Tag: conversion

Sigma launch mount switching service

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SIGMA is going to start a new “Mount Conversion Service” which will enable Sigma to convert the mount of customers’ Sigma Art, Sports and Contemporary lenses from one camera fitting to another.

120-300mm-f2.8

The ranges convertible include the new Sports models such as the 120-300mm f/2.8

“We believe that a lens is not only such a key device for photographic expression, but also an important resource for photographers”, they say. “It has been our hope to develop the lens system that is genuinely photographer-centered, and you can enjoy it for a longer period of time. As an experienced lens manufacturer that has been creating a diverse range of interchangeable lenses, our desire and know-how is crystalized in this unique service. With this service, the mount of your SIGMA lenses can be converted to another mount system, depending on the specification of camera bodies. This service will be available from September, 2013.”

Editor’s comment – this feature of the new Sigma lens designs was not even mentioned at photokina 2012. They have kept something under wraps which must have been planned from a very early date. The main lens unit of all Sigmas in these series has to be effectively independent of the mount, with electronic protocol conversion chips to handle aperture and focus operation while different rear assemblies change the bayonet.

“Interchangeable lens camera systems appear to be superior in offering photographers more options, allowing them to change lenses freely and have more flexible photographic expression”, states the Sigma release. “Nevertheless, each interchangeable lens is limited with the specification of different camera systems. In other words, you can’t use those lenses if you change it from one type to another. Although lenses are the key devices to create photographic expression, it is a shame that there is no system that purely sets the standard based on the functions and individual qualities of interchangeable lenses.

“In this circumstance, SIGMA is going to start the “Mount Conversion Service” from 2nd September 2013. Our goal is to provide more freedom for photographers so that they can select new camera bodies without worrying about the conventional limitation around the mount system of cameras, and keep on using their current lenses by adjusting them to fit with a new mechanism.”

For the details, please check the Sigma website http://www.sigma-global.com/en/lenses/cas/service/mcs/index.html * This “Mount Conversion Service” is different from a normal repair. In order to apply for the service, please contact your nearest authorized subsidiary / distributor of SIGMA.

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Lenses - Alpha Mount, Lenses - SR/MC/MD, News

ACR 7.2 and Lightroom 4.2 RC – RX100 compatible

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The good news is that you can now download, free, the Release Candidate versions (expire October 31st) of Adobe’s Lightroom 4.2 and Camera Raw 7.2, as well as DNG Converter 7.2, which will give you raw conversions for the Sony Cyber-shot DSC RX-100.

The bad news is that no camera lens profile is included, and until someone creates one, the distortions and CA of the RX-100 lens are not corrected by these programs. Also, we can confirm that no further highlight recovery is possible, beyond that already enabled in Sony Image Data Converter. This has not always been the case with ACR/LR. They have often enabled clipped highlights to be recovered with useful detail from KM and Sony raw files. The RX-100 raw files are right on the edge of overexposure and you just can’t pull burned out highlights back in.

But against this, the high ISO performance of the RX-100 is superior to, for example, the NEX-5n. That’s surprising and worrying, as the 5n is better than the NEX-7. ISO 3200 images from the RX-100, processed through ACR 7.2RC, are about as good as any APS-C camera currently manages and not far off what can be expected from a full framer.

Shot at f/1.8 on the RX-100, 1/30th, ISO 3200 – about as dark as it gets for hand held shots.

100% ACR 7.2 clip with NO noise reduction at all and no sharpening

On the Canon 5D MkIII, 1/3oth at f/2.8 using the 40mm pancake lens – twice as much light as the pub scene above, gold Olympic letterbox in Edinburgh seen by night time street lighting

Sure, at 100% under the same process conditions it is better – but once you apply NR to the Sony image, the difference is levelled considerably. And this is the world’s best full framer for low light, right now, over 20 megapixels.

