Brian

It's the shutter speed causing issues. 1/60th is what killed this photo. For this shot, you could have used f/4 and got the shutter up to 1/125th. That said, with a 24-70 @ 70mm, I try not to go below 1/160th.

Yep. Since you have the media, that's all is should take. Install Windows 7, get the initial drivers setup, then depending on how far back you are with Windows 7, you could head to support.dell.com and enter your Service Tag, download the Dell Scanning Tool and install the drivers. However, you might need to install some Windows 7 updates to get it to Windows 7 Service Pack 1 before installing the Dell stuff. Basically, you'll have to figure things out. It's one way or the other. Either it's Dell Drivers via the website then Windows Updates or vice-versa. Either way it will get you where you want to be. Time is the real killer. Windows 7 has LOTS of updates and I would use a hard-wired Ethernet connection, meaning plug your laptop directly into your router / cable modem to obtain the fastest download speeds.

The Sandisk Cards that have RescuePro come with a little tag with a code on it and download URL. It's only good for one year after you use the code.

Did you recover your lost photos?

You aren't the first person to go through something like this. That Q button could easily be bumped, especially if you are using a shoulder strap like a Black Rapid. The camera could bump against your hip/waist without you knowing changing things, then it gets hit again and goes back to "normal."

In order to get a "Clean" install of the OS on your new drive, you are going to have to look for a Dell Utility of some sort that allows you to create the OS DVD and Driver DVD. Sometimes it will allow you to use a Thumbdrive instead of DVDs. Again, this depends on your computer and varies from model to model. You might not even have a choice to create the media. Head to your start menu and poke around in anything labeled "Dell" or "Utilities." See if there is a "Create Recovery Media" or something along those lines. For the sake of argument, let's say you are able to create the recovery media. You simply install the SSD Drive, boot off the OS DVD and follow the instructions. You might want to take a photo with your phone of the Windows 7 license key, which is usually located below the battery compartment, or on the bottom of the laptop. You might have to enter it when prompted, other times the OS CD will read a special chip on the motherboard and put it in for you. After the OS is installed, it might ask you for disk 2 or 3, which loads the drivers. Sometimes it will boot to Windows and then you will have to run the install program off the driver DVD. If it were me? I would just restore the network driver, get connected to the internet and head to support.dell.com. Type in your Serial Number or Service Tag and look for Drivers / Software. Download the latest and greatest drivers. Oh, if you want data files off your old HD, simply use the SATA to USB adapter to hook up your original HD. That cable will turn your internal HD into an external HD. Though, when it's all said and done, cloning your HD is WAY easier than doing a fresh install, thought doing a fresh install is more stable, albeit more time consuming, as after you get the drivers installed, you will need to run Windows Update multiple times. I'm sure there is probably around 200GB or so worth of Windows Updates.

You don't have to worry about RAID. You have a 7 year old laptop and chances are, it doesn't support RAID. What those folks are talking about is that the RAID Drivers will be needed in order for the Cloning software to properly "see" the drive. Fancy servers have that driver software built into the RAID controllers; lower end models...you need a CD to boot off of to get the drivers in memory before using cloning software. Again, I'm 99.99999999999999999999999999999999999999% sure this is not an issue for you. Oh, what does RAID mean? Redundant Array of Independent Disks. Basically, it's two or more hard drives working in unison to provide redundancy; meaning that if one drive fails the other automatically picks up the slack and you can keep operating. (RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10.) RAID 0 does not have true redundancy as if one drive dies the other one goes along with it. Why have a RAID 0? Short Answer: Speed. Having two traditional Hard Drives with spinning disks gives you double capacity and lots of read/write speed. For example, two 4TB hard drives become a fast single 8TB drive. They are great if you are editing video and use a RAID 0 drive as your cache / temporary files drive. The other levels of RAID have data redundancy, so if a drive fails it's usually not catastrophic. How much redundancy depends on which method / level of RAID you choose, AND how many hard drives you choose. I could go on-and-on about RAID and data striping and mirroring, but that would totally de-rail this thread. Those Crucial instructions are pretty much what you do. It seems that they are using Acronis, which is a program that I've used, though I use a version that is a bit older and not as fancy looking. Unfortunately, there isn't ONE set of instructions that will work 100% of the time. Each manufacturer has their own way of doing things and your results will vary. Yes, I know this is a cop-out answer, but it's the truth. The real tricky part boils down to the USB to SATA cable, I like using the ones that have an external power source. Here is what you do: Hook up the Red Sata Cable to the port on the adapter, and then attach the other end to the data port on the SSD drive. Then attach the power connector to the SSD drive, leave the power brick un-plugged for now. Hook the other end of the power cable from the SSD Drive to the power brick. Attach the USB cable to your laptop AFTER everything is attached, THEN plug in the power brick. In a few moments, Windows should start complaining about the new drive and ask what do you want to do with it. Don't do anything, continue with the Crucial Instructions. Cloning a drive really depends on the software, so I can't give you step-by-step instructions, that said, the Crucial Acronis software seems pretty straightforward. If it asks you if you want to resize the drive during cloning, (especially if the SSD Drive is larger,) tell it YES. Your Dell monitor is fine and is one I would purchase. You definetely want to use a DisplayPort Cable to get the most out of your monitor in terms of Clarity, Color Accuracy, Contrast, Sharpness, etc., though HDMI isn't bad either. If I had one port to choose from going forward, it's DisplayPort. How can you tell if it's a Display Port? It is very similar looking to a HDMI port, but only has one angled corner. HDMI has two angled corners. Here is your display and the port just to the right of the screw is a DisplayPort. As for your computer configuration, It's fine. Personally, I would upgrade to Windows 10 Pro while you have the chance, but that's just me.

