M8 == 8bits

[Gabriel M.A.]

It's really hard to understand why Canon continues making their own sensors, when they could easily buy superior older ones from Kodak.

It's a good thing some people don't work for Canon, I guess.

 

[Paul Kay]

Siremistic

I own both a 5D and an M8. The produce DIFFERENT files, neither of which I would refer to as 'better' than the other. Fortunately we haven't yet gone down the path of convergent evolution where everything has become the same.

 

[DaveSee]

It is not like we can compare with a 12-bits RAW file coming from the same camera. Doing with a file coming froma different camera would lead to other nice comment from people that do not want to believe it. I guess it just says it all.

Anyway, I just find the limitation completely arbitrary, and so far I haven't seen any justification for doing so.

Disclaimer: I'm not a Leica user, and given this, I'm unlikely to get a M8.

OK, you start a thread, and then flop with this last... your point?

Film transport, not the emulsion, has "color"/grey, so too enlarger lamp, enlarger lens, paper sensitivity, etc. You do not get "white" with film, just "most white" when it finally is printed. My point is, with 16 bits(really 14, 2 are for control structures) the value of "white" is visably expressed in hundereds of levels for 24 bit post-proc apps. While it may seem "arrogant" of Leica to apply(and yet write for decoding) a "LinearizationTable" to the data written to the DNG, dear reader, "white" is "white". Adobe can't see more than 255, and on a Good Day (TM). It's the blacks that make Leica DNGs good... and why they put a great big hole into "Expose Right".

Now, you, OP, seem unlikely to even use an M8, but for those who have, we know that the DNG file may be read by a wide range of demosaicing softwares... PhaseOne, Leaf, Canon and Nikon have each their "special" decoders>demosaicing; and for these, yes, all 14bits are available... but "white" is "white", and even with 14bits, they'll toss out a lot of data to give you, dear reader, the Best Image(TM). And you think you'd know what to do with 14bits? Even Adobe doesn't want them, yet. But now, as this thread, we wander aimlessly into, "but my slider goes to 11" discussions around data sacrificed to your computer application. Have fun, it is!

rgds,
Dave