5D Mark II raw image quality

There's been a post by A Museman (earlier this year) on "5D Mark II raw image quality" that attempts to discuss the differences and problems with Aperture with flat / poor quality raw photo's as compared to sharper, clearer, more saturated pictures processed in Digital Photo Professional.
That thread "seems" to have faded in discussion. I am still having problems with Aperture and raw photo quality from my Canon 5D Mark II camera.
Can someone shed some light on this subject, in that has the problem been been identified, validate, resolved or does the problem still exist (as it does for me).
This problem is causing me a lot of frustration since I want to use Aperture because of its organization and potential processing capability. Although I get superior results with DPP, it does cause a lot of file storage requirements by having large raw and jpeg files for the same picture (in essence it doubles the file storage requirements).

On my end there are no issues. I get absolutely beautiful portrait renderings out of aperture and my 5d2 - the dynamic range is amazing with this combo. I can often adjust exposure 3+ stops if needed before getting into too much noise.
The best output I've ever had - completely smokes the ACR rendering of skin tones.
Aperture 2 doesn't apply the "Picture Style" preset to the raw decode like DPP does. This makes raw images look flat in comparison to the camera rendered jpeg - shoot in "faithful" mode and you will have a pretty much exact match.
So My quick recipe to match the default setting is adding a little vibrancy, definition, and contrast. FWIW I would turn off the auto lighting optimizer, and the highlight tone priority if using aperture.

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5d mark II raw images soft

Hi All-while importing 5d mark II images into LR2 I've noticed they are very soft, almost to the point you think they are out of focus. At first I though it was a camera problem, but after reviewing the forums I see I'm not alone. When using Canon's DPP the images are sharp. While I do notice the colors are off slightly, I am more concerned with the image quality and was wondering if anyone had any ideas. Thanks

Maybe I can provide you with some examples.
I have not noticed any major sharpening differences between DPP and LR 2.4 with 5D MkII images.I have uploaded two example JPEGs, one rendered and converted with DPP 3.5.2.0, the other one rendered and exported with LR 2.4 (without any export sharpening in LR):
1) Image rendered in DPP 3.5.2.0 (21MB)
Default settings
Picture Style "Standard"
Sharpening 3 (Default)
ALO switched off
2) Image rendered in LR 2.4 (18MB)
Camera Calibration "Camera Standard"
Sharpening 25/1.0/25 (Default for Camera Calibration)
No export sharpening
The underlying RAW image can also be downloaded from here (34MB).
There is a slight color shift between the images (due to different rendering parameters as discussed in several threads in this forum), but I cannot see any relevant difference in sharpness.
Beat Gossweiler
Switzerland
Message was edited by: b_gossweiler (added file sizes)

Canon 5D Mark iii RAW images coming in muted

I am shooting on a 5D Mark iii but the images are coming off the camera and into Lightroom 4 muted. I shoot in RAW and when I load them into Lightroom they initially look good but then after it looks like they process for a second they all become muted. Any suggestions? Is this a software thing? I know that images right off the camera for this equipment should be much better.

That's normal Lightroom and third party software behavior. Basically, what you see in the back of your camera LCD screen and when first imported into LR is the embeded JPG of your RAW file. It's a embeded JPG with all the effects, saturation, sharpeness, and many other settings; thus it looks "good". Then LR will give you the "real" version of of your RAW image in which a little lack of contrast, a little wash out, dull and muted. However, if you know how to use LR, you can process your RAW to look even better than the JPG.
Some photographer will disable most of the in-camera setting, lower contrast and saturation to make the JPG photo as close to the RAW as possible in oder to maximize the camera dynamic range.
Weekend Travelers Blog | Eastern Sierra Fall Color Guide

RAW Image Quality

Hi,
I was wondering if importing photos into iPhoto from my Nikon D3000 would, in any way, reduce the quality of my images over Nikons software. Also, would it change the format or keep them in RAW format?
I would keep using the official Nikon software but it is awful in my opinion and offer no real way to keep my photo's organised.
Thanks in Advance,
Dan.
Message was edited by: Daniel Groves