I know with my Nikon Cameras, I can set banks with different recording settings, for example my “Portrait” mode is set for RAW 14-bit uncompressed. Wedding bank is 12-bit RAW uncompressed + JPEG fine, etc. Even though you think that no settings changed, I’d recheck all your settings with different modes and see if you can duplicate the problem. In addition, on some Canon bodies there is a button on the back of the camera that allows you to change the setting from Raw to JPEG without you knowing it and it seems easy to do. After some Googling, a photographer accidentally hit this button during a wedding and switched over from Raw to JPEG and didn’t realize it until he got home. It seems that this button is to the left of the LCD, if you hit it, is shows the current record settings. Hit it again it starts scrolling through some options and it’s also possible that setting it to a different mode that your options are different. I’m not sure that this will work on your camera, but here is the setting on some bodies: “C.Fn4:Disp/Operation Rec card, image size setting change this from default "Rear LCD panel" to "LCD monitor.”

Cloning can be a bit tricky, especially if you try to clone to a USB device, meaning using a USB to SATA cable/adapter that attaches to your new hard drive. With a laptop, you don't have the luxury of multiple SATA ports. What you will have to do is use cloning software to backup the existing HD, to a regular USB drive. Then you install the new SSD Drive. After that you boot off a CD / Thumbdrive load the cloning software and restore from your clone file. Years ago, I used a program called "Ghost," from Symantec, now I've used a program called Acronis. Oh! It helps if you put your clone file in a directory on your EHD, rather than the root folder. What happens is that the manufacturers have a partition that is just for recovery, not recovery to a new drive, but to reformat / re-install the OS and get the computer back to "Day 1." Since your computer has some years on it, the recovery media might create DVDs or even have the option for a Thumbdrive to be used. I'd have a 16GB Thumbdrive handy if you have that option. Sometimes it might take multiple discs or Thumdrives. (Or Pin Drives, Jump Drives, etc. I've heard them called all different names. Just like Soda/Pop/Coke, whatever.) As to what do I prefer? Either. Honestly, if you could do a fresh install of the OS and then run all the Windows updates, will give you the most stable platform. Time-wise, this way will take the longest. If you go the cloning route, you will have an exact copy of your current HD, along with any issues that it might have. That said, you could have this whole process done in a few hours, IF everything goes smoothly; I've had several instances of wasting all day trying to clone a stupid drive (the software doesn't recognize a drive on a USB to SATA cable,) other times I bang things out in an hour or so. It's all relative and no set way to do things.

You can use each card in the single slot, provided that both cards are formatted in-camera. Personally, I would get a new / larger card for your Fuji, this way you won’t be tempted to swap back and forth between camera bodies. Which Fuji do you have? Also, do you use a card reader? Life is so much easier when you use a card reader to download images.

It happens, but the Dell Monitors that I’ve recommended and used in real-life haven’t been that much of an issue. Personally, I’d skip that BenQ monitor. That’s due to the difficulty of calibration and I’ve replaced more than one BenQ displays for customers in my time.

You could try purchasing a 500GB SSD drive, or better yet a 1TB. If you can restore the laptop to it's default configuration, now is the time to do it while Windows 7 updates are still available. There is a world of difference on replacing the main traditional HD to a SSD.

I recommend Dell XPS line because it's easy and accessible, as most people in this forum can purchase one. The $1099.99 version is the one I'd get myself, though I would upgrade to Windows 10 Pro if it were me. Honestly, I went tweaking things on that Dell and the cost ends up being $1784.99 as I tend to buy with a 7-8 year lifespan in mind. If someone reading this does not like Dell, that's fine...just configure a similarly equipped computer from another manufacturer. Here is a Dell U2415 Monitor that is easy on the budget and is a good value for photo editing.

