Camera Labs

Hi folks,

I came across a comparison of six RAW converters this morning which I thought might be of interest. The camera used was a Canon 5D MkII and obviously Canon's DPP software is Canon specific but the results might form a reasonable starting point for researching the suitability of the converters for other manufacturer's cameras.

The RAW converters compared were

• Adobe Camera Raw 5.2
• Canon's Digital Photo Professional 3.5
• Capture One Pro 4.6
• DxO Optics Pro 5.3
• Raw Therapee 2.4
• PerfectRaw 0.65.

If any or all of those are of interest then head on over to the Nature Windows Raw Converter Comparison.

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

That's great, Bob!! Great help for us all! Thank you for your time doing that!
For my eyes, DPP has the best results. The images seem sharper to me.
I'll keep using it!

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Canon 40D and lots of lenses.
my Flickr

Hi Alex,

For me DPP also wins out, not because it's a better RAW converter but because it has corrections for my lens collection already built in.

But, laying aside my Canon bias, the free Raw Therapee software looks very interesting. Probably the biggest caveat about this test is that, for reasons stated by the reviewer, it doesn't explore the effectiveness or otherwise of high ISO noise reduction.

Bob.

_________________
OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

A very limited test bed. I can think of several excellent and well-known raw development applications missing from this test so it's pretty irrelevant I think. There isn't that much raw software about so it wouldn't be too difficult or unmanageable to test and compare them all, now that would be interesting. This one is only half done.

Hi pip22,

"Irrelevant " sounds a little harsh. So which RAW converters are you thinking of?

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

I'm not surprised that Rawtherapee did so well. It's excellent for recovering details, as the expense of introducing image noise and jaggies.

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PhilipGoh.com

All those currently available which have been omitted, including 'Bibble', SilkyPix, Olympus Studio (brand specific, I know, but so is DPP). Bibble & SilkyPix are both regular topics on the raw-capture forums so they deserve inclusion.

.
Fair enough. Do you know of a review which includes those programs as well as the one in the test I linked to?

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Sadly, no. Which is even more reason why this one is disappointing because a more comprehensive and inclusive review is well overdue. The fact that I don't know of such a review does not negate my previous comments.

Hi pip22,

Thanks for your comments. You knew where I was leading so we'll just have to part company in this thread in the best CameraLabs tradition respecting each other's different perspectives.

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Hi.
First of all, thanks for the tip Bob.
For all of those eager to work and spread knowledge about... eh stuff, there´s been an update on the mentioned site.
You may now download the raw file and squeeze it through the raw converter of your personal desire and get them added to the comparison.
Follow Bob´s link. After the comparison you could read more about it.

Jan

Hi Jan,

May I offer you a warm welcome to the CameraLabs forum.

And thanks for the tip. Being able to download the original RAW file used in the comparison will be particularly valuable for those whose converter didn't feature in the original article. I see that "Raw Converter Comparison Part 2, Dynamic Range, Tonal Values and Noise is coming soon" so we'll be able to see the other side of the equation as well.

Bob.

_________________
OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Thank you Bob, I´m pleased to be here.

On my way to download Raw Therapee, I found another comparison on their site:
http://www.rawtherapee.com/RAW_Compare/

The converters they have used are:

* Raw Photo Decoder "dcraw" v8.81 (Revision: 1.397)
* RawTherapee v2.3
* Adobe Camera Raw v4.3.1
* Bibble v4.9.9b
* Capture One v4
* DxO v5.0.3
* LightZone v3.2
* SilkyPix v3.0.15.3

Ops, I´m not sure but, some of them may be a bit dated?


Jan

I wouldn't trust that comparison posted by Rawtherapee. Looking at the ACR images, I've never seen ACR produce such artefacts.

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PhilipGoh.com

That comparison was made by one of the RawTherapee forum members and it's pretty old now, more than a year, I think.