In the previous part of this mini-review, I looked at the color response of Capture One, Lightroom and Aperture against a synthetically generated GretagMacbeth test chart. In this post, I’ll look at the response of the same programs against an image of an actual GretagMacbeth test chart. The process that I will follow for the actual image is a little different to that for the synthetic image. In the case of the synthetic image, I made no adjustment whatsoever to the image – the readings are exactly as they appear when the image is imported into each program. For the real image however, I first adjust the contrast and exposure setting on each program to exactly match expected values of the lightest and darkest monochrome patches on the GretagMacbeth chart. This exactly matches the exposure of the real images to the effective exposure of the synthetic image. As was the case for the synthetic images, all the test results are on a 0 to 100 scale, and represent the difference between the expected value as derived from the color values of the GretagMacbeth chart and the actual values measured. So, for example, if the red bar of the “Cyan patch” shows a value of -5, that means that the actual measured value of the R component of the RGB values as read out by the software in question was 5 units less that the theoretical value.

Relative to the synthetic image, Lightroom was, as expected, very close to the theoretical values for the GretagMacbeth chart. Versus a real image however, it shows significant differences, most noticeably in the red patch, where it has significantly more blue and green than might be expected. At first sight, this is a somewhat counter-intuitive result, as while the greater levels of green and blue indicate a more saturated color than the theoretical representation; Lightroom in general has a reputation for excessive red. It’s only in the green patch that there is significant excess red. This would imply that when the complaint of Lightroom’s “excessive red” is made, it is probably more of a complaint about the saturation of reds in the image, rather than an excess of the red color component.




Aperture shows no clear pattern of greater or lesser overall saturation, but does show two interesting characteristics. Firstly, the green components are still very much less than are the case for Lightroom, but at the same time the absolute variation from the theoretical value is far less – versus the synthetic image, the variation was -15.3, but against the actual it is only -6.3. This suggests that the Aperture calibration for the green components in a real image is probably better than Lightroom’s, even though the Lightroom’s better matches the synthetic image . Secondly however there are significant variations in the blue component, especially in the 1.1 profile. The newer 2.0 and DNG profiles show color rendition that is a lot closer to expected values that the previous version. This is consistent with Apple’s statements that the raw conversion subsystem has been substantially revised and improved in the new version. Overall, the actual M8 inages converted with the Aperture 2.0 profile is a better match to theoretical values than either the previous version of Aperture, or Lightroom.





Turning to Capture One, the most significant feature of the charts is the absence of “negative spikes” – while both Lightroom and Aperture have at least some color patches where at least one color is significantly less than the theoretical value, Capture One is relativley better controlled in this respect – only in the yellow patch is there a significant negative deviation. In addition, this control of negative peaks isn’t at the expense of spikes in the positive direct; no spike exceeds 12 units. It’s also interesting to note that in the three primary patches, the red component is within three units of the theoretical value in the red patch, and the green in the green patch and the blue in the blue patch are similarly well controlled. Thus, while Aperture is overall closer to the theoretical values, Capture One is perhaps “closer where it counts”.



In my next post, I’ll take a brief look at color rendering for the same three programs against an actual image from a Nikon D80, so as to get a feeling for whether the patterns here are M8 specific, or relate more to the programs in question.
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Good news in a difficult year - all the macOS apps that I support - AccuRaw EXR, AccuRaw Monochrome, pcdMagic, CornerFix, dcpTool (both the GUI and command line version), DNG cleaner and pcdtojpeg - now are all available with native Apple Silicon versions for blazing fast performance on Apple's new
There's a whole slew of new camera support, including for Canon's new CR3 format.

Updates of AccuRaw EXR, AccuRaw Monochrome, PhotoRaw are now available on the Apple App Store.
pcdMagic for Windows - the only currently available app that can convert Kodak Photo CD images with correct color and at full resolution - is now available on the Microsoft Windows Store.
As usual when new Leica cameras come out, I took a quick look inside a DNG from one of Leica's new Leica CL  cameras:

The camera name shows as "LEICA CL" The image data is 14-bit. There is no compression used in the DNG I looked at.  The DNG version is 1.4, with a "backward version" of 1.3.
Those of you that have read the Leica M10 raw file analysis post will know that M10 DNGs have more baggage in them that is typically the case for a Leica DNG. I've put together a little app to clean them up, called DNG Cleaner (Mac only for the moment).
AccuRaw users might have gotten a bit of a surprise recently - AccuRaw has turned into AccuRaw EXR, and is now at version 3.

The reason for the name change is that the focus of the AccuRaw product has changed a bit, based on what users were actually doing with it.
Good news - AccuRaw, AccuRaw Monochrome and PhotoRaw now have support for the compressed raw format that Fuji use in the new GFX 50S. Previous versions of AccuRaw/PhotoRaw had support for the regular uncompressed RAFs, but not the compressed version.
Updated: AccuRaw and PhotoRaw now have support for compressed and uncompressed RAFs.

For those that have been asking me about AccuRaw and Fuji GFX 50S support, I'm pleased to say that the version on the App Store as of today has support, although only for uncompressed RAFs.
As usual when new Leica cameras come out, I took a quick look inside some DNGs from one of Leica's new M10 cameras. Usually, there's not much to see with Leica DNGs - they are typically text-book vanilla DNGs. But with the Leica M10, things are bit more interesting.
AccuRaw EXR is a new version of AccuRaw with support for HDR (High Dynamic Range) images in OpenEXR format. OpenEXR is a high dynamic-range (HDR) image file format developed by Industrial Light & Magic for use in computer imaging applications that uses floating point data.
For those eagerly awaiting the opportunity to be able to process Olympus OM-D E-M1 II raws, the latest version (4.4.2) of PhotoRaw has support, including for the 80 megapixel raws. AccuRaw and AccuRaw Monochrome support will follow in a day or two in version 2.5.1.
New versions of PhotoRaw and AccuRaw became available on the App Store today with support for the new Canon EOS 5D Mark IV.

New to the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV is what Canon are calling ‘Dual Pixel Raw’.
Good news - AccuRaw, AccuRaw Monochrome and PhotoRaw now have support for the compressed raw format that Fuji use in the new X-Pro2. This is thanks to Alexey Danilchenko and the folks over at LibRaw, who reverse engineered the format, and published the results in open source form.
Yes, AccuRaw and PhotoRaw now supports the Nikon 5, all ISO 3,280,000 of it. The new versions are already available on the App Store.
LFI has recently published an article stating that the sensor in the new Leica M262 differs from that in the older Leica M240. This has generated a fair amount of comment on various forums because the M262 is, at least in principle, just a simplified version of the M240.
Mostly, I use this blog to write about photography related issues, but today I'm making an exception, and writing about email apps. Apologies to regular readers, but never fear, normal service will resumed soon.

Email is important to me.
CornerFix was one the the first imaging apps that I wrote. Written originally for the Leica M8 to fix the M8's "pink corners" problem, it corrects for vignetting, both in luminance and in color dependent form. In photographic circles, this is known as "flat fielding".
I've just found out that, to my regret, Photosmith has ceased development. In short, Photosmith allowed images to easily be uploaded to an iPad, sorted, rated, and the ratings etc transferred to Adobe's Lightroom.
(Edited 23 October to include information on how M lenses are handled.)

As usual when new Leica cameras come out, I took a quick look inside a DNG from one of Leica's new Leica SL (Typ 601) cameras, using one of the new Leica L mount lenses:

The camera is using what appears to be production softwa
Affinity Photo isn't one of my products, but I have been following it closely, and trying out the betas as they came out. It is now out of beta, and I know that a lot of readers of this blog are looking for alternatives to being forced onto the Creative Cloud model.
As usual when new Leica cameras come out, I took a quick look inside a DNG from one of Leica's new Leica M Monochrom (Type 246) cameras:

The camera is using what appears to be production software - version 1.0.0.4. The camera name shows as "LEICA M MONOCHROM (Typ 246)" The image data is 12-bit.
I don't often talk about pcdMagic because, well, there's seldom much new to say about it. For those that don't know, pcdMagic is my software package for converting old Kodak Photo CD images to modern formats.
PhotoRaw version 4.2.1 is now available on the Apple App Store with new camera support including the Sony A7 II (ICLE-7M2), Sony QX1 (ICLE-QX1), Panasonic DMC-CM1, Pentax K-S1, Olympus E-PL7, Fuji S1, Kodak C330, Leica D-Lux (Type 109), Leica V-Lux (Type 114), Samsung NX300M, Samsung NX3000
I previously wrote about a nasty bug in iOS 8 that prevented PhotoRaw from accessing any images that were shot as raw+JPEG.
While Adobe's DNK SDK has been a great asset for the imaging world, allowing all sorts of useful open source software, including my CornerFix and dcpTool packages, as written it only supports Windows and OS X.
So you can stop emailing me :)

The versions of AccuRaw and AccuRaw Monochrome on the App Store as of this morning (V2.2.8) have support for the Canon 7D Mark II, Canon SX60 HS, Canon G7 X and Fuji X100T.
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Author of AccuRaw, PhotoRaw, CornerFix, pcdMagic, pcdtojpeg, dcpTool, WinDat Opener and occasional photographer....
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