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RawDigger

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2021-03-12 RawDigger and FastRawViewer Support Sony A1 Lossless-Compessed RAW

2021-01-15 Black Dots in White Spots 'Pimples': is Leica 'Cooking' the Raw Data with Acutance-Enhancing Imaging Pipeline? (CONFIRMED by a reader, also REPLICATED with Leica M10-R)

2020-06-24 25% Off Software by LibRaw: RawDigger, FastRawViewer, Monochrome2DNG

2019-10-31 Sometimes, Grossly Misleading Errors in Sony RGB Histogram

2019-09-16 Sony A7R IV 'Cooks' Its RAW Files, Just Like Its Predecessors

2019-04-13 Panasonic S1R: True ISO 50, not a Faux ISO — Kudos to Panasonic (UPDATED: “true ISO” is not a thing for RAW)

2019-04-11 Notes on the Panasonic S1R RAW RW2 File Format

2019-01-15 25% Off Coupon Code for Software by LibRaw: RawDigger, FastRawViewer, Monochrome2DNG

2018-07-25 Hasselblad PR: “Real World” Comparison: Nikon D850 with Decrepit Nikon 17-35mm f/2.8 Zoom Compared Without Format Equivalence or Validation of Basics

2018-02-09 Dual Pixel Raw Support for Canon 5D Mark IV from LibRaw (RawDigger, FastRawViewer)

Monochrome and Color Sensor Capture

Considerations for image capture..

1. Monochrome Sensor Capture: Optimal Exposure

Examples and How They Were Made

Examples of how images were made...

1. Making of “View Over Alabama Hills to Wind Driven Snow on Whitney Range” (Sony A7R IV)
2. Making of “Solo Hiker near Summit of Eureka Dunes” (Leica M10 Monochrom)

Leica SL

24-Megapixel vs mirrorless..

1. Leica SL: Pattern Noise and Hot Pixels at ISO 100

Leica 24-90mm f/2.8-4 Vario-Elmarit-SL ASPH OIS

All-arounder zoom with dubious optical compromises..

1. Aperture Series @ 24mm: Pescadero Creek, Upstream View (Leica SL)

Nikon D850 Image Quality

Oustanding image quality, but with some limitations..

1. Image Quality with Long Exposures
2. Image Quality with Underexposed Long Exposures
3. Shootout: Nikon D850 vs Nikon D810, Early Night
4. ISO Series: Creek to Pines to Mountain Peaks
5. Noise and Dynamic Range Shootout at ISO 64, ISO Lo: D850 vs D810 (Sprinter Van)
6. Dynamic Range: Lower Morgan Lake, Backlit Tree
7. Noise: 30 Seconds, 3-stop Underexposure (Rock Creek, Late Dusk)
8. Noise: 15 Seconds, Near-Optimal Exposure (Rock Creek, Late Dusk)

Nikon D810

Improvements on the workhorse D800E..

1. D810 vs D800E: ISO 3200 Noise + White Balance + Sharpness (Decorated Bike)
2. Nikon D810 + Zeiss Otus 55/1.4 APO vs Pentax 645Z (Pine Creek Sunflowers)

Nikon D800 Monochrome Conversion by MaxMax.com

D800 with the RGB Bayer matrix removed for a true monochrome sensor..

1. Raw Conversion: Demosaicing and Checkerboarding

Nikon D800E vs Canon EOS 5D Mark III

Comparing the 2012/2013 high-res pro DSLRs..

1. Canon 5DM3 vs Nikon D800E: Noise (Dolls / Pellegrino)

Nikon D5

High speed big brick shooter..

1. ISO Series from ISO 50 to 102400 (Dolls)

Canon EOS 5DS / 5DS R

50 megapixel successor to the 22 megapixel Canon 5D Mark III..

1. What 50 Megapixels of Sharpness Looks Like (Dolls)

Pentax K-1

36-megapixel full-frame DSLR with SuperRes Pixel Shift Mode..