Here is your download link for Adobe Lightroom ACR 4.2 RC:

http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/lightroom4-2.html

And here is your link for ACR and DNG Converter:

http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/cameraraw7-2.html

The results at speeds from ISO 80 to 400 are a match for any DSLR, with the exception of the issue of dynamic range above highlight clipping. There is no significant margin for highlight recovery. This is a marked contrast to the early KM Sony sensor such as the 8 megapixel used in the Dimage A2, which had almost two stops of clipping-free highlight recovery using the metered exposure in high contrast situations.

– DK

 

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Uncategorized

Using Adobe Bridge/ACR for ‘film looks’ controlled by your Alpha

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It’s now easy enough to find camera profiles – image looks created by independent photographers, as Adobe and Sony do not provide any – which make a big difference to raw processing using Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom. There are also many fine adjustments you can make within these programs, able to customise the image output so that it either looks just like an in-camera JPEG of a chosen picture style, or like nothing you can produce in-camera.

Many users wonder, sometimes, why their raw pictures viewed in Adobe Bridge look different from in-camera JPEGs. Sometimes they look identical but then after working for a while and fine-tuning your preferences, you see big differences between the two if you shoot RAW+JPEG. This is in addition to differences which can happen if you set the camera to shoot in sRGB (useful for the JPEG) but your computer to save as AdobeRGB (superior in many ways for raw conversions intended to be printed).

In ACR/Bridge, you can choose as a Preference whether to build fast thumbnails or high quality, and whether to build full screen previews or accept whatever is embedded in the file. If you do not set the preference to build high quality previews and thumbs, what you see in the thumbnails is normally an embedded JPEG which is part of the raw file and an exact match to an in-camera JPEG even if you don’t save one of these. What you see in the larger preview pane will depend on your screen size, the camera, and the type of raw but for nearly all modern DSLRs on laptops the basic quality option will show the embedded JPEG and you will even be able to zoom it without interpreting the raw data.

If, on the other hand, you set your Bridge prefs to large size and high quality previews using a large screen such as an iMac 27″, and you have ACR/PS/CS5/Elements installed, Bridge will access the ACR engine behind the scenes and will render your raw files. It creates a ‘cache’ of full screen size JPEG files (which will eventually use a lot of disk space) which exactly reflect the settings for any given camera/ISO default. You have the choice, in Preferences, between having a single Default for each camera or a different Default for every single ISO increment on each camera. If you set the ISO specific Default, the conversion used to build the preview/thumb will be exactly the settings you have saved for that ISO. See below where I repeat this all again for emphasis.

The 100% and full screen fast forward keystrokes

Bridge/ACR will render the full sized 100% view of the raw using saved default settings if you used the Loupe (a small section only) or the very useful sequence of: press space bar = show the full screen preview; mouse-click with the cursor at any point on this to zoom in to 100%; scroll round using controls/mouse; magnify 200%, 400%, or 800% using scroll-wheel or Apple Magic Mouse finger-touch; return to Bridge browsing using space bar. Be warned that even with a fast machine, Bridge builds the sharpness of your enlarged view (normally 100%) in stages.

What you first see may look a bit soft, wait two seconds and it will get sharper, another two seconds and it will be transformed to pixel-perfect rendering. Never judge a Bridge/ACR 100% or loupe view the instant you access it. Bridge/ACR is clever enough for you to be able to go to the magnified view with one shot, and using your arrow keys move to exactly the same position in your other shots at the same view. You can, by this means, compare sharpness in a set of shots. Once each has rendered for that point in the shot, the cache makes sure you can go back and forth between images faster, they do not need to render again.

But it’s Bridge Camera Raw Preferences which hides the great feature I’m telling you about here – a tip which can enable to you use the lower, manual-only set ISO values of some Alpha cameras like the new 77 to ‘load’ different ‘raw’ films just by changing the ISO setting. Or indeed, other camera makes which have similar ISO control.

Different raw conversions can be made specific to exact ISO settings, so that if you select a given setting, its unique conversion will automatically be used and its effect will be shown in the preview and thumbnail created.

This would be a disaster for Auto ISO – but the Alpha 77 has six different ISO settings between 50 and 160 which are NEVER used by Auto ISO, and can safely be used for my tip here. Also, there’s really not a great deal of difference between the noise, sharpness, and dynamic range of ISO setting with this low range. They are all very good.

