Lightroom 4.4 RC and ACR 7.4 RC - Tests/Results

Been suggested we start a new thread for people to post their results and tests for scrutiny and the what not. So here we go.

For those of you who haven't seen... Adobe posted the RC for each, see the links below.

Lightroom: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom4-4/

ACR: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/cameraraw7-4/

Remember, play nice, folks. The more constructive we are, the better results we'll get as a community.

--
http://asylum-photo.com

Lightroom 4.4 Release Candidate includes a correction to the demosaic algorithms for Fujifilm cameras with the X-Trans sensor.  This specifically impacts the following cameras:

• Fujifilm X-Pro1
• Fujifilm X-E1
• Fujifilm X100S
• Fujifilm X20

Let's hope it is significantly better!

Bob

DPReview seems to think its a whole lot better ...

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/1550547764/adobes-fujifilm-x-trans-sensor-processing-tested

Whoa! I wasn't expecting such a dramatic improvement! Looks like the only thing between me and an X-E1 kit now is a little thing called "money."

Either I am blind or my amazing TN monitor sucks or both but to me OOC jpegs are still better. Yet there is noticeable improvement in ACR hands down.

Is there a preset coming with LR called "do me X-Trans colors"?

I'm imagining that those RAW files arent optimized to taste (a little salt, some pepper a tad more sharpening).  This looks to be a workable solution to me.  Coming from Olympus, the OOC JPEGS did look better than a standard converted RAW...but with the leeway to tweak, I alwsys got something that was pleasing.  KUDOS to Adobe and Fuji for handling this.  Finally.

--
Money can't buy happiness....It has to be converted into photo equipment first.

I think the Adobe color rendition looks even better than the ooc jpg.

To me the jpg has a blue cast where the Adobe file looks more natural.

The wait for the pre-ordered x100s will become more torturous now.



Looks like C1 still has an edge?

--
http://vkphotoblog.blogspot.ca/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vk-photo/

Hopefully this allows 100% views. Fairly boring pictures below. I'll start with the crops for the details:

LR 4.3 shows significant watercoloring

ACR 7.4 RC shows more natural details, though edge sharpness is a little lower. Which, can be made up for in post anyways. Definitely preferred in my opinion.

Next are a couple downsized versions of the full scene to show the slight difference in color/contrast.

LR 4.3

Definitely prefer the new, more natural, color rendering and contrast. It ends up being a little softer (again) to start with, but (again) can be adjusted to your heart's content. 

--
http://asylum-photo.com

It's... different.  Not sure it's an improvement.  Seem to be a significant number of color artifacts now, and the watercolor effect hasn't disappeared.

LR 4.3:

LR 4.4rc1:

Looks like a gigantic improvement to me. But you're right, in your sample shot there the watercoloring hasn't completely gone. Much, much better though.

Man, I forgot about the X100s. Now I have no excuse to not want to upgrade my X100. Ugh.

I'd say just in default sharpness. I think the files react pretty well to sharpening.

--
http://asylum-photo.com

The high ISO studio comparison shots look incredible now - as in markedly better than the K-5 II. Hopefully they'll update them in the actual studio comparison tool.

ISO 6400:

Nicely done, Adobe.

Took a couple of photos from my previous comparison and replaced RPP with ACR 7.4

Big improvement. From my informal testing, C1/Silkypix/ACR are now about the same....

--
http://www.dmcgaughey.com
http://frameandfire.tumblr.com/

Very Q&D 6400 comparison with the new ACR...X-E1 on right, D800 on left:

Wow, I'm a happy camper.  I just compared my rendition of LR 4.4RC to the same file processed in C1.  After some minor tweaks in both programs, they are so close as to be a wash in my opinion.  AND THAT IS GREAT NEWS! as far as I'm concerned.  As a working shooter who is glued to Lightroom, it makes life with the Fuji's much NICER.  Finally ! Thank you Adobe !!

--
Tony Bonanno Photography, Santa Fe, New Mexico
ASMP General member
www.bonannophoto.com

Comparing them both at 100% is pointless, though.

Huge improvement!  I'm pleased as punch.  That X-Trans sensor just went from being a bit of a liability (to me, due to it's LR support), to a huge win for Fuji.

The strange "watercolor" effect is completely gone now.  At 100% zoom, the files are now flawless, in my opinion.

I was too excited about the update to capture better examples before installing, but below are a few before and after shots.  They're really not great examples, and only the most insane pixel peeper would notice the difference on these.  The one on the left is with LR 4.3.  All have equal sharpening settings.  With the update, they can take much more sharpening than these had.



ISO 6400, 100% crop.

ISO 5000, 100% crop.

ISO 5000, 100% crop.

Just did some quick comparisons against SP pro5 and I am glad to report that Adobe with a bit of well applied enhancement is not losing anything to the SP pro5 version any more. In fact it seems to have less noise at default levels.

Sharpens up nicely too.

Thanks Adobe. I can go back and reprocess a few of my old files and see how they look now.