between laptops when no ethernet crossover cable was handy.

Charles

Memory for WallStreet PowerBook

From Manara:

Dear Charles

Could you please tell me if a SO-DIMM 256 MB 133 MHz memory can fit into a this Mac?

Thanks.

Hi Manara,

The RAM spec. for the WallStreet is PC 66 RAM. PC 100 RAM, which is pretty dirt cheap these days, will work You can find it very reasonably priced at Other World Computing and many other vendors.

PC 133 RAM may work in the WallStreet too, but the WallStreet has a 66 MHz system bus, so the RAM will be limited to 66 MHz anyway.

Charles

Editor's note: I'm in the process of upgrading a recently acquired 266 MHz WallStreet as cheaply as possible. I bought several secondhand SO-DIMM modules formerly used in Lombards, including at least two 256 MB modules. (Why are so few memory modules clearly marked as to their capacity?) However, my WallStreet only sees them as 128 MB modules, giving me 384 MB of RAM. Still, it's a lot better than the stock 64 MB and lets me play with Mac OS X. dk

Kodachrome: Subtle, Rich Color

Hello Charles,

Absolute wonderful reminiscence with absolutely wonderful shots! Such subtle yet rich colours. Thank you for reminding me why Kodachrome was so important.

Regards,
Christopher

Hi Christopher,

Thanks for the thumbs-up. Glad you enjoyed the article and the photos, for which Kodachrome and my Konica/Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 Film Scanner deserve most of the credit, not to mention the Zuiko lens on the OM-1.

Charles

Kodachrome Moments

From Andrew:

Charles,

Wow, what an exquisite article.

Like you, I was a very serious hobby photographer in the 70s and 80s, and just last month I finally sold my old Nikon cameras and lenses and went fully digital.

I last shot Kodachrome about a decade ago, as most of my shooting was and remains black and white, but I do have more than a few Kodachrome moments in my past.

Of course, it was sadly inevitable. Similarly excellent results are available on more modern films that are far cheaper and easier to process, though of course the unique look will likely never be replicated.

Thanks for the memories,
Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the kind words about the article. It was definitely one from the heart. I loved Kodachrome back in the day, although (like you) my first love in photography was black & white, and in the '70s I had a darkroom set up in a spare bedroom and spent a lot of time there.

Oddly, I find that using a scanner (I have a Minolta transparency scanner and an Epson flatbed) and Photoshop Elements (and more recently Pixelmator as well), has many resonances of darkroom work.

But I also have (rough estimate) somewhere between one and two thousand transparencies in my archives, and a large proportion of them are Kodachrome. It was truly one of the greatest commercial products of all time. The adjective "iconic" is overused, but it legitimately applies to Kodachrome.

Charles

Velvia 50 and Medium Format Cameras

From Scott:

Have you used Fuji Velvia 50? I just started using it in my 35mm recently, and it's wonderful. I intend to get a medium format camera at some point to take with me in my travels to beautiful places.

Scott

Hi Scott,

I don't think I've bought a roll of any sort of film since maybe 2003 or 2004. I guess I've pretty much totally gone digital. I've heard that Velvia 50 is very good.

I still have my old OM-1, which I bought in 1974, and a slightly newer medium format Rolleicord Vb twin-lens reflex, which is my favorite camera I've ever owned, but I haven't run any film through it for at least a decade.

I'm not sure how much of a future it has, but medium format photography is wonderful. I love composing on the Rollei's groundglass screen - much better than squinting through a 35mm viewfinder.

Time is part of the problem for me. Most of my photography activity these days is taking product shots to illustrate reviews and such, and digital is ideal for that.

Charles

From Scott,

It's possible the best digital cameras will be able to match the resolution of "obsolete" 35mm cameras at some point, but I doubt it'll match the resolution of medium format cameras anytime soon. A 35mm film camera is the equivalent of at least a 25 megapixel digital camera. What would that kind of technology cost today, if it even exists yet? Maybe after digital photo technology is mature I'll buy a very nice obsolete digital camera at a great price.

Today's best digital cameras are obsolete so quickly, and I can't afford to lose a thousand dollars like that. I can buy the finest film cameras ever built, use them for as long as I want, then sell them for what I paid for them - or possibly even more. I love free stuff! (laugh) I do that with "obsolete" Macs all the time. Sometimes I run Macs for several years and then sell them for at least as much as I paid . . . (satisfied smile) . . . It'll be years before I can have a free digital camera at this rate. Meanwhile I'll enjoy the finest "obsolete" film cameras.

I bought a 210mm zoom for my 35mm for $15 shipped the other day on eBay. It works great. Nobody bid on it because it's manual focus! (laugh) Hey, I'll take it for $15, thank you very much. I'm absolutely sure I can sell it for more than $15, even if I use it for many years.

Hi Scott,

I don't even like autofocus. Great deal on that lens.

No argument about quality of images being better with medium format, and I agree with you about the price of high-end digital cameras being prohibitive given the ephemeral nature of "high-end" in that context. I mean, my 35 year old OM-1 and the Rollei twin-lens still deliver image quality at the higher end of the range. They were moderately expensive back in the early '70s, but they have lasting value no digital can match.

Charles

Go to Charles Moore's Mailbag index.