Brian

Don't think Apple hasn't noticed and I actually agree with them, keep tablets and computers SEPARATE. They are at their best when they compliment each other, rather than being a "Jack of all Trades...Specialist at None." Apple has done what's in its best interest for APPLE. Ever since 1984. LOL!! It's Windows that caters to the masses, and you see how that works out. Sure there are lots of computers at different price-points, but you have a bloated OS...Windows...that has to work with ALL of them. With the Mac, all Apple has to do is worry about the Mac. If you want to swim in their pool, you play by their rules. As for neglect, I think it's just the Windows side of things has caught up. Adobe has really made both platforms pretty even, so there isn't THAT much of a difference anymore. That said, in the photo / graphic arts / music world, Apple remains King. I'm curious as to what would you do to a computer? Be like a Surface or something different? We shall see what Apple is going to do. It's hard for me to see them going off-course with something dramatic right now with the iMac line, but then again...it's Apple. I think right now it's large screen iPad Pros that do what the Microsoft Surface is trying to do.

The latest and greatest, the Epson V850. Both Canon and Epson make good stuff when it comes to scanners. It all depends on your budget.

Since you are asking my opinion, here it is: I will pass for now, but keep it on my RADAR. I've read some feed-back from people who own them, and one of the small things that caught my eye was that the USB 3.0 ports aren't powered. Well, they don't have the "Umph" to power things like external HDs and such, so you'll need a Powered USB hub to go along with it. It seems Microsoft cut some corners and put in low-powered USB ports that you find on laptops.

Microsoft's Equivalent:

Microsoft's take on the iMac. They look interesting, and having it be used as a glorified iPad is kinda cool. I'm wondering how easy are they to calibrate, since the touchscreens traditionally are a BITCH to calibrate. (Translation: Have large amounts of Tequila and Aspirin at the ready when trying to calibrate a touch screen.) Also, where do you take it to get it fixed? It's not a "Normal" computer by any means. Best Buy and the like will ship it out to a repair center. If you are fortunate to have a Microsoft Store near you, they could be an option. That said, ALL THOSE FRIGGIN' FINGERPRINTS ON THE DISPLAY. Ugh. I would not want to edit photos on the thing. Yes, I know the advertisement demonstrates "artists" flinging photos around and using the fancy pencil and such, but I think the marketing / advertising agency is really laying it on thick. What I don't like is the price. A tricked out Surface Studio is over $4199. A fully tricked out 27" iMac, with Apple's extremely over-priced RAM configured to 32GB, comes out to $3499. Plus Tax and Shipping. Finally, Microsoft has put out a product that costs more than a similarly equipped 27" iMac. LOL! Fully tricked out iMac, $3499 plus applicable Tax and AppleCare:

YES. Besides, LR has a tendency to get really cranky when the catalog file gets that big. It's good practice to keep it below 3GB at all times. Once you cross that threshold, you start venturing into unknown territory. It's so funny how people get so worked up about having "too many images" on one CF / SD card, but have no issues with having tens-of-thousands of images in a single LR catalog file! Something to think about.

I suspected this. You really don't want your catalog file to get that large. Not only will it make LR slower, if you try to backup your catalog to a Thumb Drive or another device that has a FAT32 Filesystem, it won't copy over or actually could corrupt itself. FAT32 has a 4GB file size limit, but in reality it's more like 3.5GB. You are at 3.6G. NTFS on the other hand, which most of us have these days, goes much higher, just under 256TB. That said, I still wouldn't ever go that high for a single file. In either case, it's one of those "rules" that I stick to, once something gets above 3GB for a single file, I start worrying. Especially a LR catalog. Bad things could happen with a large LR catalog around 4GB.

Didn't see that. So it can be dimmed. But it still doesn't have a diffuser and you really can't control the direction of the light. Of course, you can point the thing at something, it's just the level of control. It's like shooting with an umbrella, where you need a strip softbox with a grid on it. Or vise-versa. Basically, it all depends on what you are shooting. If you are just looking for a light to play with, I'd say either is fine. If you are looking for softly-lit fuzzy-wuzzy sleeping baby photos, a ice light is NOT what you are after. To answer your original question, which one out of the two? The Yongnuo 360. Just be sure to get a couple of battery packs and the AC charger, which are purchased separately.

