New RD-1 firmware features

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kepstein

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What is the advantage of having both RAW and jpeg captured at the same time? Any other feedback on features such as the pixel mapping and reduced noise in long exposures?

Thanks,
Ken
 
Another question:
Is the shutter lag any longer due to the raw + jpeg feature?
Best,
LCT
 
RAW+JPEG, if you are under deadline pressure and don't have time to process the RAW you can just go with the JPEG but have the RAW to go back to later.

That's how I'd use it anyway.

Now if Epson would ship my warranty repair camera back to me!

Regards, Charlie
 
LCT said:
Another question:
Is the shutter lag any longer due to the raw + jpeg feature?
Best,
LCT
Click to expand...


It's more data to write to the card so shot to shot time will be longer but it won't effect the shutter.

Shutter lag is effected by AE, time to meter the scene, and the latency of the electromagnet operating the shutter.
 
kepstein said:
What is the advantage of having both RAW and jpeg captured at the same time? Any other feedback on features such as the pixel mapping and reduced noise in long exposures?

Thanks,
Ken
Click to expand...

Ken

I feel that the major advantage of concominantly shooting RAW and jpg is that jpg files can be viewed and sorted quickly while the RAW files can be saved for additional development of the occasional masterpiece. Likewise, if it's a once in a lifetime shot and you completly botch the exposure, you might be able to salvage the shot from the RAW file. Switching between the single settings of RAW and jpeg can be a hassle; and undoubtedly you'll have all the wrong settings when that spontaneous once in a lifetime shot appears!

Personally, I keep a lot of shots as "memories" and like not having to spend time processing the RAW data to get photos for website/email/etc. At the same time, I always prefer to work with the RAW data to maximize the final quality on the real "money shots".

Pixel mapping is a great tool to reduce post-exposure touchup work in photoshop. The Firmware Update worked well to remove the single "Hot" pixel that appeared in all of my R-D1 images. My Nikon D2x doesn't even have this feature...although it also doesn't have any odd pixels.

Long exposure noise reduction is certainly a problem with all digital cameras. As for how well the Epson version works, I don't have enough experience to comment. I also can't comment on whether or not the in-camera noise reduction is any better then that available in the Epson PhotoRAW software. Remember that if you only shoot jpg you'll never be able to tell which is best while with RAW you can always adjust this to your personal preference. You should also know that there are many commercial products which deal with digital film noise. My personal preference is to use a photoshop plug-in called Noise Ninja on high ISO and long exposure shots. In my mind it's currently the gold standard in terms of digital noise reduction.

Scott
 
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I've seen raw+JPEG used at motorsport events by a couple of Journo mates. The benefits for them are immediately obvious, where the shot count climbs into the thousands. For me it's not really useful, stick to raw for 50 to 80 shots of the same event.
 
We've got a thread going here in which people have been posting early reports on their experiences with the new features of the updated firmware. So far, nobody has had significant problems and overall impressions seem to be very positive.

A couple of thoughts re questions raised in this thread:

-- One advantage of the raw + JPEG format is that if you use, or work for a firm that uses, a digital asset management system that does NOT support the R-D 1's raw format (iView MediaPro, for example) the raw + JPEG option gives you a way to work with it. You can dump your take onto a computer, use your DAM system to screen, edit and select the best shots, and then run ONLY those through the raw conversion process.

With the advent of photo editing software that does display raw files directly (such as Adobe Bridge and Lightroom) this capability may become less important, but there are a lot of legacy DAM systems and image databases for which it will be useful.

-- I haven't spent a lot of time working with it so far, but to my surprise writing a raw + JPEG file doesn't seem to take appreciably longer than writing just a raw file with the original firmware. The firmware update also bumps up buffer throughput somewhat; you now can shoot three frames in quick succession vs. only two before, and that applies whether you're shooting raw only or raw + JPEG.

-- What little I've been able to try so far suggests that the defective-pixel-mapping feature does work; it may not do a perfect job, but it seems to help quite a bit. This is mostly relevant if you shoot primarily JPEG images; raw images are less affected to begin with, and most raw-processing software has its own ability to matte out defective pixels.

-- Another new feature that definitely seems to work is the claimed reduction in noise when shooting at EI 1600. Details are in the other thread, but a short summary is that in a very quick test I made, the new firmware reduces overall RGB noise by about 8 percent.

We probably should consolidate these two threads, or start a new one to collect firmware-update tips and results...
 
an important advantage of shooting both Raw and jpeg is that in case you will ever have a hardware failure on a card/HD/Tape or any other starage device, most rescue applications will rescue only jpegs/docs/mp3 but hardly ever Raw files, and in particular, those of a rear camera suchas the R-D1.
 
Is there an Epson raw converter for Macintosh?
I mean converting the new ERF files of the R-D1s.
Best,
LCT
 
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LCT said:
Is there an Epson raw converter for Macintosh?
Click to expand...

Yes there is a plug in available for Adobe Photoshop and Epson Photo RAW that came with the camera works on the Mac as well.
 
Geo said:
Yes there is a plug in available for Adobe Photoshop and Epson Photo RAW that came with the camera works on the Mac as well.
Click to expand...

You mean in the package of the R-D1s with an 's'?
If so, would you know where it is possible to get this new plug-in alone?
Best,
LCT
 
You can download Mac OSX versions (as well as Windows versions) of both the latest Photoshop plug-in and the standalone raw file converter from the Epson website.

I don't think I can just post a link because they generate the pages actively; for the US Epson site, you have to go through the following rigmarole:

-- Go to www.epson.com and choose North America>USA.
-- Choose Drivers & Support > Digital Photography. Expand the Digital Photography menu and choose Digital Cameras.
-- Pick R-D 1 from the list of cameras.
-- Click the Drivers & Downloads link.
-- Locate the download you want.

This is supposed to be a direct link to the PhotoRaw 1.10 for Mac file, but I'm not sure it works:ftp://ftp.epson.com/drivers/epson11561.sea.hqx
 
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