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RawSupplied softwareThe NX10 is supplied with a Software CD containing:
As with Panasonic modes, the NX10 ships with a special (fully featured) edition of SILKYPIX, a rather quirky, though surprisingly well-featured, raw development application for Windows and Mac. The (on-screen) manual is very comprehensive, but doesn't really explain the features very well, and first-time users may find themselves overwhelmed by the sheer volume of options on offer. This isn't helped by the slightly dodgy translations and the plethora of sliders with names that don't really indicate what they actually do. But there is lots here to get stuck into, and the default settings produce perfectly acceptable results. But after some experimentation and adapting you'll discover that the SILKYPIX can produce superior results to the JPEGs, not least in that they can be fine-tuned to produce output that suits your own needs / tastes. There's easily as much tweaking on offer as you get with Adobe Camera Raw, though the extent of the changes isn't so great so you'll often find yourself pushing lots of sliders and getting pretty similar results. The fact that Samsung, Pentax and Panasonic all provide software based around the Silkypix processing engine suggests it must be pretty capable. You can save parameter sets (for some reason you put them in the 'cloakroom') once you've found out what works for you, which combined with batch processing and extensive output options (TIFF or JPEG), takes some of the grind out of the business of developing large numbers of raw files. RAW conversionAs is normal in our digital SLR reviews we like to compare the supplied RAW conversion software, any optional manufacturer RAW conversion software and some third party RAW converter. As is often the case, the only converters available at the time of writing the review are the manufacturer's software and Adobe Camera Raw. Here we compare these two converters to the camera's JPEG engine to see how each of them pulls detail out of the images.
Color reproductionPlace your mouse over the label below the image to see the color from a GretagMacbeth ColorChecker chart produced using each RAW converter.
Sharpness and DetailThe default Silkypix conversion is showing marginally less detail than the out-of-camera JPEG but it's also considerably less sharpened. With its much finer control over the type and level of sharpening being applied, we're confident you'd be able to show at least the same amount of fine detail as the JPEGs do. Adobe Camera Raw (still a beta) is producing very similar colors to the JPEG and slightly better detail.
ResolutionIn this more readily comparable example, it can be seen that the supplied raw converter is extracting similar levels of fine detail to the JPEG engine. Both are showing some degree of pattern in the chart up to about 2500 lph but the camera's JPEG output is much more heavily sharpened, making everything look crisper (though staying impressively free from haloing). ACR treads a path somewhere between the two, in terms of sharpening but manages to extract a fraction more detail from the files than the others.
Real word advantagesThe major advantage you get processing the NX10's RAW files isn't so much one of sharpness and detail (though, of course, you do get better control over sharpening), but one of noise reduction. The noise reduction applied to all images by the NX10 can smother the finest detail at all ISO settings so there's scope for pulling more detail out of the files.
RAW files for downloadHere we provide RAW files, both from the review and the sample shots we take, to allow you to apply your own workflow techniques and see whether your experiences match ours. |
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