OH! You are the LR thread. LOL!! Yeah, you have problems. I'm thinking your Hard Drive might actually have bad sectors and you have more than just "corrupted software." At this point, I wouldn't worry about your recycle bin, I'd worry about backing things like passwords/logins, e-mail settings, browser favorites, document files, LR catalogs, etc. Just in case your HD suffers from a complete crash. Because I have a sneaky suspicion you are headed that way...a format and re-load of everything or a new HD and re-load of everything.

Honestly, if you were asking for my opinion, I'd say neither.

Will you be working with an assistant or will your camera be mounted on a tripod and you would trigger it remotely? What are you actually going to be photographing and where? What I like about the YN360, it has a screw mount so you can mount it to a tripod, mono-pod, etc. What I don't like about the YN360, is you have pure LED light, there isn't a diffuser for it. That will make for some contrasty shadows. The Polaroid Brightsaber Pro has a built in Diffuser as well as a Tungsten Filter. What I don't like is no tripod mount and the batteries don't seem to last that long, so if you do go the Polaroid Route, actually BOTH routes, get the "complete package / buy all three" so you get the charger and extra batteries. What I don't like for both is you can't control the light, it's all or nothing and it spills everywhere. It's also FULL POWER or nothing, it doesn't have a dimmer bulb. In addition, there isn't an option for a Barn Door Modifier, like for the actual Westcott IceLight, you'll have to rig something up yourself, which will involve Gaffers Tape at some point. LOL! Have you seen this video?

I'm curious, just how large is your corrupted catalog file? Right-Click and do a properties on the catalog.

If it were up to me, I'd have a traditional HD and a non-retina 5000k display. Apple has made it so we don't have a choice.

FYI: 80% in LR is equal to "10" in PS. 100% in LR is equal to "12" in PS. Adobe's ratings are based on a 1 --> 12 method. "11" in PS would be "90%" in LR, "9" would be "70%," and so on.

You are headed to Prime Land and I don't think you will ever be 100% happy with a 24-70. A 35mm is probably the lens you are after, and from the looks of things, a Sigma 35mm ART. The 24-70 is great if you want to run-and-gun, like I do during weddings. Mine is pretty sharp and am quite happy with it. You could do things with a 35, 50 and 85. That's typically the focal lengths that you use the majority of the time when it comes to photographing people. Something wide, something long and something in the middle. Bottom Line: Return it.

Here's the thing, the Nikon 24-70 is not #amazeballz sharp, and is at its weakest at both 24mm and 70mm. This is normal, and I'm sure within Nikon's tolerances. Remember, it's a zoom, not a prime. Doing what I call the "Measurebator Tests" will just frustrate you. Virtually ALL digital photographs need some sort of sharpening. See: Damien's Sharpening Class. What I would do is take your camera and new lens for a workout. Photograph things of all types, near and far. Pixel-Peep. Rinse and Repeat. Figure out which focal range works best, and which ones need a bit more finesse on your part. Figure out how far away your subject is so that the lens performs at its best. Use a tape measure and figure this out. The reason I say this, is say you put AF Fine Tune at +17, what happens when you are at 56mm? Or 35mm? Or 42mm? Or 60mm? You are going to have out-of-focus photos, then the next stop I will see you in is the Focus Checks Section on AD, banging your head against the wall. Life is difficult as it is. If you find the lens doesn't perform to your expectations after pixel-peeping, then I'd return it and try to purchase a brand new 24-70. Even then I feel that that AF Fine Tune software will find something wrong. In addition, your D750 Auto Focus system needs to be ABSOLUTELY PERFECT in order for those tests to be accurate. Actually, your camera & lens needs to be in a lab, under controlled conditions to really be calibrated together, not on a dining room table. LOL! I've seem a few photographers who have send ALL of their gear to Nikon to have it calibrated together and guess what? They still were not happy when they got it back. Most lenses like the 24-70 and 17-55 (The DX version of the 24-70,) are at their best when the subject is within 5 and 15 feet from you. If you are really looking for TACK SHARP photos, skip zooms and get primes. I'd say get the new Nikon 105mm f/1.4E, the Nikon 58mm f/1.4G and the Nikon 35mm f/1.4G or the Nikon 24mm f/1.4G. Whatever you do, skip the AF-S 50mm f/1.4G, that lens is a piece of sh*t. Of course, going this route is going to be very expensive compared to your used 24-70. I really think you need to skip all this calibration stuff and GO OUT AND SHOOT. Again, @24mm and @70mm the Nikon 24-70 isn't at it's best. Many zoom lenses suffer the same fate, but I think you will find is that it's not that bad.

