Fovea Centralis
Tech Stuff by Porter
Porter’s Guide for Root and CyanogenMod on the Motorola Droid
Jun 24th
So, you have a Motorola Droid and you've been hearing about all sorts of interesting things that you can do with it, things that aren't necessarily "approved" by our friendly overlords at Verizon. Maybe you're thinking about installing that CyanogenMod thing you keep hearing so much about, but you don't know exactly where to look for guidance and you keep finding a bunch of junk info online that isn't particularly helpful. I hope this guide will help.
Most of the "guides" for rooting the Droid involve manually downgrading from 2.1 to the older 2.0.1 (including radio baseband downgrade), then rooting from within 2.0.1, then flashing a newer system and radio baseband to get back up to 2.1. This is silly, in my opinion. A much better method is to directly flash a rooted "stock" 2.1 image onto the phone with no baseband changes, and then install the alternative 2.1-based build of your choice in a smoothly automated fashion from within the rooted-stock 2.1. So, let's do that.
I have made a few useful notes on the Android system architecture and on CyanogenMod, which I've included at the end. If you're a person that thrives on in-depth "big picture" information, skip to the end and read those bits, then come back and proceed.
The Very Short Story of what we'll accomplish:
- Overwrite stock system with modified stock system using RSD Lite.
- Install modified su for full superuser (root) permissions using SPRecovery.
- Install Clockwork Recovery using RomManager.
- Install CyanogenMod in an automated fashion using RomManager and Clockwork Recovery.
- … steal underpants?
- Profit!
Without further ado… here is Porter's Guide for Root and CyanogenMod on the Motorola Droid.
Sigma is still impressing me!
Jun 24th
I have a Sigma SD14 (Foveon sensor DSLR) that I like very much, for all its limitations. Some of you may remember that I had a lot of frustration with the system early on, because of some significant problems with the required workflow to convert the huge/complex X3F raw format into something that can be properly used by standard image editing tools. Well, Sigma has been refining and improving their conversion software constantly, with big improvements in each generation, and with the release of Sigma Photo Pro 4.0 I think they've finally matured it into something truly fantastic. It's what I consider "digital developing", to a level that's well beyond what is normally seen in the Canon and Nikon tools, or even in Adobe Camera Raw.
The new version is (finally) able to fully harness the wide dynamic range and huge color space of the Foveon X3F output and allow some really compelling photographic results from the sensor. It is also now capable of directly outputting full-gamut ProPhotoRGB colorspace images in several formats including 16-bit TIFF, which is fantastic if the next step is a ProPhoto native tool like Lightroom or PS CS4+. Take a look at an example of the kind of conversion control this thing can do, in this case using a very overexposed shot in hazy conditions…
Update on SD14 saturation issue
Jul 14th
Email to Sigma America
Dear Mr. @@@@,
Thanks for taking the time to speak with me today. As we discussed, I have made a few small discoveries since our original discussions several months ago, that may shed some light on the red channel overexposure that I have experienced in certain situations using my SD14. Rather than a capture problem in the camera, I have discovered that the issue may be related to the color-space conversion performed by the Sigma Photo Pro software during X3F import.
I have attached two versions of an image, one that illustrates the color issue that I have experienced in scenes that push the limits of the color space (gamut) used in the current Sigma Photo Pro 2.5 software. The difference between these images is obviously intended to represent a worst case scenario, so please don’t regard the “original” over-saturated image as the work of a talentless hack — it is purely for illustration purposes!
Click to read on –> More >
Check out the links, they’re growin’…
May 1st
I’ve added a number of good Sigma and SD14-related links over in the right-hand column. Eventually I plan to grow this into a central resource for SD14 information, and mirror it to an appropriate domain name.
Give me a shout if you find something good that’s SD14-related on the web, and I’ll add it to the list!
Thanks,
Jason Porter
Sigma SD14 Saturation Problem
Apr 30th
From: Jason Porter
Date: Thu, May 1, 2008 at 12:14 AM
Subject: SD14 Problem – Unusual Saturation
To: info@sigmaphoto.com
Cc: support@sigma-photo.co.jp
Attn: @@@@@ at Sigma America
@@@@@,
As we discussed on the phone, I am writing to document my new SD14 camera’s unusual red saturation problem and provide raw X3F samples for your review.
Before I explain, here are the details of my particular unit and configuration:
Sigma SD14
serial no. [redacted]
firmware revision 1.07
Sigma 18-50mm F/2.8 EX Macro
serial no. [redacted]
Using Sigma Photo Pro 2.5 in Windows XP, using a color-corrected display (Spyder2Express calibrated).
