LightZone Raw updates for new camera models

[Doug Pardee]

For the LightZone users: the LightZombie Project now has "beta" versions of the latest dcraw update available, along with Raw Tone Curve templates for:

• Canon G1 X
• Canon Rebel T4i/650D/Kiss X6i
• Canon 5D mk III
• Fuji X-S1
• Fuji X-Pro1*
• Nikon D3200
• Nikon D800
• Nikon D4
• Olympus OM-D E-M5
• Sony RX100
• Sony NEX-F3
• Sony SLT-A37
• Sony SLT-A57

* We're not convinced that LightZone can properly demosaic the X-Pro 1 Raw files, but it seems to.

More information available at the LightZombie Project: http://www.lightzombie.org/

 

[Ario Arioldi]

I made already an attempt a couple of weeks ago when the draw support was already available but it didn't work.
I don't know if something has changed in between.

 

[Doug Pardee]

What camera model are you using?

And what kind of computer (Windows/Mac/Linux)? We didn't have a Mac build of dcraw 9.16 until today.

Mainly the trick is to get the right files from the right place online and stored in the right place in your computer. The new dcraw files are in "beta" for the moment, so they aren't linked from the normal places. See this article for information about getting the beta version of dcraw and the Raw Tone Curves: http://lightzombie.org/node/134

If you're still having trouble, give me whatever information you can about your setup and what message(s) you're getting, and I'll try to help. Oh, also there's a lightzone.log file that sometimes has clues.

 

[Ario Arioldi]

What camera model are you using?

And what kind of computer (Windows/Mac/Linux)? We didn't have a Mac build of dcraw 9.16 until today.

Mainly the trick is to get the right files from the right place online and stored in the right place in your computer. The new dcraw files are in "beta" for the moment, so they aren't linked from the normal places. See this article for information about getting the beta version of dcraw and the Raw Tone Curves: Mac version of new dcraw available | The LightZombie Project

If you're still having trouble, give me whatever information you can about your setup and what message(s) you're getting, and I'll try to help. Oh, also there's a lightzone.log file that sometimes has clues.

The raw files I was concerned with, when I tried to resume my old lightzone licence and reinstall the sw following the instructions found on lightzombie site, were the Fuji X1-Pro files.
I downloaded all the staff on June 21 and ad that time a dcraw version supporting the subject camera was already available (9.15). I have a compiled version of this relese on my mac (lion).
Everithing went fine but only the RAF files wer not recognized.
If you believe that now it works I can try again, Thanks.

 

[Ario Arioldi]

Doug,
I have reinstalled everything including the new dcraw build and the camera specific template.
Now it works perfectly, may be when I made my previous attempt the specific curve was missing or something has changed in dcraw from 9.15 t0 9.16.
Thank you again for the useful hint.

 

[Doug Pardee]

Glad to hear it's working for you now.

Let us know what you think about the X-Pro1 Raw-file demosaicing. I had expected that LightZone wouldn't be able to handle the X-Trans sensor's unique 6x6 Bayer matrix at all, and was stunned when I tried it and got what seemed like a reasonable-looking image. I haven't spent any time poring over X-Pro1 images to see if there are any quirks, so I'll be interested in feedback from the users as to whether this really works or if there are problems if one looks closely.

 

[Ario Arioldi]

Glad to hear it's working for you now.

Let us know what you think about the X-Pro1 Raw-file demosaicing. I had expected that LightZone wouldn't be able to handle the X-Trans sensor's unique 6x6 Bayer matrix at all, and was stunned when I tried it and got what seemed like a reasonable-looking image. I haven't spent any time poring over X-Pro1 images to see if there are any quirks, so I'll be interested in feedback from the users as to whether this really works or if there are problems if one looks closely.

If Lightzone uses dcraw for the raw file demosaicing, even if with same limitation it will work. The limitation consists of the sub-optimal choice of available algorithms (basically VNG only) which can handle the non standard CFA of the Fuji sensor.
As a matter of fact for what I have seen so far the quality seems to be pretty good but I need to test it on some more challenging file.
I will get back when I have a more solid opinion.

 

[Ario Arioldi]

I made some comparison on few test shots from the Fuji X1-pro between ACR, RPP and LZ and what I found is that even if LZ does not suffer of evident color smearing as ACR, the amount and quality of details are not at the same level of RPP which, for this particular camera, is in my opinion the best available option.
I had not used LZ for some time before this occasion and, leaving aside the specific issue of the X1-Pro files, I found that it is still a very interesting editor with a lot of pretty unique features; obviously it is in need of further development and continuous updating to survive and I do hope somebody can take care of it, may be on the open source area.