8GB Thumb Drive 5-Pack from Amazon 16GB Thumb Drive 5-Pack from Amazon Another 16GB Thumb Drive 5-Pack from Amazon

I sense a trend... Take a look at the thread that is next to yours. This member has a 256GB SSD HD which is nearly full and now has issues...

There's your problem. 256GB SSD. You see, the SSD C: drive is only meant for the operating system. No programs, no data files. What has happened, is when you have installed software and updates, you have done the traditional "next-next-next...ok...nextnextnext...finish" method of installing without giving any thought to WHAT was being installed and WHERE. So I'll bet you have a full 256GB SSD C: drive and a empty 2TB I: drive. (Just re-read your comments and this is the case.) This is the exact reason that I jump up and down about small SSD hard drives and why I always recommend having a 1TB for their primary drive. How to fix? You have a real mess on your hands. Honestly, I'd upgrade the 256GB Drive to a 1TB model. This is the one that I would get. The only way to free up space is to start un-installing software and re-install it on your I: drive. In the long run, you still need a bigger main drive. 256GB is microscopic by today's software requirements and you'll run into this problem again. Oh and YES!!!! CREATE THE RECOVERY MEDIA!!! Duh!!!!! LOL!! What do you think I'm gonna say? If that Dell crashes and you don't have the media to do a restore, how do you think you are going to get back up and running? You don't have any friggin' install disks, you never created them. LOL!! So your 1st thing to do, before doing ANYTHING else, is to create the recovery media. What you need to do, right now is get a couple of 8GB Thumb Drives and maybe a couple of 16GB Thumb Drives. I like Sandisk. They are like $5 now so there is no excuse. Run the Dell create media utility and use the Thumb drives. The process takes about 20 minutes which will save you hours and weeks of headaches. It should tell you what size Thumb Drive it's looking for. After you create the Thumb Drives, I want you to get a Zip-Loc Freezer Bag, the kind that you can use a Sharpie Marker to label what's inside and write DELL XPS 8700 Recovery Media. Put the Thumb Drive in the Zip-Loc bag and put it somewhere safe.

:::: FACEPALM :::: I love when salespeople try to sell stuff. LOL!! Here is the thing with SSD, I don't care how fast and fancy it is, A FULL SSD drive won't do you a damn bit of good, no matter how you slice it. The best systems have a SSD C: Drive that has the Windows OS, and a second HD, usually a 4TB 7200RPM drive for the programs and data. Again, you are back to doing custom installs on everything, and not going "nextnextnextnext...ok...next...finish." So while a 500GB SSD Drive would probably work, it's still a 500GB drive before formatting. Don't think for a minute that you have 500GBs to play with. More along the lines of 465GB (give or take) THEN minus what Windows 7 or Windows 10 takes for itself, plus all the updates and patches that will need to be downloaded, so let's say you are around 380GB when it's all said and done. Now you go installing software and drivers and such, and space starts becoming a premium. What the reality is, manufacturers have bought a bunch of SSD drives. They are the "COOL" thing to have and run much faster. It's easy to sell...I mean, WHY would you not get one, right? They are so fast and consume less power and don't have any moving parts!! Umm...yeah. They are still small capacity-wise, but are getting much better. 1TB drives exist, Crucial makes them, among others. Oh, here is another sneaky thing with SSD, if you go accidentally deleting files and are looking to recover said files, it's near impossible to do on a SSD drive, due to the way it spreads the data across the memory chips inside. While I like the idea of SSD and would use one for my Operating System, I would definitely have a 2nd traditional HD that has all my programs and data. Though I might put programs on the SSD Drive. The PS scratch disk and Windows Swap File would be on the traditional HD, hands down. If you do get a system with a SSD Drive, make sure it is AT LEAST 500GB. The bigger the better. See if there is an option to add a 2nd HD, or add one yourself, it's not that hard to do and takes about 15-20 min. Seriously.

Thank YOU!!

Mainstream Windows 7 Support has already ended. January 14, 2020...Microsoft will take it behind the proverbial barn and shoot it dead. So you have about 3 years left, not 5. As far as PC specs... i5 or i7 CPU 8GB RAM / 16GB Preferred 1TB HD at the min / 4TB preferred A separate non-integrated Video Card that has its own dedicated video memory. 2GB or more is fine. That said, this would be something that I would do the "up-sell" on and get the faster option when configuring things. Windows 10 or Windows 7 64-bit. 64-bit is required Do not purchase a 32-bit Windows OS. There is only about a 5% - 7% performance boost with an i7 when it comes to Adobe Photoshop. The reason is PS is not coded to take advantage of the architecture that makes the i7 CPU faster. Adobe is relying on video card memory and performance to make their software run faster, it's not based on the CPU chip anymore. So a big beefy video card with a power supply that has enough "Umph" to support it is almost as important as CPU speed.

