Hi
Fairly recently, I picked up a 1200VA 700 watt UPS
It's designed for PC use with 4 Battery backed Sockets and 2 surge protected sockets.
For a Desktop PC it's probably going to last for around 5 minutes enough time to shut down properly. There are essentially 3 types of UPS: standby, line interactive, and online (priced from low to high).

Mine is a standby type which doesn't regulate the input voltage only kicking in when the mains fails

Line interactive can condition the mains supply to make it more consistent if you suffer from brown outs this may suit you better.

The online type converts ac to dc and back to ac again, these are much more expensive but the supply is constant.

No need of

5 minutes doesn't sound very much use but thats at a 700 watt load at a 70 watt load its 50 minutes or 100 minutes at 35 watts.

I have a couple of NAS systems (Network attached storage) which i keep my photos on (amongst other things). One of the worst things you can do is just drop the power to them, you risk corrupting your data.

Of course the UPS sockets are not the same as regular ones so you need adapters, i use an extension lead with a UPS type plug. My two nas systems probably use around 30 watts, so this evening when the power went out they just kept running (i even plugged a mains LED lamp in to the UPS) so i was left with everything working and then the mains came back.

Anyway if your not using a UPS you should consider getting one. When the power goes out you will be glad you did. I've decided to keep the lamp I use in my living room on the UPS as well now (5 watt LED) so now even the light stays on.

What I jokingly meant was if you buy prime lens, then it's going to always have the same fixed focal length and to bring the photographed subject closer to you, you'd need to walk towards that subject or, inversely, if you're to close to the subject, you'll need to walk away from it for better framing -- something you don't need to do with zooms (or do less).
My suggestion then would be, if snapping birds is your main thing, then don't go with primes and go with the zooms. Spend as much as you can for the one with quality glass and greater reach. Considering the fact that you also specified your preference for "all-around lens", I'd say 24-105 would probably be the very minimum zoom you should consider, keeping an eye for others, with higher second number (105, 135, 200, 300, etc.). Hope that helped.

The only true "all around" lens is the J.C. Penny 8-1500mm f0.1 zoom. The photo shows the 7 sections
that, once screwed together,form the complete lens. Great for bird photography and delivers awesome bokeh!
At the street price of $9,995, it's affordable and appropriate for photographers from novices to professionals.
One minor drawback: in addition to the camera tripod, an additional top end carbon fiber tripod ($2000) is
required to keep the torque from ripping out the lens mount and your precious lens tumbling to the rock-strewn
ground.

If that occurs, do not despair... it can be sent to a reputable refurbishing company where it will be re-manufactured
into an unreasonably powerful sunlight concentrator which your kids can use to vaporize every ant in the neighborhood.
What kid wouldn't love to have one of those? It will, of course, require close parental supervision to prevent the
little ones from burning down your house and/or burning holes in wildlife, pets, and each other.

Submitted by Alan with all due reverence and respect.

The issue is not your computer or profile. Color printers using profiles designed for color, have difficulty with B&W images. The easiest way to fix this is to download the Quadtone RIP. A RIP is a Raster Image Processor. It takes over the image print processing from what ever program you are using. Quadtone is free and is designed to print B&W images. Basically you work on your image, then save it (usually as a tiff), then open Quadtone and tell it where the image is and where the printer is. You can set all kinds of adjustments, but when you print, it will not use any color inks. I have used it for years on even some very large prints and it is great. I think this will solve your problem.

It depends....

If she set up Photos to store all images within the standard Photos Library (The default method - called a MANAGED library) then the images are all contained within a special file. If this is the case, she will need to export all the images to a folder, then import them into Lightroom. She can export the original files, or export the edited JPG files.... but she will lose the edits done on the originals, and only get "baked in" edits on JPGs....

If however it is set up as a REFERENCED library, then the images are sitting on the external disk right there for all to see - they can be imported into Lightroom from where they are.

A word to the wise - set up Lightroom properly so that you know where it will put all imported photos and remember to always use Lightroom to manage the photo files until you fully get the library and storage options.


I would advise not doing the workflow you talked about.... You store the originals on an external disk, manage and edit with Lightroom, do not worry about making copies first, Lightroom does not change your original files. When finished editing you can export a finished JPG version, the original is still sitting on the disk as it came from the camera.

For what its worth - I only export finished JPG's to upload to my Flicker Feed, to print or to give away. The originals remain in my Lightroom Library/database. Lightroom can generate a new JPG at any time, or I can edit the original again any way I choose.