NEX, A33, A55 support – new ACR 6.2/LR3.2 final

The final release of Adobe Camera Raw 6.2, DNG Converter 6.2 and Lightroom 3.2 includes raw conversion support for the Alpha 33 and 55 models as well as the NEX-5 and NEX-3, Alpha 290 and 390 which were included in the Release Candidate versions. These August 30th releases are final version, RC versions are a form of beta test.
The bad news is that anyone using the LR3.2 RC as a temporary free solution for getting full profile correction without investing in Photoshop CS5 will lose their freebie. But Lightroom is eminently affordable, and it can function as a raw conversion front-end for any earlier Photoshop or Elements version. On its own, it is a mere 10MB of program data fatter than Adobe Camera Raw as a plug-in and runs with great efficiency on modestly specified laptops (etc). It’s a lean, keenly priced solution which offers many further benefits as a DAM (Digital Asset Management) library such as keywording, copyright control, metadata editing, version stacking and multiple catalogues.
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/new.jsp
I am informed that support is included for the 16mm lens on NEX (profile) but I can’t tell whether it is the profile I supplied to Adobe Labs, or a new one, because my profile has remained unchanged on my system – same names, same modification date. And there’s no NEX-3 version which might be expected if they had created new profiles. So it looks as if it could be worth sending profiles into Adobe after creating them.
It’s fantastic news that Adobe has released ACR for the new Alpha 55 16 megapixel sensor before the cameras even hits the street – mine is on order, waiting! Not so great for Nikon users; no D3100 raw conversion in this release. But Canon users get the 60D (despite Adobe missing it out from their front page list). Adobe did this Sony friendly pre-release once before, for the Alpha 100, getting the conversion into place before the camera went on sale.
The bad news is that the Alpha 580 and 560 models are not in the list alongside the fixed mirror pellucid, transflective (anything but Translucent, please…) cameras.
The instruction manual for the Alpha 33 and 55:
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-documents.pl?mdl=SLT-A33&region_id=1
is already on-line and shows a March 2010 publication date, which means that Sony has had these new cameras in existence since the beginning of the year, certainly well before PMA when mockups were shown. It’s likely that Adobe’s Thomas Knoll has been using one from the first bug-free pre-production model onwards!
Now all we need is the revised lens series with SAM or SSM motors fitted into the 16-80mm CZ, 16-105mm Sony, 18-200mm and 18-250mm Sony; the 11-18mm wideangle replacement, the 75-300mm SAL replacement, and a few other goodies. Hopefully all Zeiss glass gets SSM where possible. That 16-80mm CZ is four years old now as a design. A tweak to the maximum aperture, or the zoom range, would revive interest.
– David Kilpatrick

Adobe Lens Profile for 16mm f/2.8 NEX

I have made a simple (f/2.8 and f/8 chart set) Adobe Lens Profile for the 16mm f/2.8 NEX E-series pancake lens. It seems to work well for closer distances, because that’s how it had to be made; CA is reasonably well corrected, vignetting is eliminated, and distortion of closer lines – maybe if you are looking through a door frame, etc – is very accurate. The profile was created using NEX-5 and 16mm.
You can get this profile here:
http://www.photoclubalpha.com/Sony NEX-5 (Sony E 16mm F2.8) – RAW.lcp
Right click to download/save the target file, and install this in:
Library>Application Support>Adobe>Camera Raw>Lens Profiles>Sony

Uncorrected 16mm shot

Using Adobe Camera Raw 6.2 RC with the profile active at default settings
JPEG profile added (17/08/10)
I have now added a JPEG profile from the same set of images as the raw – this is lucky, I didn’t think people would need a JPEG profile but happened to have the camera set to RAW+JPEG when the test shots were made, and this has been requested for those using HDR or other JPEG-only modes.
http://www.photoclubalpha.com/NEX-5 16mm JPEG.lcp