ISO-specific default magic

So, I have an Alpha 77 with ISO settings 50, 64, 80, 100, 125, 160 all of which are very low noise and good quality. In Bridge/ACR, I can decide that ISO 50 will be used the Vivid camera profile, strong contrast curve, a certain degree of capture sharpening, a certain black point and so on. I can adjust all this until I think that ISO 50 looks just like Velvia film. Then I save the new default.

Taking a frame set to ISO 64, I can make a default which I think looks like Kodachrome 64 perhaps using the Landscape profile. For 80, I might decide to make a fake infra-red process default with added grain, monochrome conversion and contrast effects. For ISO 100, a default which is standard and looks like a good neutral colour slide. For 125, maybe an FP4 in acutance developer printed on G4 paper mono; for 160, a Portrait profile combined with no sharpening, to imitate Vericolor Type S or Fujicolor 160N.

The examples below do not use different ISOs, I have used one raw file to show the differences, of course!

‘Standard’ – this is the colour, contrast and profile used when Adobe Standard is set as ‘Camera Raw Default’ in Bridge on the Alpha 77. This default includes WB As Shot, Exposure as shot (0), no Recovery, no Fill, Black point 5, Brightness 50, Contrast 25, Clarity/Saturation/Vibrance all at 0, Medium tone curve.

This is the same overall conversion, using a profile called ‘Neutral’ designed to be similar to the camera’s Neutral JPEG setting.

This is a profile called ‘Vivid’, again with no other adjustments.

This is an interesting custom profile called ‘Positive Film’ which clearly has some major adjustments.

This is ‘Standard’ (not the Adobe Standard) but with multiple adjustments saved in the Default – Brightness to 75, Clarity to 25, Saturation and Vibrance both to 20, Strong contrast curve. This Default is a custom one which I prefer for many shots where good saturation and midtone brightness is needed. In fact, many Alpha 77 users advise changing the ACR default Brightness from 50 to 75 permanently as the 50 figure used by Adobe appears to make the images flat and dark.

This custom high contrast ‘red filtered’ mono conversion includes strong lens vignetting added (by moving correction sliders to zero) and a greyscale rendering controlled using the Hue/Saturation/Luminance control tab for colour balance. Blue, Aqua and Purple values have been lowered and Red and Orange values raised to imitate a camera filter on panchromatic film.

If you have not found and installed any third-party profiles, you can instead make detailed adjustments including contrast and saturation for much the same effects.

I am fully aware of the ‘well I can do all this in Photoshop‘ response, the point is that all these and other far more complex processes (including any of the raw conversion Presets found in popular styling packages by Marcus Bell, onOne and others) can be effectively assigned to one chosen ISO setting in the ‘protected from Auto’ range 50-160 on the Alpha 77.

Now, when I open my folder of raw of images in Bridge set to create High Quality thumbs and large previews, they can all get exactly my customised process treatment for the thumbnails depending on the ISO I have set. One image might appear with the b/w process above and the next with colour. I will be able to preselect a different Bridge preview and a different startpoint ACR process just by selecting a different ISO on the camera. I can leave ACR’s default settings in place from 200 and up, so I will never get Auto ISO producing strange differences from one frame to the next due to Bridge/ACR presets. Yes, I did once set some different conversions for specific ISOs in the Auto range and it really messed up by image selection – I found I had increased brightness for 320 but not for 400 (etc) so my exposures seemed to go all over the place when Auto ISO chanced to pick small changes from one shot to the next.

You can apply more NR and sharpening control to ISO 200 to 12800 as needed – and again, this will automatically be applied according to the ISO, to the preview and thumb as well as the opened raw for conversion. But it won’t look odd as the exposure, colour and contrast will remain constant.

Pros and cons

If you want to revert to a standard single process for all ISO settings, you’ll lose the customisation of Bridge/ACR but you can save each setting as a Camera Raw Default process (named) and restore the settings at any time. Or, you can just reserve one careful combo for a single ISO setting such as 80 and only set this when the specific result is wanted, leaving every other setting at factory default.