Almost...
Processing Raw in a 3rd Party Application
You can also process your Raw with a 3rd Party app like ACR or Photoshop. But iPhoto does not handle this gracefully and it's a bit of a kludge.
First off set your preferred app as an external editor in iPhoto:
You can set Photoshop (or any image editor) as an external editor in iPhoto. (Preferences -> General -> Edit Photo: Choose from the Drop Down Menu.) This way, when you double click a pic to edit in iPhoto it will open automatically in Photoshop or your Image Editor, and when you save it it's sent back to iPhoto automatically. This is the only way that edits made in another application will be displayed in iPhoto.
Note that iPhoto sends a copy+ of the file to Photoshop, so when you save be sure to use the Save command, not Save As... If you use Save As then you're creating a new file and iPhoto has no way of knowing about this new file. iPhoto is preserving your original anyway.
*Next: In the iPhoto Preferences -> Advanced, elect to use Raw with your External editor:*
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
Now when you go to edit the Raw it will be sent to your external editor.
Now for the kludge:
You cannot save a Raw. The work you do must be output to a new file, in a new format (jepg, tiff, whatever). However, as the External Editor is making this new file iPhoto has no knowledge of its existence. Therefore you *must save it to the desktop and then import it back to iPhoto as a new file*.
This means that you will have your Original Raw and the processed version in iPhoto but they will not be recognised as version and original. iPhoto will see them as two separate shots.
Regards
TD

5D Mark II raw files image quality

Anyone out there using Aperture to convert their 5D2 raw files? I am trying to but I am having image quality problems. This is a surprise coming from Aperture, which for Sony raw files has produced stunning quality for me in the past. It leads me to believe that perhaps Aperture's 5D2 conversion setup needs work. Here is what I am seeing that I don't see from RAW Developer or Canon's Digital Photo Pro:
• Rainbow banding in specular highlights
• Webbing of tree branches, particularly against the sky.
• Not much "pixel level" contrast.
• Rather soft over all (I have good L lenses, tripod, and technique)
• Lackluster color requiring considerable post conversion work.
• The files tend to be rather fragile with tearing occurring easily if several rounds of sharpening need to be applied.
• More noise than one would expect, even at ISO 200.
• Highlights into quarter tones have a slick, almost smeared look (no NR applied in camera or Aperture).
Also, I really need to convert to 2x the native file size but I am limited by Aperture's current maximum size. So converting to 1.5x might be causing some of what I am seeing due to rounding errors, etc.
Can anyone (with direct experience) comment?
Thanks in advance.

Hi & thanks for your comments. I interpolated 8 images up (for store posters) to 1600mm x 200dpi and still got better results from CPP V Aperture - in SRGB. "Better" is subjective in this case. I will experiment further.
Yes I understand the principal behind having a flat - hence max detail raw. My first DSLR was a Kodak D200 13 Years ago - it's raws were flat & magenta - as were many cameras Raws in between time (such as the Fuji Fine Pix s2Pro) - the same principal applied to B & W film long slow dev time produced lower contrast neg = more range to work with.
To me the flat raws are a bit of step backward? The issue is - fast - workflow.
I found the Nikon D200 & 5D Mk 1 raws through aperture required very little work (if any) to get them ready for next stage of production. I just want to get images as "ready" as the 5D Mk I from my MkII - which is not the case at the moment.
Any idea how to carry the 5DII preset over & onto the raws in Aperture? That might help speed things up?
Cheers ADR

Raw vs. DNG image quality

Operating system is XP
I have a Canon 40D with CR2 files that need to be read. I do not YET have Photoshop CS3. Still on CS2. The advice here has been to download the DNG converter that comes with the camera raw version for CS3.
I downloaded and used the CS3 DNG converter which creates files that you can open in CS2 that are supposed to have all of the information / quality of your original CR2 RAW file.
From what I can see, this is not the case. Converting the CR2 RAW files with the DNG converter appears to to discard color information and introduce artifacts. Here is one example showing the unconverted CR2 RAW image on the left (opened in Windows Live Photo Gallery) and the image after DNG conversion on the right (opened in Photoshop CS2). The color loss is obvious. The artifacts are most evident on the whiskers. I did a screenprint and saved the RAW & DNG together as a JPEG, but you can still see the difference:
http://www.k9tag.com/rawvsdng.html
Is it just me, or am I losing information with the DNG conversion? Would I lose this same information when opening 40D files with CS3 Camera RAW? Is there another utility that I should be using to open / convert my 40D files that will not lose information? I want my digital files to be all that they can be.
-Mark

