Crave

Raw photo files from Canon's new 1D Mark IV now can be seen in Mac OS X.

(Credit: Canon USA)

Apple released one of its routine Mac OS X updates on Wednesday to let its computers handle raw images from a handful of new Nikon and Canon SLRs as well as from Canon's newer high-end PowerShot G11 compact camera.

The update lets Mac OS X 10.6 as well as Apple's iPhoto and Aperture software handle the raw image files taken directly from the camera's sensors without in-camera processing. Raw photo formats offer more quality and flexibility at the cost of convenience and file size.

The update supports Canon's new professional EOS-1D Mark IV and high-end EOS 7D SLRs. Among Nikons, the support ranges from the entry-level D3000, the higher-end D300S, and the professional D3S.

Windows relies on camera makers to supply software to decode the raw images. Adobe Systems and Apple write their own modules to decode the proprietary raw formats.

Updated 7:31 a.m. PST December 18 to clarify that the update expanded existing raw support.

If you enjoy photography, don't make the mistake I did.

Using my then-new SLR in 2005 and 2006, I photographed everything from my new son to otherworldly canyons we visited in Utah. The only problem: the photos were taken only in JPEG format.

JPEG is fine as far as it goes, and indeed for most folks it will suffice. But having rediscovered my enjoyment of photography in the digital era, I wish I'd used the raw image format that comes with SLRs and higher-end compact cameras.

This illustration shows the checkerboard Bayer pattern of a typical digital camera's image sensor. Each pixel captures either red, green, or blue.

(Credit: DxO Labs)

My initial regret was from the realization that raw photos, although taking up about three times the storage space as a JPEG and requiring manual processing, offer higher quality and more flexibility. But what I've come to understand since then is a second advantage of raw: because processing software improves over time, raw photos in effect can get better with age.

For that reason, I've begun recommending friends who show some enthusiasm for photography that they should think about shooting important events in raw format alongside JPEG. You don't have to mess with the raw files today, but if it's an important event like a wedding, you might want them for later.

I've included below some samples of a noisy image shot in near-darkness at ISO 25,600 from my SLR. They may not convince you that shooting raw is a miracle cure for photo quality, but they do illustrate some differences with the camera's JPEG and that the raw-processing software isn't standing still.

This view compares output from four raw-processing packages: DxO Optics Pro, Nikon's Capture NX2, Bibble 5 with the Noise Ninja noise-reduction filter, and Adobe Camera Raw that's in Photoshop. The original raw photo was taken with a Nikon D700 at ISO 25,600. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: DxO Labs)

DxO Labs announced a new version of its raw image editing software Tuesday that sports what the company says is a streamlined, more adaptable interface and an ability to extract a better ultimate image from those that begin with lots of noise.

DxO Optics Pro is designed for the sometimes laborious process of converting raw images that come from higher-end digital cameras into more easily viewed and handled formats such as JPEG. Although it takes work, using raw images can provide more flexibility and quality than using JPEGs straight from the camera--and with the new DxO Optics Pro, lower noise at high ISO settings, the company said.

Specifically, the noise reduction technology in DxO Optics Pro version 6 can reduce noise well enough to effectively give a photographer one more usable F-stop out of a camera than the previous version did, said Cyrille de La Chesnais, director of sales and marketing for photography at the Paris-based company. That means a photographer could shoot at a faster shutter speed or in dimmer conditions.

That can be useful especially with modern SLRs; Canon's 5D Mark II and Nikon's D700 can both shoot at an extreme ISO of 25,600, and Canon's new 1D Mark IV and Nikon's new D3S can shoot at a whopping ISO 102,400. The images are extremely noisy in those cases, but noise reduction can help extract a more useful image. However, raw processing software can be slow even on machines with abundant processing power.

By underexposing an image in the camera and then increasing its exposure in the software, DxO Optics Pro can give a photographer a more sensitive camera. This image from a Canon G10 is effectively shot at ISO 3,200 even though the camera's maximum ISO is 1,600.