It only applies to one camera body at a time, you would need to set up the same defaults for every different similar body you use – and not all Alpha bodies offer the useful 1/3rd step ISO increments and low ISO range which make the idea practical. But, this is also an advantage, because if you process files from another camera of the same exact model it will be unaffected unless you set it up. Camera Raw Defaults can be set as specific to each serial numbered body, and each different ISO, so there is never any need for someone else’s raw files to be accidentally altered by your own personal setup.

Profiles

I use a set of Alpha profiles I have assembled from as many sources as possible, but mainly from Maurizio Piraccini’s development for every KM/Sony Alpha camera:

http://www.piraccini.net/2011/02/profili-colore-sony-a900-per-adobe-lr.html

These are also linked to via a Photoclubalpha Forum thread:

http://www.photoclubalpha.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&p=66090#p66090

To read a Forum thread about ‘Deep’ profiles (which is mainly about noise levels, not about the image looks themselves, but includes instructions on how to install all similar profiles) go to:

http://www.photoclubalpha.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=5786&p=60905

These threads contain links to profiles provided or sourced by Agorabasta as a forum contributor including some for most makes.

If you have any sources for other sets of created profiles, for any Alpha models, please add a Comment at the end of this post, and provide the link (crediting the source or the author if you have that information).

You read it here first – and you’ll never forget how this can be used. Lightroom offers the same functions and preferences. Other programs may follow suit. Now you can use your manual ISO settings for raw files just the same way you can apply picture styles to in-camera JPEGs, and get the results in ACR/Lightroom – no need to be restricted to Sony Image Data Converter to read tags.

– David Kilpatrick

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Cameras (DSLR), DK's ramblings, Photo Techniques

Image Data Converter v4 – download now

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Sony’s Image Data Converter latest version – 4.0 – will handle all Alpha raw files from A100 to A77, and all NEX raw files. It offers improvements in performance and stability, but it also eliminates the need for the Lightbox application (found in v3) as a separate item. You simply browse for a folder of images, and IDC now shows a regular thumbnail browser with image information not unlike Adobe Bridge.

Double-clicking the thumb opens the image as expected in the raw editor. This has all the features of v3 are a bit more, but at least on a latest MacBook Pro with 2GB memory it seemed to crash and quit (normally after processing the file) rather too often.

One new feature, found when you save the file and not in the main processing controls, is a crop with Inclination Control and a grid:

Testing Alpha 77 raw files on the new software, the Bayer conversion seemed to be incredibly noisy and the noise reduction left fine detail heavily smeared much the same as for in-camera JPEGs, but the colour styles, DRO settings and some other aspects read from camera EXIF data are retained. It can not be recommended as a main choice for raw conversion, and certainly not for high ISO images, but it’s available and is a fairly small application to install on laptops or less powerful machines.

Download links:

Mac OSX .dmg installer

PC/Windows .exe installer

– DK

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Cameras (DSLR), News, NEX System, Software Reviews, Uncategorized