> if I had CS3 and opened the file in camera raw instead of converting to a DNG, would I see these same artifacts?
Mark, pls make a clear distinction between varying the programs and varying the file format.
ACR in CS3 is not the same as ACR in CS2. See some threads below about the integrated, non-negotiable noise reduction in ACR 4. I have not used ACR 3, but I heard that there are many other differences. So, the result between files created by ACR in CS2 will be different from that created by ACR in CS3.
However, if you process a CR2 file with ACR 4 and a DNG file converted from that raw with the same ACR, the results will be identical.
You are barking up the wrong tree with DNG. ACR delivers different result from DPP, no matter if ACR 3 or ACR 4.
Plus, you are comparing the ACR result with a JPEG created by the camera firmware. The latter has been created by applying the in-camera settings sharpening, contrast, saturation, color tone, and of course white balance. DPP would create almost identical result, because it applies the same settings (they are recorded in the raw file). ACR does not apply these settings, so you need to make the necessary adjustments.
You have to decide, which one you like more (or dislike less): DPP or ACR, but this should be a well-informed decision, based on experience. For example I find DPP's colors better, but ACR's adjustments are superior, and ACR's colors can be enhanced somewhat. Plus DPP has a browse function as well, ACR can't compete with that.
Finally, please note that there is no "correct" rendering of a raw file. There are many *different* renderings. The JPEG straight out of your camera is not the measure of rendering, it is one of them.

E-M5 Mark II: Why does LR6 not support working with the full 4:3 raw image for pictures taken using a different aspect ratio?

When importing Olympus E-M1 or E-M10 raw images which are taken in aspect ratio different to native the 4:3 MFT sensor format, LR will display the frame as crop overlay to the full image as captured by the sensor. This is very useful because at time of postprocessing one can still control the position of the frame, and modify if required.
I was very suprised to see that for E-M5 Mark 2 this is not supported in LR6. The raw file in LR6 corresponds exactly to the frame which was chosen while shooting. Full 4:3 image information is present in the ORF raw file though, which can be easily seen eg using Olympus Viewer.
Is there any specific reason why this useful feature has been neglected for E-M5 Mark II?
Thanks
Karsten

Try asking in the Lightroom forum.
Photoshop Lightroom

Can't get my RAW images to open up in elements 9 from my new 5d mark 3 Camera!

I never had problems opening my RAW images from Canon 5d Mark2 but for some reason, they won't open from my new canon 5d mark 3 camera. A pop up box comes up that says, cannot open file "........." because it is the wrong type of file. Can anyone help as to what I can do???

Hi,
The 5D mark III requires ACR 6.7 or higher - PSE 9 can only goes as far as ACR 6.5.
You need to update to a newer version of PSE or use the free DNG converter to turn the CR2 files into DNGs which can then be read by PSE9.
Brian

Has anyone had issues with poor image quality when using lightroom to process raw images from Canon 7dmk2

Hi everyone..
..I have been having image quality issues when using Lightroom to process raw files from a 7d mk2... They are all soft with poor clarity.....tonight in despair I tried processing them using canon's software and they are totally different..."much better"
anyone else had similar problems....Andy

I have a 7D2 and have not had what I interpret as poor image quality that has anything to do with the camera.
Can you post a screenshot of what you’re seeing and what specifically you don’t like? Maybe there is something you can do differently or at least there may be an explanation for what you’re seeing.
And if you have a raw image that you wouldn’t mind sharing in a public forum, upload to http://www.dropbox.com/ then post a public share link to it in a reply, here.
In other words post a screenshot of what you see in LR, another of what you see using DPP, and a link to the raw file you’re processing.

Cannot open Raw images from 5d Mark II in CS3

I'm back with more issues. I had this same problem opening raw images in CS3 from my 40d (I have Windows 7 64 bit). With your help I was able to fix that issue with a patch, but now I am having the same problem with opening raw images from my new 5d Mark II. Help again please!

You need to familiarise yourself with this:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/407/kb407111.html
You will see that, as a minimum, you need ACR 5.2, which needs Photoshop CS4 to work.
If you don't want to upgrade, use the latest DNG converter which will make your images viewable and editable in CS3.
It's here: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4620

I have Lightroom 3.6 and it does not recognize the raw images from my Canon 7d mark II, suggestions?

