The raw truth ?

dee

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OK .I understand .

I '' should use '' raw with an M 8.
But I bought it for the familiar 50s interface - digital without tears .
The jpegs are a world away in ''feel '' from my Canon G2 .
I can just about cope with I-photo on the mac -

I have an Alfa Romeo 147 , modest diesel , but it can do 0-60 in ...
top speed of ... who cares ?
Each time I see it , it's '' right '' to my 50s / 60s imprinted mind .
i love driving it and it does 30 to 70 quickly enough and i do not have to change gears all the time . It cost more than a sensible car to buy and run - depreciation is horrendous !!
So why should an M 8 be any dee'ferent ?

dee
 
Because it's a computer with a lens in front of an electronic sensor that responds to light. It's not a camera. The similarity stops at the glass in front and the shutter button.
 
What's the problem with DNG? Well, apart from Capture 1, which works well enough but is (to be kind) counter-intuitive.

I shoot negs; I process 'em; I print 'em. Apart from the Capture 1 learning curve, which is surmountable, using my M8 is very like using my MP. I don't go to a high-street mini-lab for the MP (where it's no better than a point-and-shoot) and I don't use JPEG on the M8.

Cheers,

R.
 
Google's Picasa will handle both the RAW files and JPGs. Try it. You'l like it. It's quick as silver, great image management, and it's free! What more could you ask? Oh, yeah - the learning curve is about 30 minutes.

/T
 
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Shooting a JPEG directly in the camera, for anyone who is either a professional photographer or serious about photography, can be akin to shooting a polaroid. If you want to be able to bring out the quality in an exposure, same as you would have to do in the darkroom with a tri-x neg shot through an M6, you gotta shoot RAW. It's as simple as that.

- Mark
Just bought an M8 after being Leica-free for 3 years since I sold my M6 system to buy a 1Ds MkII system.
 
Why not shoot RAW and fine JPEG simultaneously? OK the processing time is a bit longer and the storage is a bit more, but you can have your cake and eat it.

Best wishes

Richard
 
Richard Marks said:
Why not shoot RAW and fine JPEG simultaneously? OK the processing time is a bit longer and the storage is a bit more, but you can have your cake and eat it.

Best wishes

Richard

Well, I do that by design, as some of my shots I take go directly to someone on line.
Regards,:rolleyes:
 
I think the OP is fulfilling arcane psychological needs with his M8 rather than using it to produce the best technically competent images possible.

For his purpose, jpgs are sufficient.

PS: He says he has a Mac and therefore Picasa will not work for him unless he's running a dual OS system.
 
Dee, don't stress over the RAW thing. Sure, for some purposes RAW will allow you to create a technically superior image, but for a lot of the time JPG is fine. My wife never shoots RAW, and she's got a set of really fine images enlarged and hanging on our walls, and everyone that sees them comments on how good they are. It's the image, the compositon and the colours and textures that she sees and captures. She's not worried about a few details lost in the shadows, and her camera does a fine job avoiding blown highlights. I'll bet the M8 is just as good. Try it.
 
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what a coincidence!

what a coincidence!

By coincidence, I asked a very similar question on the R-D1 section of the forum. Sometimes I feel like Dee, but I can't afford an M8, hahaha!

Valdermar is certainly not wrong, but I'd certainly add the caveat: Everyone who uses a camera is "fulfilling arcane pyschological needs" in one way or another. ChrisN adds a compelling note of "if it works for you..."

BTW and FWIW, I have the feeling from reading around the experience of users, that the R-D1 would give greater satisfaction with no (or minimal) PP (i.e., in jpeg mode) than the M8. But this conclusion is based completely on hearsay and could be misleading. There are some people on RFF who have used both. It might be worthwhile trying to track their posts (there is a thread about M8 vs. R-D1) and then contact them directly.

Good Luck and enjoy!

-jon
 
I don't use my M8 a lot I must admit but it certainly isn't a huge issue for DNG conversion. I use capture one purely to adjust white balance then save the files as tiffs to be worked on minimally in ACDSee Pro which is a very basic piece of software. Then a final conversion to jpeg!

It's a damned sight easier than buggering around with a scanner then having to spend eons removing dust bunnies from the negative scans ... mind you I like doing this too.

It's all fun Dee! :)

Remember to breathe ... ;)
 
Hi Dee,

Don't give up .. with iPhoto.

I use Aperture, but as I have iLife on my MacBook Pro I just tried and could import a RAW (.dng) image into iPhoto. Then I tried on my old iBook G4, that was ok too.

Have you kept up to date with the upgrades?

BTW: On my iBook (800 mhz G4 and 640mb Ram) I'm using iPhoto 6.0.6 and MacOSX 10.4.11.

Phil.
 
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