CORRECT!! NEVER-EVER-EVER-EVER....LIKE EVER! NEVER DEFRAG A SSD DRIVE!! DOING SO IS VERY BAD FOR THE SSD DRIVE. The way the data is stored on the SSD drive is completely different than a traditional HD. So even if you were to do it, it wouldn't work like it did on a traditional HD. Plus defraging will kill the SSD drive prematurely. I will never recommend a laptop for photo-editing. Culling and organizing...fine, but for editing, I will tell you to get a desktop and a nice IPS-based monitor. Of course everyone wants to be portable these days and I got tired of arguing. If you ware going to get a laptop, I'd look towards the ASUS Republic of Gamers line. Basically, you are looking for a gaming laptop, not a cheapie sub-$500 laptop, with a IPS screen. That cost will run you between $1000-$1500, give or take a few hundred. A Solid State Drive if fine for a primarily drive, the only real problems I have with them is that most folks buy one that is way too small in terms of capacity. You want a 500GB SSD drive at the MINIMUM, and personally, I'd recommend a 1TB Drive. Yes a SSD Drive is MUCH faster and will breathe new life into that old laptop but Windows 7's days are numbered. All updates / support will end Jan 7, 2020 and all versions of Server Windows 2008 / 2008 R2 will no longer be supported Jan 14, 2020. It's like how XP was put out to pasture and forgotten about. So going forward, Windows 10 will be your world. If you were to get anything today, I'd recommend getting Windows 10. So buying a SSD Drive for $450 and then a copy of Windows 10 for a few hundred...it doesn't make that much sense in upgrading your old laptop. Plus, there might not be drivers and such available. If you do decide to install a SSD Drive, I'd make sure you can create recovery media to install a fresh copy on your new drive. Manufacturers are funny these days and you'd be surprised on just how difficult it is to do a recovery on a new HD. Some computers/laptops will not let you do it at all. As for a computer: i5 or i7 CPU 16GB RAM at a Minimum / 32GB Preferred 1TB HD at a Minimum / Bigger is always preferred A video card that has its own dedicated video memory, going forward I'd recommend one with a DisplayPort over a HDMI version. Though either is fine, it's just when you get to the 4K range that you really want a DisplayPort connection. Video Memory: 2GB is fine, 4GB is recommended and 8GB is awesome / more future proof. That BenQ monitor. It looks interesting and from what I can tell from the comments, it's a bit of a pain to calibrate. Dell Monitors with IPS screens are a pretty good value, and NEC, HP, Eizo monitors are also ones to look at.

3rd time? Hmm...I'd start saving for a new camera body. Which make/model is your camera?

Bamboo Tablets, I have zero experience with. It could be a video driver issue, so head to Toshiba's website and check for updates. I did fine this handy list of things to try, so even though it's geared towards a Windows 8 fix, it might help you: http://leohartas.com/windows-8-wacom-tablet-ring-problem-fix/

That's because you didn't select the LaCie HD in your example. The MacOS was not letting you delete your main / internal HD on purpose. That would be bad. LOL!!

Yep. f/2.2 will do this sort of thing and as long as the eye closest to the camera is in focus, you are fine.

It looks like your lens that was used is front focusing a lot. His hands / arm closest to the camera is much more in focus than his eyes and face. If you'd like to discuss this further, post in the "DSLR Bistro" in the Ask Brian section.

Don't be afraid to use those smaller apertures. Play around with them. Just keep in mind, when you use a smaller aperture, you'll need to increase flash power. So if you were at, say 1/8th power @ f/5.6 then you would need to increase your power to 1/2 to get f/11. If you still don't have enough "Umph," either move the flash a bit closer or get a bigger light. It is very normal to be at f/11 for your main (key) light and f/8 for your second (fill) light for shots like this. Once you figure out your recipe, there will be a whole new world opened up for you.

This isn't missed focus. I think what happened is you were a bit too close to the subject, since you were at 39mm, and that's not too far off from 35mm. This decreases the Depth of Field. Had you been at 70mm (and standing further back) f/5.6 probably would have been fine. At the distance you were at, I'm thinking f/11 would have helped somewhat, maybe f/8...but am leaning towards f/11 or so. Either way, composition-wise and technical-wise, you are fine in focusing in on the closest eye.

If you want both eyes to be in focus, you'll need to stop down, since each eye is on a different focal plane. The good news is your focus is on the eye closest to the camera, so you are good.

It's hard to tell if you don't have special diag software to see the performance values. Honestly, since you are new to a Mac, I wouldn't sweat it. I'm just curious about saving your RAW files and such and the time that it takes after you upgrade the RAM. I've only used a Mac with my DSLR cameras since 2010, I don't know how "fast" it would be if I was on a PC. Of course, that depends on the hardware, what hard drives (and type) that I'm using, the speed of the motherboard itself, speed of RAM and CPU, etc. etc. Whether it's a Windows Computer or Mac, you really want 16GB for today's computers with current operating systems. 8GB is the new bare-minimum and you really want more. Just like it was 512K / 640K RAM, then 1MB...followed by 2MB, 4MB RAM, then 1GB, 2GB, 4GB...8, then 16, then 32, etc. History repeats itself. Today's 16GB is yesterday's 8GB.

It might be splitting hairs. Often if it’s similar specs, and one set of memory is slightly slower, the faster chips will slow down to match. Head to Crucial.com. Scanner is in their front page. You are looking to purchase a 32GB Kit, or at the very least, a 16GB kit. Or try what you ordered. Up to you. Oh, plenty of YouTube videos demonstrating the installation, it’s failrly straightforward.

Well, I would have liked you to run the Crucial Scanner Tool to see what memory you currently have installed. You want to get matching sticks and all those little numbers listed on the memory mean something. These days you really want 16GB or more, regardless if it’s a Windows computer or Mac.