1. Super Resolution Mode File Format
2. ISO Series 100 to 205K, Jagged Bristlecone Stump
3. SuperRes Pixel Shift: Two Field Shots at Sunset (White Mountains)
4. SuperRes Pixel Shift Mode vs Std Res: Veiling Blue Haze (ACR bug)
5. SuperRes Pixel Shift Mode vs Std Res: Color Inaccuracy, ACR Bug (Macbeth Color Checker)
6. SuperRes Pixel Shift Mode vs Std Res: Color Inaccuracy, ACR Bug (Dolls)

Faux HDR and High Dynamic Range

Tips for processing high dynamic range images. .

1. Moderating and Enhancing Contrast with Adobe Camera Raw
2. Faux HDR: Converting High Dynamic Range Images with Adobe Camera Raw (Nikon D810)

Frame Averaging

Maximizing dynamic range and image quality by minimizing noise via multiple exposures..

1. Frame Averaging Case Study: Patriarch Grove Sunrise
2. Frame Averaging Case Study: Granite Dome After Sunset

Expose To The Right (ETTR)

Maximizing image quality, dynamic range, minimizing digital noise. .

1. Bits, Signal and Noise
2. RawDigger for Raw Data Analysis
3. Camera Histograms: Color Space, Contrast, White Balance
4. ETTR: Camera vs True Raw Data (Nikon D800E, Dolls)

Medium Format Magazine

Articles written for MediumFormat.com..

1. Maximize Image Quality with Shot Discipline, Overview with Key Tips
2. Maximize Image Quality with Shot Discipline, Part 4: Optimal Exposure (February 2019)

Phase One XF and XT Full-Frame Medium Format

Phase One XF System, Phase One IQ4, Schneider Kreuznach Lenses.

1. Phase One IQ4 Image Quality: Extreme Dynamic Range in the Field (Lundy Lake)
2. Phase One IQ4 Image Quality: Color Bleed (Alabama Hills Sunrise)
3. PhaseOne IQ4: File Corruption

Fujifilm GFX100S

100 megapixels in a body the size of a 35mm DSLR!.

1. Fujifilm GFX100S: Dynamic Range, Backlit Tigger with Push and Shadow Boost

Fujifilm GFX100 Focus Stacking and FOCUS BKT

100 megapixels in a portable package!.

1. Fujifilm GFX100: Focus Stacking for Selfies, or People

Fujifilm GFX100 Image Quality

Aspects of image quality..

1. Fujifilm GFX100: Total Image Quality Under Duress (On Dana Crest at Sunset)

Fujifilm GFX 50S/R Image Processing

Tips on getting the best results..

1. ISO 100 Pushed and ISO 12800 in Low Light (Riparian Tree by Creek)

Fujifilm GFX 50S Image Quality

Image quality assessments..

1. ISO Series from ISO 100 to 12800 (Dolls)
2. Real World Dynamic Range: Lundy Canyon Boulders and High Clouds
3. Real World Dynamic Range: Grant Lake
4. Real World Dynamic Range: Kitchen
5. SHOOTOUT: Fujifilm GFX 50s vs 35mm (late 2017 view)
6. SHOOTOUT: Fujifilm GFX vs Nikon D850 vs Sony A7R III: Sunrise, Lundy Canyon Waterfall

Hasselblad H6D-100C

How does the very best perform in the field?.

1. Dynamic Range: Moonrise Over Lundy Canyon

Hasselblad HC Macro 120mm f/4 II

High performance all-arounder macro lens.

1. Examples: Lundy Canyon

Hasselblad X1D Imaging Quality

Performance both in the field and controlled conditions..

1. ISO Series from ISO 100 to ISO 25600 (Dolls)
2. Shootout vs Nikon D810 (Flowers)
3. Shootout vs Nikon D810: 4-stop Underexposure + Push (Flowers)

Optimal Images from Hasselblad X1D

Tips on Getting the Best Results..

1. ISO 3200 Highlight Destruction in ACR vs Hasselblad Phocus and Iridient Developer (Dolls)
2. Increase Image Quality by Optimal Exposure (ETTR, Dolls)

Hasselblad XCD 45mm f/3.5

37mm equivalent..