Yep that's the drive I'm talking about. Here is the newer model of the WD Caviar Black Drive. The primary difference between the Red and the Black is the Red is meant for 24/7 operation and to be in RAID/NAS environments but has higher failure rates. The WD Caviar Black has better performance (7200RPM Drives vs 5400RPM), generates a little more heat, and is louder. (Duh! It's a 7200RPM drive.) Are you planning on running your NAS 24/7? If so, I don't want to give you bad advice. Even though I HIGHLY recommend the WD Caviar Black Drives, I'm the type that would shut off his NAS when not using the computer. So maybe a RED drive is in your future? This is a tough call. I really like those WD Black Drives. Yes, both kinds will work in a NAS. Here is a WD NAS that has WD Caviar Black Drives and is on my short-list. Notice the really big fan on the back? That's to compensate for the heat produced by the faster drives. (Yes, there IS A DIFFERENCE between a 5400RPM drive and a 7200RPM drive.) For the UPS, for what is on the battery/surge-side, 550VA is fine. I have a 550VA UPS and cable modem / switch mounted on a backboard in my basement. I went a little crazy and ran Cat 6 wires all through my house, I hate WiFi. LOL!! Don't worry about the stuff that is plugged into the surge-only side for the rating stuff. Oh, UPS batteries last about 5 years on the average, and you could find a local replacement, Batteries + Bulbs carry them, or an equivalent battery store (Interstate Batteries Store come to mind.) That said, I've found that the Genuine OEM APC Batteries tend to last longer than generics, but cost more. APC and Amazon sell them. Or the type of filesystem that Amazon is using is different, making the file sizes different. Just like Microsoft says 1024MB is 1GB and the HD manufactures say 1000MB is 1GB. Amazon could also be doing a lossless compression type of thing, which is very plausible. Let it run for another 24 hours. If it's still stuck and it's the drive that is dying...I would pull the power. LOL!! If there is no way to stop the test, you have no choice. It's already broke. As far as hot-swap, unless the unit specifically stated it on the box, believe me...they will make a big deal about being hot-swap, I wouldn't risk it. Shut it down and swap out the drives. I've driven through Lewisburg, seems like a nice town. I live just outside of Harrisburg. PS: Using RAID1 will cut your usable space in 1/2. A 8TB NAS unit will become a 4TB when using RAID1. So you might want to look at a 6TB drive or 8TB drive.

Talk about mumbo-jumbo. From what I can translate, it looks ok. Windows 7 is getting harder and harder to be installed on machines. Microsoft has stopped issuing licensees to manufacturers and all that's left is Win 10 licenses and those units are downgraded to Windows 7. When you create the installation / recovery media, it will be Windows 10. So sooner or later, you are going to have to deal with Windows 10. So says Microsoft. Honestly, it's not a Windows 10 and Windows 7 communication problem. It's people who do not know how to properly setup a Workgroup environment and give proper permissions to shared folders, plus creating usernames in the proper local classification groups.

Oh, what will happen when you fill up a HD? Bad things, like data corruption or a complete crash, in which case you'll need to reformat and reload everything...plus do the updates for windows and other programs. It's a huge time-suck and a real pain in the ass, especially if you don't have the license keys to install / unlock stuff. Oh, have you ever created the backup media? Computers and Laptops these days do not come with recovery disks or thumbdrives, you need to create those things yourself when you get the computer. Most, if not all store-bought computers have screens that pop-up nagging you to create the recovery/install media, and most people ignore it. Then their HD fills up and crashes, and then a frantic post begging for help is made... I'd like to avoid this scenario. So if you haven't already, purchase a couple of 16GB Thumb Drives, they run about $5 now so there is no excuse. Then take a look in your programs menu and look for a folder with the manufacturer's name. There should be something obvious in that folder, for example, "Create Recovery Media..." or something along those lines. If you upgraded to Windows 10, you'll need to create a USB Stick that has the Win 10 media. Microsoft has a tool and it's pretty straightforward to use. So what OS are you on now?