DxO plug-in offers Alpha-NEX HDR/multishot simulation

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DxO Labs today announced that a DxO HDR plug-in for DxO Optics Pro 6.5 will be released in November. The new DxO HDR plug-in will enable photographers to merge several RAW shots effortlessly to either capture a greater dynamic range in the scene or to reduce noise beyond the camera’s sensor capability.
DxO was already known to be working with Sony, and offers in-camera firmware programs. This Plug-In closely mimics the multishot HDR, Twilight or High ISO noise reducing modes of the NEX-3, NEX-5, Alpha 33 and Alpha 55. It may be related and perhaps we will see it one day as part of Sony’s raw conversion software suite.
High quality HDR to capture a greater dynamic range from multiple RAW shots
Even with high-end digital cameras, the sensor dynamic range limits make the capture of extremely contrasted scenes difficult for photographers who wish to keep both highlight details and opened shadows in their pictures. With the new DxO HDR plug-in for DxO Optics Pro, photographers can overcome this limitation by merging bracketed RAW images into a single image file capable of handling a wider dynamic range than a regular RAW image. Specially designed multi-shot HDR Presets will let photographers render this new image effortlessly with a broad range of intents from the most natural looking image to extreme creative styles.
DxO Optics Pro’s best of breed RAW conversion and optics correction, ensures optimal image quality. “The DxO HDR plug-in also provides automatic image alignment, needed to compensate for camera motion when shooting hand-held, and ghost removal, needed to account for moving objects within the scene.” said Cyrille de La Chesnais, Director Sales & Marketing for DxO Labs’ Photography business. “Photographers can even decide which instance of the moving object they want to keep in the final image.”
Noise reduction beyond sensor capability, from multiple RAW shots: in situations such as handheld telephoto or low light where low shutter speed is not an option, taking a burst of RAW images at the same exposure and merging them together with the DxO HDR plug-in proves to be an extremely powerful way to reduce noise beyond the sensor’s intrinsic capability.
“DxO Optics Pro’s best of breed noise removal applied on a merged photo, whose noise has already been significantly reduced by the virtue of merging photos, produces an image of outstanding quality,” said La Chesnais.
Availability and pricing
DxO HDR plug-in for DxO Optics Pro 6.5 for Windows and Mac is scheduled for release late November 2010 from DxO Labs’ e-store. Final pricing is not available.
System Requirements
2 GB RAM minimum
400 MB available disk space
To process RAW images larger than 20 MPixels, a 64-bit operating system with 4 GB RAM is strongly recommended
Windows :
Intel Pentium 4 processor or AMD equivalent (Pentium Dual Core or higher or equivalent recommended)
Microsoft Windows XP 32 or 64 bits, Windows Vista 32 or 64 bits, Windows 7 32 or 64 bits
Macintosh:
Intel-Mac
Mac OS X.5 or X.6

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News, Software Reviews

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

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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

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Cameras (DSLR), NEX System, Software Reviews

ACR 6.2 2010 Process – huge improvement

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Before the launch of the NEX models, the last camera we reviewed here was the Alpha 550. The final review pages dealt with the high ISO performance.
Following the release of Adobe Camera Raw 6.1 and 6.2, the new ’2010 Process’ has replaced the ’2003 Process’ in conversions (you can select either option). The 2010 Process used with manual adjustment of the Noise Reduction controls can produce really exceptional ISO 6400 results.
This changes any previous conclusions about the usefulness of Alpha 550 high ISO settings, and indeed brings them into line with the results we have seen from NEX – which of course defaults to the 2010 process, and can not be processed using earlier Adobe Camera Raw versions.
Here is the old process, top, seen at a reduced scale of a 100% view at ISO 6400:

Click the Process 2003 image above to open the original 100% size screen shot.
Below is the new 2010 process, which is more than just a minor tweak – it’s an entirely different way of getting the data out of the raw file.

Click this image to see the Adobe Process 2010 result full size. All the settings were identical for these two conversions. The improvement is on such a level that ANY test reports on the Alpha 550 produced in 2009 using CS4 and Adobe Camera Raw 5.x are invalid.
The NR can be moderated to produce more detail on the 2010 process midtones at the expense of more visible grain (but it’s nothing like the 2003 pattern – it remains mainly a fine luminance pattern). I have used a setting which produced a clear comparison. Entirely different NR settings are actually better, with the two processes, but no matter how you adjust the ‘2003’ version it never looks anything like as fine as the 2010 one.
Should dPreview and others update their RAW sample images because the old process was so badly matched to the .ARW format? Nothing like the same difference is made for example to Nikon raw files, 2010 is better, but 2003 didn’t mess up the higher ISOs in the way it always did for Minolta/Sony raws.
Please note that if you don’t want to get CS5, you can still get the benefit of this new conversion with Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.
– David Kilpatrick

6
Cameras (DSLR), DK's ramblings, Software Reviews

ACR 6.2 and LR 3.2 RC released – for NEX

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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).

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Cameras (DSLR), News, NEX System, Software Reviews
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