charjohncarter
Veteran
First, I do not have a Leica M8 or a Epson RD-1. I have a Pentax K10d, but I have been greatly impressed by the images of the M8 on this and other sites. Recently I tried seven RAW converters. They all had things about them that I liked and all had things that I didn't like. But XnView has something for certain subjects that is better than any of them, in my opinion. If you just use the default setting and convert to TIFF you get a converted image that is slightly darker than the others I tried. At first I thought this was just a lowering of the EV, but there is also an increase color depth. Besides that, the shadows are slightly darker than if I just raised the EV to the other converters levels. This full depth, that is so sensual really comes out in photos of skin and colorful shots. En fin, after conversion, all you do in your editing program is dial in the highlights and then boost the shadows to your taste.
Here is an example that I took last night just before sundown in a shady area. I hope you try XnView, I think M8 owners will like it.
Here is an example that I took last night just before sundown in a shady area. I hope you try XnView, I think M8 owners will like it.
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payasam
a.k.a. Mukul Dube
Haven't had need for RAW conversion yet, but XnView is a remarkably capable piece of work. I use that and the Gimp (also freeware) on both Linux and Windows.