I have Lightroom 3.6 and it does not recognize the raw images from my canon 7d mark II, suggestions, do I need to upgrade?

Yes, you need an upgrade for native support in Lightroom. You need version 5.70 or higher; current version is 5.71.
Alternatively, you could use the most recent DNG converter and convert the raw files to DNG files before importing into Lightroom.

I have my camera (Canon 5D MARK 2) set to take both JPEG Large and Raw files with each shot. I uploaded the images from the card to my Pro (Aperture 3) and while the import info said 1500 images were uploaded, I can't find the RAW images. Aperture put ab

I have my camera (Canon 5D Mark 2) set to take both JPEG Large and Raw files with each shot. I uploaded the images from the card to my Pro (Aperture 3) and while the import info said 1500 images were uploaded, I can't find the RAW images. Aperture put about 700 images in an untitled project folder, but all the images are the JPEGs. What am I missing?
Thanks,
upsjdris

Have you checked your "Import" settings for "Raw&Jpeg" pairs in the "Import" panel?
You can set Aperture to import raw, jpeg, or raw&jpeg.
If you imported Raw&Jpeg, but have set Aperture to use the Jpeg as original, you will see the imported image as Jpeg image, not as a raw image, even if the raw has also been imported. You can switch between Raw and Jpeg originals for selected images from the Photos menu:
Photos > Use Raw as original.
Regards
Léonie

Problem with the RAW images from Canon 5d Mark III

hope you are doing good. i need your opinion regarding a phenomena i am observing in the RAW images from Mark iii.
The following images appear to be absolutely correct in the camera and when viewed through a picture viewer.
I have tried and tested the following scenarios:
1. Used a medium speed kingston CF Card (new) and transferred the images through the USB cable supplied with the camera.
2. Thought the card might be slow OR faulty.. used Sandisk Extreme and Extreme Pro SD Cards but same result.
3. Transferred SD Card data through the builit in laptop card reader.
4. Have directly imported the images from SD Card into Lightroom 4.3, copied the data firstly to laptop HDD and then imported, copied the SD card data to an external HDD and then copied. .... same result!!
5. Have tried the same with both Win7 and Mac OS.
6. The DPP sw that came with the camera gives the error of 'Decoding Failed' with these images.
Usually 10-15 images out of 100 give this kinda pattern. so i was hoping if you can guide me what is going wrong here !!!

The camera and PictureViewer are likely showing you the embedded JPG, while DPP and LR are decoding the raw data which appears to be corrupted. Assuming you have formatted your SD cards in the camera and the issues are always in the same positions in the same images when you transfer them multiple times from the card to different computers via different methods, then the data is on the card that way.
If the embedded JPG is ok then the sensor is ok, so something between the sensor-readout and the storage on the card appears to be failing intermittently, and it’s time to talk to Canon, I think.

I can not open raw image files from my Cannon 5d mark iii with cs6 and my cs6 in mac

I can not open raw image files from my Cannon 5d mark iii with cs6 and my cs6 in mac

The Mk III requires an updated version of Camera RAw, so run Help --> Updates and install it.
Mylenium

Poor Quality RAW image in iPhoto

Anyone else having these issues? I'm shooting with the Nikon d70 in RAW mode. In the thumbnail mode the pics look great. When I go into edit mode the quality of the image decreases significantly. No detail in the shadow (blotchy) and it looks posterized. Yet, when I open it in ACS it looks fine.
I've contacted Apple about this a couple of months ago, but nothing's been done.
Just curious if anyone has had poor print results etc.. if dealing with a RAW file in iPhoto.
Thanks.
M

Hi, Mary. I recall seeing this after I recalibrated the color on my display, some time ago. I thought that would help with the darker color on iPhoto pictures. I went back to the original color profile (in display preferences) and the problem went away. Seems odd that simply changing your color profile would do this, or maybe it was something very specific, like choosing the advanced option or a different white point/gamma value.
I'm not a color expert and this was mostly just experimentation hoping to rid my pictures of the darker tone in iPhoto, so I'm sure I did something iPhoto didn't like. It only happened to my RAW images, I think.

5D Mark II raw image quality

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