1. Aperture Series and Dynamic Range: Oak Tree Greenery

Pentax 645Z Overall

50-Megapixel Medium Format DSLR with Live View.

1. Interpreting the 645Z Histogram

Rolleiflex Hy6 Mod 2 Medium Format System

Lens performance at 80 megapixels..

1. Aperture Series: Creek Meanders Through Boulders (Schneider 50/2.8 Super Angulon PQS)

ZF.2/ZE 21mm f/2.8 Distagon

Brilliant imaging, even wide open, but with a few quirks. (Review in progress) .

1. Examples: Lundy Canyon, Early Winter
2. Examples: Lundy Canyon, Brilliance at the Big Beaver Pond
3. Studying f/2.8, f/5.6, f/9: Blue Dusk Settles On Lundy Beaver Pond

Otus 85mm f/1.4 APO-Planar Rendering Style

Rendering style, bokeh and 'transparency' without peer..

1. Portraits (Nikon D810)

Canon EOS R5

Canon’s high-res mirrorless..

1. Mitigating Auto Exposure Errors for Superior Captures, Lower Noise and Higher Dynamic Range

Nikon Z7 Image Quality

Image quality..

1. Looking for Pattern Noise (Conness Drainage)

Sony A1

Technological tour de force..

1. Examples: Image Quality
2. Sony A1 ISO Series vs Sony A7R IV: Fruit Platter
3. Sony A1 Image Quality: Push vs Higher ISO (ISO Invariance)

Sony Alpha A7R III

Attention to details: a solid upgrade over the A7R II..

1. Noise in Broad Daylight: the Sony 'Orange Peel' Noise Challenge

Sony Alpha A7R II

Attention to details: a big upgrade over the A7R..

1. Dynamic Range Assessment at ISO 50 (Garage)
2. Long Exposure Noise Reduction On/Off at ISO 50/100/200 (Garage)
3. Long Exposure Noise Reduction On/Off at ISO 100, with Push, Chroma Noise Reduction (Egg-Shaped Boulder)
4. Examples: Detailed Look at Long Exposures (Hoover Wilderness)
5. Posterization in Broad Daylight (Portrait at Dana Lake)
6. Examples: Dana Lake, Dana Glacier Part 1, 'Approach' (Zeiss Batis)

Sony Alpha A7R

Full frame compact mirrorless with interchangeable lenses..

1. Sony A7R Pixel Quality: Orange Peel Noise (Yellow Blue Bike)
2. Sony A7R: ISO Series (Real World, Creek)

Sony Alpha A9

Blackout-free 20 fps speed demon..

1. Two Examples of Pattern/Banding Noise at ISO 100 (Pine Creek Skyline, Mt Tom)

Sony Alpha A7S II

High performance full frame 12-megapixel sensor..

1. ISO 100 to 410000: Campfire

Sony FE 35mm f/2.8 ZA Sonnar

Compact moderate wide angle for Sony mirrorless..

1. Aperture Series: Agapanthus Berries (Sony A7R)

Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM

Premiere mid-range zoom for Sony full frame mirrorless.

1. Aperture Series @24mm: Purissima Creekbed
2. Aperture Series @24mm: Light Searches for the Forest Floor

Ricoh GR

Razor sharp 28mm lens on APS-C sensor and outstanding usability and features..

1. Dynamic Range and Circular Ring Artifacts #2

Sony Cybershot RX1R II

Diminutive full-frame camera with 35mm f/2 fixed lens..

1. Noise from ISO 100 - ISO 102K (Pescadero Creek, Downstream)

Sony Cybershot DSC-RX1 / RX1R

Full frame camera in an ultra-compact body with or without anti-aliasing filter..

1. Aperture Series: Sunset Bristlecone (RX1R)
2. Aperture Series: Plastic Tubing, Wire Mesh, Sheet Metal (RX1R)
3. ETTR (RX1, Dolls)
4. Extreme Dynamic Range: Rainstorm Sunset at ISO 400 (RX1R)

Sony DSC-RX10 III

Stunningly high image quality in a 20MP point and wide range zoom..

1. Sony RX10 III Gradation and Bit Depth

Panasonic Leica DG Nocticron 42.5mm f/1.2 ASPH

Fast, bright and highly corrected medium telephoto..

