Tag: Spotlight

In the world of photo editing Adobe have had very little in the way of serious competition. Photo Director 4 from Cyber link would love to change that so let’s find out if it’s got what it takes.

Verdict: PhotoDirector 4 is surprisingly good at what it does. It borrows heavily from the design and interface of Adobe Lightroom 4 and it even throws in some neat tricks of its own. It’s just a shame that PhotoDirector can’t match the image quality gained from using Lightroom 4 that it mimics so closely.

Overall Rating Design / Features Performance Price + Plus Points     + Fully featured photo editor     + Wide range of editing tools     + Excellent pseudo HDR effect – Minus Points     – Image quality could be better     – Controls can be sluggish Price (at time of review) £72.00 Suppliers Website: http://www.cyberlink.com

As a die hard fan of Photoshop it seems very strange using a bit of software that doesn’t come from Adobe but PhotoDirector 4 has a uncanny familiarity about it. In fact if someone had told me that this was a beta version of “Lightroom Elements” I’d have totally believed them.

At its core PhotoDirector 4 is a photo organiser and photo editor that can handle pretty much any photo format you can throw at it, including RAW files. The program is split in to five modules which are the Library, Adjustment, Edit, Slideshow and Print sections. You move from one section to another making changes as you go.

You can see Photo Director 4 in action by watching my overview video below.

In use
Editing your photos is PhotoDirector 4 is a pleasant experience. There’s lots of controls at your disposal and adjustments are applied live to the image on screen. The changes appear almost instantly, although there is a momentary delay before the full resolution effect is seen on screen. I did find one annoyance however, the interface had a habit of regularly not moving the slider I was dragging.

In the Adjustment section there’s a great selection of preset effects on offer with the option to create your own too. Sadly you can’t make presets for other sections, such as Print, which is a shame.

Unique features
It’s impossible to use PhotoDirector without comparing it to Lightroom but there’s also a bit of Photoshop Elements in there too. There’s a Liquify brush, a skin smoothing brush and a teeth whitening brush. There’s also a brilliant Pseudo HDR effect which was possibly my most favourite feature and not something you’d find in either Photoshop Elements or Lightroom.

Conclusion
If you’ve no wish to use an Adobe product then I can whole heartedly recommend Photo Director. If you’ve tried Lightroom and found it lacking in features, I can honestly say Photo Director is well worth a go.

It’s the image quality that really matters of course and here PhotoDirector 4 held it’s head high on most adjustments. Processing RAW files gave some great results with noise free images with good sharpness and colour.

It all sounds and looks great… until you compare it to the image quality obtained in Lightroom or Photoshop. Sadly much as I liked PhotoDirector, I can pull far more out detail from the shadows and highlights in Adobe Camera RAW. I can also add much more clarity and the experience of doing so is far more fluid. That said Adobe need to watch their back as the gap between them and the competition is closing.

Much as I love my Black Rapid sling straps I’ve never been 100% happy with them. So I was keen to find out how the Carry Speed FS-Pro 2 measured up.

Verdict: There’s no denying that Carry Speed FS-Pro 2 is a well designed and well built piece of kit. The inclusion of a folding, tripod mountable plate is ingenious but only if you fit it correctly to your camera.

Overall Rating Design & Features Performance Price + Plus Points     + High levels of comfort     + Clever mounting plate     + Front Quick Adjustment – Minus Points     – Locking “O Ring” can slip     – Easy to fit back to front   Price (at time of review) £56.00 ($70.00 USD) Suppliers website www.carryspeed.com

The Carry Speed FS-Pro 2 is really a strap of two parts. First there’s the very cleverly designed F1 foldable mounting plate and the strap itself and I’ll tell you right now, they’re both brilliant.

The Strap
The first thing I noticed about the FS-Pro was it’s huge shoulder pad and to be honest I wasn’t keen on it initially. If, like me, you normally like your camera gear to be discreet then I’d suggest looking at the Carry Speed FS-Slim as a more subtle alternative.

But this strap isn’t trying to hide away, this strap is designed to make light work of carrying heavy cameras and to that end it’s amazing. In fact I’d go so far as to say it’s possibly the most comfortable camera strap I’ve ever used.

The comfort factor comes from the shoulder pad being made from a combination of stretchy neoprene and rubber. The strap can be adjusted in length to suit your size, although if you’re particularly tall or wide you might want to contact Carry Speed to check the exact length.

On the front of the strap is a couple of D-Rings for attaching links like the included uni-strap which helps spread the load of long lenses by attaching the strap to both the lens and camera body’s tripod mounts.

One of my favourite features is the front quick adjustment. Here’s how it works… when I’m not shooting with the camera and I want to keep it close to my body, all I have to do is give a sharp pull on a D-Ring and the strap instantly tightens up. Clever stuff!

The mounting plate
I’ve used sling straps for years and much as I love them, things like not being able to put the camera down flat are an annoyance. But having to remove the strap before I can use a tripod is probably top of my gripe list.

With the F1 mounting plate, Carry Speed have side stepped both those problems because it folds down flat AND it has six tripod holes meaning you can attach pretty much any quick release plate and still use the strap. The design may not be pretty but they work really well.

It’s not all good news though. The mounting plate is attached to the strap by a ball and socket which is huge! I also had concerns about the thread on the ball joint unscrewing. Carry Speed have added a rubber O-Ring which is supposed to prevent accidental unscrewing but it doesn’t. Fortunately in all of my testing I didn’t have any issues but I did keep a weather eye on the ball joint… just in case.

One really important thing to note is that the mounting plate MUST be fitted the correct way round and as there’s no clues on the plate as to which way is the correct way, it’s easy to get it wrong (just like I did the first time). When the plate is fitted back to front the whole system is worse then useless as the folding ball joint will poke you in the face. Ouch!

Conclusion
There’s so much to like about the Carry Speed FS-PRO 2. It’s super comfortable in use, very well made and supports the camera well. I do have some reservations about the design of the ball joint but that’s not enough to stop this strap becoming my “go to” sling strap for use with heavy gear.