43 Rumors

New Camera RAW 6.3 + Panasonic GH2 test (+GH2 at Pixmania)

Image Courtesy: 3Dkraft.de

As you know Adobe announced the new Camera Raw 6.3 and DNG Converter 6.3. Support for the Olympus E-5, Panasonic DMC-GF2 and the Panasonic DMC-GH2 has been added. 3DKraft.de (Click here) tested the new Camera RAW with the Panasonic GH2. The Silkypix DS 3.1 software doesn’t retain the same detail as Camera Raw can do: “The guys at Adobe are master of their trade whereas the software engineers of Panasonic’s JPEG engine and SilkyPix’ raw processor still may have some homework left for my taste!”

One more news for us europeans. Pixmania will have the GH2 in Stock by next week! You can preorder now:
Pixmania.de (should be on list in a few hours). Is in Stock at Amazon.de!
Pixmania.fr
Pixmania.uk (should be on list in a few hours). Is in Stock at Amazon.co.uk!
Pixmania.it
Pixmania.pl
Pixmania.es
Pixmania.at (should be on list in a few hours)
Pixmania.be (should be on list in a few hours)
Pixmania.nl (should be on list in a few hours)

(UPDATED) Panasonic 100-300mm in Stock at Amazon

Thom Hogan: “Short opinions about the current m4/3 lenses”

Greg

2 years ago | Reply

“New camera…” my heart stopped beating for a split second… then I read the rest of the headline

Tobias W.

I wonder when Apple is finally adding RAW support in Aperture for the E-5…

Greg
2 years ago | Reply

I don’t want to launch a religion war but… well yeah Aperture is really miles behind Lightroom in terms of performance and usability. Plus htey’re always very late at supporting new cameras. And I’m working on Mac. The only advantage of Aperture is system integration. That’s not bad at all but that’s pretty much all.
- david
  2 years ago | Reply
  
  To be fair, Aperture has areas where it’s well ahead of LR, and I’m a LR user. To pick one random example, I really wish that LR had a photo book module like Aperture’s (yes, I know various kludges to get books from LR, but they aren’t nearly as easy or flexible).

Duarte Bruno

Ah…the wonders of JPEG trickery! Have you noticed how IR (Intelligent Resolution) in it’s quest against the mother of all noise, has blown it all out on the shirt? Meanwhile the fabric pattern died along in the process…

No in-camera solution can give the same detail as good SW, except perhaps Olympus (I’ve got a few moon shots that no matter how much I raised contrast and sharpness in the RAW developer, I never came close to the camera’s JPEG :O, but that was perhaps dued to a subpar demosaicing algorithm)

Can’t say bad things about Camera RAW but in the following months, the conversion bar will be Capture One 6. Outstanding details, the best color engine in the world (at least for the 4/3 and m43 sensors I tested), the best polished UI out there, and now (since it came out last week) blazing fast conversions using OpenCL!
Check out how fast it chews on a 60MP RAW: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRCZ31B0aZs

bilgy_no1

Very strong Noise Filter settings apparently on the jpeg. But it’s not clear whether it’s the standard NF or some higher setting. ACR does show some noise in 100%, but it’s not that bad for effectively ISO640 I guess.

One question: will ACR 5.7 be updated for the GH2 (and GF2) files? I would hate having to buy a new version of Photoshop, while my current software was released not even two years ago…

compositor20

tried capture one and the noise reduction at high iso is very bad… horrible in chroma noise and in killing details

at low iso it is sharp but with artefacts that are not present in lightroom 3 (however capture one is better in handling micro-contrast/clarity/punch and in colour tonality and white balance

Duarte Bruno
2 years ago | Reply

Did you try v5 or v6?
I’ve using it just about a week ago and I haven’t given NR a good run, however (as you mentioned) it’s the color output, the speed and the great UI that has captured me…

Adobe’s NR is clearly one of the best ATM but when I have a problem file I usually feed it to Neat Image. It’s a pitty I can’t tolerate the bloody catalog.