1. Flare Control (EM1)

Olympus OM-D E-M1

A worthy upddate to the E-M5 with pro-grade build quality..

1. Olympus E-M1 Real-World Noise
2. Choice of Color Space for Raw Conversion
3. Olympus E-M1 Performance Under Extreme Lighting

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II

Updated model with HighRes sensor shift mode..

1. HighRes Sensor Shift Mode vs Standard Resolution, NOISE (Mining Artifacts)

Fujifilm X-Pro2

Fujifilm's 24MP APS-C offering..

1. Image Quality: Grid Artifacts
2. Night Shooting, Long Exposure, Night High-ISO Examples

Sony Alpha A6000

Value camera: 24 megapixel APS-C sensor with EVF and vibration-free shutter..

1. Noise at ISO 100 (Pellegrino)

Zeiss Loxia 25mm f/2.4 Distagon

Outstanding wide angle, superb performer..

1. Examples: White Mountains Bristlecones (Sony A7R IV)

Leica X Vario

Leica’s 28-70mm APS-C compact camera..

1. Aperture Series: Pine Creek Mine and Waterfall, Dusk (28mm)
2. Aperture Series: Dynamic Range Outdoors (46mm)

Sigma sd Quattro H

Mirrorless Sigma Quattro larger APS-H sensor with interchangeable lenses..

1. File Size: DNG vs X3F

Sigma dp2 Quattro

45mm f/2.8 equivalent FOV lens..

1. dp2 Quattro vs DP2 Merrill (Dolls)
2. dp2 Quattro vs DP2 Merrill (Fruit Arrangement)

Sigma DP3 Merrill

75mm f/2.8 equivalent lens on APS-C sensor..

1. Aperture Series DP3 Merrill (Creek Enters Beaver Pond)

Leica M11

Leica M 60 Megapixels..

1. Leica M11 ISO from 64 to 50000, Full Resolution
2. Examples: Alpine Creek, High ISO (M11)

Leica M10-R

Leica M 40 Megapixels..

1. Leica M10-R White Balance and Tint in Adobe Camera Raw, SpyderCHECKR Card

Leica M10 Monochrom

Leica M 40 megapixel monochrome sensor..

1. Noise, ISO 160 to 100000 (Persimmon Tree)

Leica M10

Leica M mount in slim body with SL-type sensor..

1. M10 vs M240 ISO Series from 100 to 6400: Dolls

Zeiss ZM 35mm f/1.4 Distagon

Fast and ultra high performance moderate wide angle rangefinder lens..

1. Examples: Alpine Creek, High ISO (M11)

Blog posts, reverse chronological

2021

2021-03-12 RawDigger and FastRawViewer Support Sony A1 Lossless-Compessed RAW

2021-01-15 Black Dots in White Spots 'Pimples': is Leica 'Cooking' the Raw Data with Acutance-Enhancing Imaging Pipeline? (CONFIRMED by a reader, also REPLICATED with Leica M10-R)

2020

2020-06-24 25% Off Software by LibRaw: RawDigger, FastRawViewer, Monochrome2DNG

2019

2019-10-31 Sometimes, Grossly Misleading Errors in Sony RGB Histogram

2019-09-16 Sony A7R IV 'Cooks' Its RAW Files, Just Like Its Predecessors

2019-04-13 Panasonic S1R: True ISO 50, not a Faux ISO — Kudos to Panasonic (UPDATED: “true ISO” is not a thing for RAW)

2019-04-11 Notes on the Panasonic S1R RAW RW2 File Format

2019-01-15 25% Off Coupon Code for Software by LibRaw: RawDigger, FastRawViewer, Monochrome2DNG

2018

2018-07-25 Hasselblad PR: “Real World” Comparison: Nikon D850 with Decrepit Nikon 17-35mm f/2.8 Zoom Compared Without Format Equivalence or Validation of Basics

2018-02-09 Dual Pixel Raw Support for Canon 5D Mark IV from LibRaw (RawDigger, FastRawViewer)