(Credit: DxO Labs)

Getting a one F-stop improvement means a photographer could use ISO 25,600 instead of holding the line at 12,800. Alternatively, for a camera such as Canon's G10 high-end compact that tops out at ISO 1,600, photographers can effectively shoot at ISO 3,200 by underexposing the image by a full stop then brightening it later in software.

Adobe Systems released the first Lightroom 3.0 beta only last week, but already people are adapting the software for their own ends. In Sean McCormack's case, time-lapse video.

Time-lapse photography, for those unfamiliar with it, compresses a sequence of still images into a movie that appears to speed up the passage of time. It's how nature documentaries get those clouds scudding over the mountains and the sun racing across the sky.

Most of us use just a small fraction of what our software can do, but McCormack is one of those people at the other end of the spectrum who figures out how to push software well beyond the built-in feature set. In Lightroom's case he took advantage of its ability to export a sequence of shots as a video, a feature designed to let photographers create easily shared slideshows.

The Lightroom 3 beta will look familiar to current users, but there are changes under the hood. In addition, Lightroom catalogs can be synchronized with Flickr.

(Credit: Adobe Systems)

With the release of its first beta version of Photoshop Lightroom 3.0 on Wednesday night, Adobe Systems is trying to improve the heart of the photographic editing and cataloging software.

"With Lightroom 3, we're looking at a performance and image quality rearchitecture," said Product Manager Tom Hogarty. Those two goals are in opposition, since better image quality demands more computing horsepower. But Hogarty said the software is more responsive when moving among photos, and images look better with new noise reduction and sharpening abilities.

There are other changes, too, though: a revamped import process for importing photos into the software catalog; built-in connections to upload photos to online services and keep them in sync; a more flexible mechanism for laying out photos to be printed; new abilities for stamping watermarks onto photos; and the ability to export photos and music as a video file.

Panasonic's GF1

(Credit: Panasonic)

Adobe Systems on Monday released Lightroom 2.5 and the Camera Raw 5.5 Photoshop plug-in, software updates that add support for two high-profile Nikon SLRs, Olympus' ambitious but expensive E-P1 compact camera, and in a minor surprise, the Panasonic's GF1 competitor to the E-P1.

As expected from the beta test, the new version adds support for the Nikon's high-end D300s and entry-level D3000. Also on the list is Panasonic's ultrazoom, the DMC-FZ35.

The downloads are available at Adobe's Web site.

Dealing with the raw formats from higher-end cameras gives photographers more flexibility and quality than JPEG, but it's a hassle for companies such as Adobe and Apple that must figure out the proprietary formats. Adobe doesn't yet support yet newer cameras such as Canon's higher-end 7D.

The updates also fix a problem that could afflict some cameras in the "demosaicing" step of converting raw images into more useful formats. "Camera Raw 5.5 also includes a correction to the demosaic algorithms in the raw conversion process for Bayer sensor cameras with unequal green response," Adobe said in a statement.

In an earlier statement about the green issue, Adobe said it was relatively minor: "Sony, Panasonic, and Olympus are among the more popular camera manufacturers affected by this change. But the demosaic correction provides only a subtle visual improvement to the processing of those raw files."

A blog post by Lightroom Product Manager Tom Hogarty said the Lightroom update fixes an issue with the image-import dialog box on Windows. He also pointed out this sorry consequence of the complexities of global branding with the Panasonic FZ35:

"Note that in Europe and Japan this model is marketed as the DMC-FZ38. Unfortunately, due to a metadata difference between these cameras, files from the DMC-FZ38 will not be supported until the next Camera Raw and Lightroom updates," Hogarty said.

The new Nikon D300s is getting some raw-image support from Adobe.

(Credit: Nikon USA)

Adobe Systems has released a test version of its Camera Raw 5.5 plug-in so Photoshop can handle raw images from the Olympus E-P1 high-end compact camera, Nikon's new D3000 entry-level SLR, mid-range D300s SLR, and Panasonic's DMC-FZ35 ultrazoom.

