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First Picture with DLux4
- Thread starter jonoslack
- Start date
kweide
New member
I am in the position to compare two damn small digicams, the Ricoh GRD and the Leica D-Lux 4.
My very first impression was, that the DL4 produces fine crisp images. But yesterday evening and today in the morning i found out some annoying things.
Shot JPGS with ISO400, NR set to -2, -1, 0, +1, +2
at F2, 2.5 and 16:9 mode with the DL4 and ISO400 F2.4 with GRD
The JGPs compared with the GRD JPGs are full of noise reduction artifacts. Even reducing NR in STD Film mode to -2 shows massive smearing in fine details structures where the GRD file were absolutly fine !! That means NR reduction is active although -2 is dialed in. I would wish: NR OFF
When shooting in RAW the DL4 shows a differnet quality. Suddenly the JPG artifacts are not shown and fine details are visible again without massive smearing but smearing did NOT disappear..!.
The conclusion is easy: the build in JPG engine is, hmm lets say it politly, suboptimal... Here is massive room for improvement.
Shoot RAW only with DL4 and i assume LX3 as well ... JPG engine is worth nothing...but keep in mind: even in RAW seems to be some NR actions causing ligth smeareffects.
... under further investigations....
My very first impression was, that the DL4 produces fine crisp images. But yesterday evening and today in the morning i found out some annoying things.
Shot JPGS with ISO400, NR set to -2, -1, 0, +1, +2
at F2, 2.5 and 16:9 mode with the DL4 and ISO400 F2.4 with GRD
The JGPs compared with the GRD JPGs are full of noise reduction artifacts. Even reducing NR in STD Film mode to -2 shows massive smearing in fine details structures where the GRD file were absolutly fine !! That means NR reduction is active although -2 is dialed in. I would wish: NR OFF
When shooting in RAW the DL4 shows a differnet quality. Suddenly the JPG artifacts are not shown and fine details are visible again without massive smearing but smearing did NOT disappear..!.
The conclusion is easy: the build in JPG engine is, hmm lets say it politly, suboptimal... Here is massive room for improvement.
Shoot RAW only with DL4 and i assume LX3 as well ... JPG engine is worth nothing...but keep in mind: even in RAW seems to be some NR actions causing ligth smeareffects.
... under further investigations....
kweide
New member
To avoid any smearing in fine details: ( Tested in STD Film mode )
Contrast -2
Saturation -2
NR -2
Sharpnes what ever you like
Effect: You will get unsaturated, flat looking pics mit very nice looking grain.
With any NR Software easy removable without smearings....
Saturations and contrast : bump it up to whatever you like AFTER NR removal
The clue is indeed the in cam NR. It is much to aggressiv...
Have fun, i have....
Contrast -2
Saturation -2
NR -2
Sharpnes what ever you like
Effect: You will get unsaturated, flat looking pics mit very nice looking grain.
With any NR Software easy removable without smearings....
Saturations and contrast : bump it up to whatever you like AFTER NR removal
The clue is indeed the in cam NR. It is much to aggressiv...
Have fun, i have....
jonoslack
Active member
Hi ThereTo avoid any smearing in fine details: ( Tested in STD Film mode )
Contrast -2
Saturation -2
NR -2
Sharpnes what ever you like
Effect: You will get unsaturated, flat looking pics mit very nice looking grain.
With any NR Software easy removable without smearings....
Saturations and contrast : bump it up to whatever you like AFTER NR removal
The clue is indeed the in cam NR. It is much to aggressiv...
Have fun, i have....
Is this when shooting jpg? or when shooting RAW. If it's when shooting RAW, which converter are you using?
kweide
New member
Hi Jono
I discovered this "smeareffect" firsttime while shooting JPGs with high ISO ( 400+800 ) It is in the luminance channel in dark areas ( black mouse, black cover of my ThinkPad )
It is indeed the NR setting. DO NOT leave it in "0" position when you want high quality pics. Even in RAW you will get strange artifacts which can be removed with NR software. Look at the luminance! The better way is to set in cam NR to at least -1 better -2, even in RAW and let your NR Software do the rest.
You can leave it in "0" position when working with ISO 80 for 10x15cm prints
Ah, forget to say: worked it out with LR2.2 and noiseware professional
I discovered this "smeareffect" firsttime while shooting JPGs with high ISO ( 400+800 ) It is in the luminance channel in dark areas ( black mouse, black cover of my ThinkPad )
It is indeed the NR setting. DO NOT leave it in "0" position when you want high quality pics. Even in RAW you will get strange artifacts which can be removed with NR software. Look at the luminance! The better way is to set in cam NR to at least -1 better -2, even in RAW and let your NR Software do the rest.
You can leave it in "0" position when working with ISO 80 for 10x15cm prints
Ah, forget to say: worked it out with LR2.2 and noiseware professional
jonoslack
Active member
If you are using Lightroom for RAW files, does it implement the lens correction.
For instance, if you process a RAW file in Capture 1, there will be zero barrel distortion, but some other programs will show really quite bad distortion.
I rather understood that Lightroom doesn't yet include it (but I could be wrong).
I don't have lightroom, so I can't test it, but you could try taking a shot of something square at 24mm, then process it in Capture one and Lightroom and check on the distortion.
For instance, if you process a RAW file in Capture 1, there will be zero barrel distortion, but some other programs will show really quite bad distortion.
I rather understood that Lightroom doesn't yet include it (but I could be wrong).
I don't have lightroom, so I can't test it, but you could try taking a shot of something square at 24mm, then process it in Capture one and Lightroom and check on the distortion.
kweide
New member
Hi Jono
... solved.
But, it was not a problem of barrel distortion. I took pics with 24 mm and f2 of some very fine structures. On high ISO the cam internal noise grains had nearly the same size then the fine structures from the objects. Effect was that the in cam NR smeared them all together to some kind of color mud...
Lets say its a charcteristic of the cam i can live with especially i do RAW only on high ISO !
... solved.
But, it was not a problem of barrel distortion. I took pics with 24 mm and f2 of some very fine structures. On high ISO the cam internal noise grains had nearly the same size then the fine structures from the objects. Effect was that the in cam NR smeared them all together to some kind of color mud...
Lets say its a charcteristic of the cam i can live with especially i do RAW only on high ISO !
charlesphoto
New member
See my pics above, processed in LR. No barrel distortion. The complaint is actually the opposite: LR currently doesn't allow you to retain the barrel distortion, it automatically applies the correction. Why some would want this otherwise I don't know but they do.
K
kelvin
Guest
Nice colors, Klaus.
kweide
New member
Robert Campbell
Well-known member
Ceci n'est pas une plume!
kweide
New member
:thumbs:
