Mike Chaney, author of QImage Pro has just let us know he's posted an update. Version 1.5 deals with the problems brought about by the interaction of blue and red pixels with fine detail, "... image detail that is close to true red or true blue is only captured at about 1/4 of the total image resolution. A modification to the already super-accurate Qimage Pro interpolation compensates for this tradeoff in CCD design, removing those jaggies from red/blue image detail without reducing sharpness or detail in other areas."

Click here to download Qimage Pro 2001 v1.5

Qimage Pro 2001 v1.5 vs. v1.3 vs. Nikon Capture 1.1

Here's a crop of the results from our own resolution test charts converted from NEF format to JPEG using Nikon Capture v1.1, Qimage Pro 2001 v1.3 and Qimage Pro 2001 v1.5.
(Values are 1/100th lines per picture height, thus 10 = 1000 lines/picture height)

Qimage Pro 2001 v1.5
Qimage Pro 2001 v1.3
Nikon Capture v1.1

Qimage Pro 2001 v1.5 vs. v1.3

Standard test image.

Qimage Pro 2001 v1.5
Qimage Pro 2001 v1.3

Qimage Pro 2001, v1.5 (05/04/01) release notes

New Features:

NEF/ORF raw interpolation: Red to black and blue to black transitions are always the most prone to jagged edges because red and blue CCD pixels are more sparsely distributed on the sensor. Accordingly, image detail that is close to true red or true blue is only captured at about 1/4 of the total image resolution. A modification to the already super-accurate Qimage Pro interpolation compensates for this tradeoff in CCD design, removing those jaggies from red/blue image detail without reducing sharpness or detail in other areas. As a result, details like black striping on a red car or blue lettering on a black background have been improved considerably.

NEF raw color: A complete rebuild of our custom ICC color profiler and process improvements related to the digital capture of color test targets have improved color accuracy considerably for D1 NEF decoding/converting in v1.5. The new profiler and capture tools that we use can now account for and virtually eliminate variations in image capture that could affect profiling such as: lens vignetting and color cast, differences in camera contrast curves, target lighting that is not 100% uniform across the test target, under or overexposure, etc. The result is the most accurate and predictable color to date! Unfortunately, the new process requires new targets and a controlled environment, requiring that we actually have the cameras in hand to retest. We plan to rebuild the profiles that we sell online in the coming weeks to take advantage of the higher color accuracy. As we update the profiles, we will display a "version 2.0" icon on the top of the profile page for each camera indicating that the newer version is now being sold. Of course, those who purchased an older profile will be able to upgrade to the new version for free when it becomes available, so stay tuned.

New crop tool: The new crop tool automatically shades the background when cropping using the batch filter, allowing you to focus on the cropped section of the image without being distracted by the rest of the image. In addition, the new "crop lock" feature allows you to lock your crop area to any aspect ratio including the currently selected print aspect ratio, the original image aspect ratio, or a user defined ratio. For more information on how to use this feature, see the help under "Contents", "Listing of Major Functions", "Cropping".

New flash card copy/move option: You can now select whether you want Qimage Pro to automatically browse the folder where your images have been downloaded/copied/moved to. While older versions moved to the "from" folder automatically, you can now choose to stay in the current folder if you like.

{Q} filename prefix: You can now choose to add the {Q} to your filtered files as either a prefix (old method) or suffix (new option). If you choose to save your filtered images to new images, you can now save files in the format: filename{Q} or the older {Q}filename. The new method helps with sorting since if sorted by name, the original and filtered images will appear together in the thumbnail browser.

Some minor fixes:

• Batch filter fixes: A bug that caused the monitor ICC profile to "disengage" after selecting "File", "Save Filtered Images" has been fixed as well as a problem that caused the unsharp mask filter to appear twice as strong after some operations when working with NEF/ORF images. In addition, a problem has been fixed that was causing the crop to turn off after some operations.
• File types: Fixed a bug that was causing files with "jpeg" extension to disappear after accessing the "View", "File Types" function. Note that files with "jpg" extension were not affected, only "jpeg".
• Metric fix: Metric units will now work properly when accessing "Page", "Margins" as well as when the "Manual" image placement option is selected.
• Move images: The "Move Images" option (accessed via right clicking in the thumbnail area) will now move images even if images with the same name already exist in the destination location (after a warning about overwriting files).
• Hairline border: The hairline border option is now overridden when printing posters, i.e. this option will automatically turn off if you have it on and print multi-page posters.
• Image cropping: Fixed the crop tool so that when it is locked at a certain aspect ration, dragging beyond the edge of the image does not compromise the aspect ratio.