Raw images are made of data taken directly from cameras' image sensors without in-camera processing, and they offer more flexibility and higher quality to those willing to put up with the hassle of converting them to JPEG or other more universal formats with software such as Adobe's Photoshop and Lightroom, Apple's Aperture and iPhoto, or Google's Picasa. But first, that software must be updated to support each new camera, since raw formats are proprietary and differ for each model.

Adobe released the new Camera Raw plug-in release candidate at its Adobe Labs site. Although there's no corresponding version of Lightroom, software engineered specifically for handling raw images, Adobe also issued a release candidate for its DNG converter 5.5 that can transform raw files from the Olympus, Nikon, and Panasonic cameras into Adobe's more digestible Digital Negative format.

The new software also corrects a problem experienced with "demosaic algorithms in the raw conversion process for Bayer sensor cameras with unequal green response," the company said. Demosaicing is a central step in raw conversion. In it each pixel records only data for only a single color of red, green, or blue, is interpreted so each pixel has values for all three colors. The checkerboard pattern of colors is called the Bayer pattern.

Update 10:30 a.m. PDT August 20:: I asked Adobe about what cameras are affected by the green issue in the demosaic algorithm, and Tom Hogarty, Adobe's Lightroom product manager, had this response:

"Sony, Panasonic, and Olympus are among the more popular camera manufacturers affected by this change. But the demosaic correction provides only a subtle visual improvement to the processing of those raw files."

Some might be disconcerted to find that older raw images might look different when they're opened again with software that uses an updated algorithm. For those folks, I recommend exporting a JPEG or TIF to bake in your editing settings for raw images.

For the rest of us, this illustrates one of the advantages of shooting raw: new algorithms can make photos you took earlier look better than when you first took them.

Adobe also made a related change with the addition of profiles to its raw processing software; these can make photos more closely resemble results from camera settings such as portrait, landscape, or neutral, and I use them by default these days. Improvements to noise reduction algorithms is another area that springs to mind where new algorithms could take advantage of faster PC hardware to produce better photos.

Having the camera make these processing decisions when it creates a JPEG is convenient and fine for the vast majority of people, but for photo enthusiasts, raw shooting benefits from steadily improving software and hardware.

Canon's Rebel T1i

(Credit: CNET)

Apple released a software update Thursday to let its Aperture 2, iPhoto '08, and iPhoto '09 photo-editing software handle raw images from three newer SLRs, Canon's Rebel T1i, Nikon's D5000, and Olympus' E-30.

Higher-end cameras offer raw image formats that provide more flexibility and quality than JPEG, but the raw file formats are proprietary, vary from one camera model to another, and require companies such as Apple and Adobe Systems to release a constant stream of updates. Microsoft relies on camera manufacturers to supply software for Windows that can interpret the raw data, which is taken directly from camera image sensors without in-camera processing.

Camera makers typically supply their own software for handling raw images, but many people prefer their own photo software.

Further detail on Apple's support is available on Apple's raw camera support page.

Medium-format digital cameras, which have larger sensors and higher price tags than even high-end SLRs, didn't fare so well in earlier tests of sensor quality by measurement firm DxO Labs, but Phase One's newly tested top-end technology has risen to the top of the DxOMark Sensor test.

Phase One now rules the DxOMark Sensor roost.

(Credit: DxO Labs)

Phase One's 60-megapixel P65+ camera scored 89.1 on the test, edging out the Nikon D3X, which scored 88, according to data released Thursday. In addition, the 51.7-megapixel Hasselblad H3DII 50, an older model than Phase One's, scored 78.2. Click here to compare the two models and Nikon's D3X.

The DxOMark sensor test measures a camera sensor's dynamic range, color depth, and low-light performance. DxO Labs cautions that differences of less than 5 points aren't really distinguishable, and of course many other factors including price, lens quality, autofocus, and resolution factor into overall camera quality.

The P65+ features the best color performance yet, but DxO Labs said its comparatively good performance in low-light conditions helped it carry the day.