Camera Labs

In case you're curious what Windows 8 is looking like at the moment, the consumer preview is now available for download: link.

Downloading it now, the 64 bit version is 3.3GB which could take a while on my connection. Gives me time to switch out the hard disk of my laptop which I'll use to test it on.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Got it and had a bit of a play.

The start screen replacing the start menu didn't annoy me as much as I thought it would. With a little getting used to I don't think it is a major deal.

The bigger problem overall is it feels very much like it is trying to do two things, and not well at each. You get the Win7 like underlying features, although many bits have been given a polish it's fundamentally the same.

The new tablet like mode... doesn't feel right with a mouse. Maybe I haven't got used to it yet, or worked out how to best use it with a mouse. The sample apps, which are clearly marked as samples, work ok and look ok, but a bit of a waste of space on a 1080p screen. I wonder if in future there's a place for touchscreens on desktop? Not replacing a keyboard an mouse, but supplementing it. Actually, maybe just replacing the mouse. But as anyone who's used a tablet before, an on screen keyboard no substitute to a physical one if you want to use it more than a little. Even using a touchscreen monitor to replace a mouse input would raise a lot of new ergonomic questions that needs good answers.

That might be getting a bit ahead of ourselves, and might be something for Windows 9.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Reeled it in, will install it tomorrow, I think

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

The old PCW Editor in me is crying out "download it, test it, test it!", but the Cameralabs Editor is saying, get on with your camera reviews and server upgrade! I think the latter will win-out at the moment, so I'm looking forward to hearing what you guys think of it...

Hi folks,

Would anyone be kind enough to tell me if one can configure the W8 Preview so that the Metro interface can be dumped in favour of a 100% seamless classic Windows Desktop? I can't imagine ever running W8 on a tablet or similar so Metro is of no interest to me.

@Gordon Will you be tempted to test out the preview on the new machine before you retire your old machine?

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

@popo

Yes, I don't find it to be as cohesive as I would like but this is sort of a 1st gen product now and I would expect the first release to be less than perfect. I think it will be a while before MS can get the unified desktop/tablet OS thing done perfectly and until then it's just going to be quite awkward.

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Graham
Flickr

Bob, I don't know, but you can't be the only one thinking that. Tried giving in to the dark side?

Graham, this is a preview, so I guess there's still plenty of scope for the final version to change.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Yes, plenty can change between now and the final release but I was referring to the consolidation of a desktop and tablet OS in general as being flawed for now. I think it will take several revisions before MS can get it perfect, I hope they make good on their promise of speeding up OS releases.

The Verge has posted a preview of W8 running on a tablet. Wasn't very revealing but what was shown was quite impressive. Very slick, makes the iPad look a bit old actually.

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Graham
Flickr

Hmmm, Bob, it would be tempting to try it out briefly on the new hardware, but equally I just want to get up and running...

Im sticking with Wndows 7 until Windows 9 is out

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http://www.AnderssonPhoto.com
Cameras: Leica M8, Nikon FE-2, Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, 5D Mark II, 40D
Lenses: Voigtländer Nokton Classic 35mm 1.4, Ultra Wide Heliar 12mm 5.6 ASPH II, Nikkor AI-S 28mm 2.8, Canon 24-70 2.8L, 85mm 1.2L II, 300mm 2.8L IS, TS-E 45mm 2.8, Sigma 105mm 2.8 Macro
Canon 1.4x/2X TC II, Canon 580EX II X2, Gitzo + Manfrotto.
Wishlist: Leica Monochrom, Summilux 50 ASPH, Voigtlander 35mm 1.2 ASPH II

I had to restore Win7 on my laptop as I actually need to use it! But to offset that, I'm installing it on two others. I dug out my old laptop, and trying an upgrade install from XP. I'll let you know how that goes on if it ever finishes!

The other box is my overclocked X6, used for pure processing power. Install off DVD (same one I used on my main laptop) worked very quickly. Just messing around with it now. It feels faster than my laptop did, but that might be mostly due to the spare hard disks I used.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Just reporting in the laptop update failed. It is now stuck in a loop of non-bootingness. I've downloaded the 32-bit ISO so tonight will nuke the disk and see if that works better.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

ISO install didn't work either. Error 0x0000260 which after a quick google seems to be caused if the CPU doesn't support both PAE and NX. I guess this laptop is just a little too old...

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Read the full article for the context. Any thoughts on this from our brave beta testers?

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Every version of Windows has introduced new functionality that hasn't been obvious. I'm still finding the odd hand shortcut now. Example: for Windows 3.x users, you may remember double-clicking the top-left of a window closes it. It still works in Win7 even if the graphical element is no longer there.

The question then is, how easy are the essential parts of the Windows 8 interface to find? Would something like a 5 minute 1st time use intro suffice? After that, it doesn't really matter.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.