New Epson P-6000 and P-7000 - no M8 RAW!!!!

[bradhusick]

Epson (finally) just announced updated storage/viewers and according to the manual:

"for DNG files, the viewer supports only the embedded JPEG preview embedded in the file."

To be complete, for all RAW files, they display only the embedded JPEG.

Stupid Epson.

 

[Stuart Richardson]

This is really annoying. I have shot with 6 digital cameras in my life, and 4 of them use DNG, one of them didn't even have RAW.

So how big is the embedded JPG? Is it large enough to get a decent view, or is just a thumbnail?

 

[bradhusick]

it's not useful for judging focus or exposure. arrgghhh.

 

[Stuart Richardson]

Ugh, that is annoying. I suppose with the M8 at least, you could shoot RAW+Jpeg and just check the JPGs. It would slow down your shooting, but at least you could still use it for storage of the DNG's and focus/exposure checking with the JPEGS.

I think they are really missing the boat here if they don't support medium format back makers. If this thing could read raw files from medium format backs, it would be a real advantage. The displays of the medium format backs are so bad that they could really benefit from this sort of device (not to mention the large amount of storage).

 

[glenerrolrd]

I must have misunderstood this issue. I thought that all the viewers that will read a raw image/DNG were reading the embedded jpeg. But ..the Epson would not read the Leica specific DNG s ....so to use them you have to shoot raw +Jpeg. Are you saying that the Epson will still not read the Leica DNG s and use the embedded jpeg?

 

[Terry]

I must have misunderstood this issue. I thought that all the viewers that will read a raw image/DNG were reading the embedded jpeg. But ..the Epson would not read the Leica specific DNG s ....so to use them you have to shoot raw +Jpeg. Are you saying that the Epson will still not read the Leica DNG s and use the embedded jpeg?

Last I heard there was still no support for M8 files for viewing purposes. For backup the Epson's are fine. If they have again left out this functionality it is annoying. I bought the Hyperdrive Colorspace. A lot of people really like it. I really don't like the user interface at all. Hmmm I think a visit/post to the buy sell section is in order!

 

[4season]

The top of the line Jobos will open an M8 DNG, but what with the limited computing horsepower, it takes 50+ seconds per, so I just end up shooting JPEG Basic + DNG. I wonder if Epson skipped DNG compatibility for the same reason.

But are most of these photo storage devices are destined to go the way of the dodo bird? Epson wants $800 for a 160 gigabyte photo storage device, and that's more than the price of some of the new sub notebook computers.

 

[bradhusick]

The way I read it, the Epson will read the tiny embedded JPEG preview in the RAW file, so you don't have to shoot RAW+JEPG. It's still next-to-useless for anything but composition checking.

I have heard that the best one out there right now is the Hyperdrive Colorspace 0 (Zero) which supports M8 DNG files: http://www.hyperdrive.com/HyperDrive-COLORSPACE-O-s/42.htm

-Brad

 

[harmsr]

I like my Hyperdrive Colorspace 0. It works great with the Leica M8 or more recently sold Nikon D3. However, I have to agree with Terry that the user interface is HORRIBLE. It transfers/backsup very fast and displays quickly, but the symbol button that you use for navigation are terrible.

Now if only it would support either my Phase or Hassy files, since it doesn't. I can back up, but not preview. Unfortunately, I don't believe the Epson unit does either. If someone knows differently, please inform us.

Best,

Ray

 

[glenerrolrd]

I might be misquoting from another thread..but I thought the whole issue was about reading the raw file and extracting the embedded jpeg. isn t the hyperdrive displaying the embedded jpeg.....reads raw but displays the embedded jpeg. And isn t this a slow process ? The Epsons will not even read the Raw file..so its Raw +jpeg which I thought slowed down your capture rate in the M8? It seems that the "value proposition" is pretty narrow.

 

[Stuart Richardson]

I think there are two different things here Roger -- each DNG has a very small embedded JPG...basically a thumbnail. RAW + Jpeg gives a big JPEG, which can be read normally. The ideal is when the converter can read the raw file itself -- then you can see things like the histogram, focus point and so on from the photo itself. I think the problem with the Epson is that while now it can show the small preview from DNG files, it still cannot show more extensive information, so if you want to use the big, nice display to check focus, exposure and so on, you still can't do that unless you shoot RAW plus JPEG.

For me, it does not look like the Hyperdrive has a large enough display to make it worth it for me. If I bought one of these, it would only be for viewing of files from the Emotion 54LV, which has a horrible (shockingly, miserably astoundingly bad) screen. It is far worse than the Canon S30 that I had in 2001. The D3's screen is already plenty good enough that I would not really worry about using it. The M8's screen is ok, but not bad enough to shell out the bucks for a device like this.

For me, the backup functions are nice, but a secondary concern.

 

[glenerrolrd]

Stuart Thanks for the input. For the type of traveling I do .Can not imagine going without my MacBook. How else can I check the Getdpi forum? LOL Roger

 

[TimWright]

I have owned a couple of the Epson units and now own a hyperdrive. They all only show the embeded jpeg according to their technical support people. I moved to the hyperdrive as it is much faster and I found that none of them are good for deciding whether an image was a keeper or not. The menuing system on the hyperdrive is a bit quirky but easy enough to get used to.

 

[robsteve]

Roger:

On some of the other cameras, such as the Canons, the embedded Jpeg is quite large. On the Leicas the embedded jpeg is only about the resolution of the preview screen on the camera. In other words, the Leica will show 100% of the jpeg preview, and then needs to process the RAW to get the zoomed in images. The Canon shrink the embedded jpeg to fit the screen and when you zoom in, it is zooming into the embedded jpeg.

Robert

 

[woodyspedden]

I'll stick with my MacBook Pro and the hardened LaCie 120 Gb drive. Not only do I have plenty of space and no limitations as to processing the files, I also have the originals plus backup.(I can also keep the original cards and have two backups!). For me this is the way to go.

Woody