2018-01-23 LibRaw (RawDigger/FastRawViewer) Releases Beta of “SonyPixelShift2DNG”: Makes DNG file from 4 Pixel Shift Files FAST for Direct Use in ACR/Lightroom

2018-01-22 The Tool I’ve Been Waiting for to Process Sony Pixel Shift Files: FastRawViewer/RawDigger Developers Release Beta of 'SonyPixelShift2DNG'

2017

2017-12-23 RawDigger and FastRawViewer Support Sony A7R III 'ARQ' Pixel Shift Files, 25% Off Both Programs

2017-12-22 Sony A7R III: Compressed Raw Gapping

2017-09-03 Nikon D850: RawDigger Support Available

2017-02-09 Reader Comment: ETTR (Expose to the Right)

2017-02-04 Sigma sd Quattro-H: DNG Files Shrink by More than 50% After Adobe DNG Converter

2016

2016-12-17 RawDigger and FastRawViewer 25% Off

2016-09-09 Potential Uses for Canon 5D Mark IV Dual Pixels as per Alex Tutubalin of LibRaw

2016-09-08 RawDigger and FastRawViewer 25% Off (plus Canon 5D Mark IV dual pixel findings)

2016-05-05 Sony RX10 III: About 10 to 12 bit Gradation, Perhaps 11-Bit Range: 10-Bit in General

2016-04-21 FastRawViewer and RawDigger Discount

2016-02-19 Pentax K1 Super Resolution File Format Details

2015

2015-12-05 RawDigger and FastRawViewer 25% Off

2015-10-19 Sony A7R II: Uncompressed Raw

2015-08-26 Sony A7R II: RawDigger Special Display Modes Show How the File is Encoded

2015-08-19 Sony A7R II: Posterization with a Near Optimal Exposure in Daylight (Portrait at Dana Lake)

2015-08-17 Sony A7R II: Long Exposure Examples at ISO 100, Including Raw Conversion and RawDigger Exposure Info

2015-06-13 Reader Inquiry: Banding, Posterization, Color Shifts (and the right workflow)

2015-05-16 FastRawViewer and RawDigger Discount

2014

2014-12-05 RawDigger now has a Workflow Complement: Fast Raw Viewer + Discount on RawDigger for Readers

2014-05-27 Sony A6000: Sensor Quality at ISO 100

2014-03-06 Sony 11+7-bit Delta Compression Posterization Update: RawDigger

2014-02-14 Sony’s 11+7-bit LOSSY File Compression: 32-pixel Line Artifacts Clearly Visible on Star Trails

2014-02-12 Sony’s 11+7-bit Delta Compression, Posterization in Some Situations

2013

2013-12-02 RawDigger v1.0 Now Available in Three Editions (Recommended)

2013-07-02 Ricoh GR Digital: Circular Ring Artifacts, 2nd Example

2012

2012-12-13 Auto-ETTR Would Sure Be Nice — 2 Stops Below the Blow-out Was the Camera’s Advice

2012-12-01 ETTR — Real RAW Data vs Camera Info and Final Images, With Crops

2012-11-29 ETTR (Expose to the Right) — An Essential Skill to Master for Image Quality

2012-11-27 A CALL TO ACTION: Build Intelligent ETTR Into Digital Cameras

2012-11-25 Getting the Best Results From the Olympus E-M5 — ETTR in the Field

2012-11-20 Canon 5D Mark III: ETTR Study of Optimal Exposure for RAW, RAW vs JPEG Exposure Latitude and Sharpness

2012-11-19 ETTR and Digital Image Quality

2012-11-17 Nikon D800E: ETTR Study of Optimal Exposure for RAW, Exposure Latitude, Choice of Color Space, Noise

2012-10-21 Why Don’t Digital Cameras Offer a Perfect ETTR exposure with a true raw histogram too?

2012-10-13 Sigma DP1 Merrill — Exposure Bracketing and ETTR

2012-09-08 Workflow Series: Expose To The Right (ETTR)

2012-08-01 Canon EOS 1D X: Pattern Noise at ISO 100 With Ample Exposure (Expose to the Right, ETTR)