Above: HDR three-shot with 16mm, straight JPEG

HDR shot opened in Camera Raw without adjustments, but with the Profile enabled
Using the profiles
A full Adobe Profile is undertaken at several focus distances, apertures and zoom settings (or for prime lenses, just at a range of distances and apertures). The largest chart I can print is A2+ using the Epson 3800, and with a 24mm equivalent lens, this means having the camera surprisingly close to the target. The profile is therefore only 100% correct for subjects at 115cm from the camera, which corresponds to the 4X minimum focus distance suggested by Adobe.
I have found from using the 16mm that its optimum aperture for central sharpness is probably f/5.6, and that chromatic aberration and vignetting do not improve at stops smaller than f/8. There is a slight improvement in detail sharpness in the extreme corners at f/11 and f/16, but this is due to extra depth of field helping to cover a curved focus field. I therefore made test sets at f/2.8 and f/8 for this profile.
The geometric distortion is most visible with closer subjects such as the subject above (The Slave Girl, a bronze c. 1870 by John Bell, at Cragside House in Northumberland). This is a hand-held exposure of 1/4 at f/8, and is perfectly sharp despite the lack of stabilisation; every word of the interpretation can be read at 100%. I have found most shots are perfectly sharp with the 16mm given reasonable care, as you would take with a Leica, to breathe correctly and make a shake-free exposure. This is not the case with SLRs where the mirror action nearly always causes shake.
For more distant subjects, the 100% default setting of the ACR/LR Lens Correction panel can be reduced and where there are few straight lens removed entirely to secure the maximum field of view. Similarly, the vignetting correction can be reduced or removed entirely as the natural darkening towards the corners with this lens is attractive.
Although this profile is named to match perfectly the naming convention used by Adobe for the 18-55mm, I find that ACR 6.2 can not be relied on to use it for Auto as a default (if you work with more than one lens, Adobe Lens Correction soon proves unpredictable in this anyway). If you select Auto, then select Sony, the lens profile will be selected but the Auto button changes to Custom. If you then save new Lens Correction Defaults, or Camera Raw Defaults, ACR will attempt to force this profile on the 18-55mm and the reverse will also happen. So it’s necessary to check which profile is selected. Using ‘Previous Conversion’ for shots taken on the same lens is a quick way to get there.
The additional Manual Controls can be used on top of the profile (the second tab of the interface). The most useful are the geometric distortion (camera angle) corrections. The Chromatic Aberration/Colour Fringe controls can be fine tuned as the correction for CA while very effective relates only to the tested focus distance. CA may change with focus but my particular lens doesn’t seem to suffer from this. All that is necessary is to enable Defringe All edges as a default, and this will remove any hint of colour remaining. As a tip, setting Colour Noise Reduction to a high value can help remove CA and purple fringes in many shots processed through ACR/LR. The colour NR detects 1-2 pixel fringes just the same way it detects individual pixels, and neutralises much as it does noise.
– David Kilpatrick


ACR 6.2 and LR 3.2 RC released – for NEX

Adobe has announced the Lightroom 3.2 and Camera Raw 6.2 Release Candidates, available for immediate download on Adobe Labs. The updates extend raw file support to 12 new popular camera models including the Sony NEX-3 and NEX-5, Alpha 290 and 390; improve on several of the lens correction profiles introduced as part of the Lightroom 3 and Camera Raw 6.1 releases; and add over 50 new lens profiles to help photographers automatically correct for undesirable distortion and aberration effects.
But they let Sony down in a big way by only including the 18-55mm OSS lens for NEX, omitting the 16mm which must be very simple to profile (after all folks, there are only TWO officially available lenses for NEX right now – you found time to profile no fewer than 15 lenses for the Pentax AF645, for the benefit of all two dozen worldwide users of this outstandingly popular digital option…)
For ACR 3.2 Release Candidate download – http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Camera_Raw_6.2
For LR 3.2 Release Candidate download – http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Lightroom_3.2
In addition, the Lightroom 3.2 Release Candidate now allows Lightroom 3 customers the ability to publish their photos directly to Facebook from within the application, and addresses issues reported by customers on the Lightroom 3.0 release. Adobe continues to encourage the community to provide feedback on the updates so it can ensure the highest quality experience for customers working on a variety of hardware and software configurations.
Pricing and Availability
The Lightroom 3.2 Release Candidate is available as a free download for Lightroom 3 customers, and the Photoshop Camera Raw 6.2 Release Candidate is available as a free download for Photoshop CS5 customers. For more information and to test out the updates visit http://labs.adobe.com. Feedback can be provided on the Adobe User to User forum at http://forums.adobe.com.
*Please visit the Lightroom Journal for more information on these Release Candidates and a full list of the improved and newly added lens profiles: http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal
Newly Supported Camera Models
Panasonic DMC-FZ100, Panasonic DMC-FZ40 (FZ45), Panasonic DMC-LX5, Pentax 645D, Samsung NX10, Samsung TL500 (EX1), Sony A290, Sony A390, Sony Alpha NEX-3, Sony Alpha NEX-5
Also, this update improves the colour and noise profiles for the following cameras that utilise the DNG raw file format already supported in previous versions of Lightroom and Camera Raw: Casio EXILIM EX-FH100 (DNG) and Leica S2 (DNG).