Software

The EOS-1D Mark II is supplied with two applications, Canon EOS Viewer Utility is a development of EOS File Viewer Utility and includes and improved user interface and additional features. Canon Digital Photo Professional is aimed more at RAW browsing and batch RAW management and conversion. What's slightly odd is that both EOS Viewer Utility and Digital Photo Professional are capable of performing similar tasks and at first it's a little difficult to decide which to use.

Canon EOS Viewer Utility (1.0.0.30)

After starting EOS Viewer Utility the main window is displayed, it is divided into four panes; Folder list (top left), Bookmark (bottom left), Thumbnail display (center), Histogram / Information / Notes (right). Thumbnails shown can be from your local computer (or network) or connected camera. Double click on a single image to open the single image view window (see below). Images can be organized or manipulated individually or as a group (by selecting more than one image). Icons along the toolbar allow you to rotate, check / uncheck, protect / unprotect, modify IPTC data and erase images (among other functions).

The single image view window enables a large view of the chosen image and can be manipulated on its own, this includes RAW adjustments provided by the Tool Palette window (see below). You can change the magnification level and pan around the image.

Tool Palette Window

Press CTRL+T or select 'Tool Palette' from the View menu to display the RAW adjustment tool palette. This window allows for adjustment of RAW parameters for RAW images. This small floating window can be used in both the main window thumbnail view (with one or more RAW images selected) or in single image view. Settings applied to an image are memorized by EOS Viewer Utility. One of the single biggest improvements in EVU compared to the older FVU is that adjustments occur with only a slight delay, this makes applying subtle exposure compensation or white balance corrections very easy and very quick. Adjustments which can be applied are: • Digital Exposure Compensation: +/-2 EV in 0.1 EV steps • White Balance: Auto, Presets, Kelvin, White Point • White Balance Fine Tuning • Tone Curve • Contrast: -2 to +2 • Color Matrix: 1 - 5 standard • Color Matrix Advanced: Saturation, Tone, Color Space • Sharpness: 0 - 5

EOS Capture

Select EOS Capture from the Option menu to launch the EOS Capture remote control application which allows you to control camera settings and trigger exposures on a tethered camera. Images are saved to the local hard disk (and optionally also the storage card). Settings are adjusted by clicking on the setting on the display pannel and pressing the left or right adjustment arrows. Additionally you can also execute 'Timer Shooting' (time lapse) which can be configured to take an exposure at specific intervals.

Camera Settings

With the camera attached to the computer you can select the Camera Settings option, from here you can modify various settings such as the owners name, date & time, personal functions and shot settings including parameters, tone curve, personal white balance, color matrix and JPEG quality.

Canon Digital Photo Professional (1.0.0.5)

Upon starting Digital Photo Professional you could be forgiven for thinking it is the same as EOS Viewer Utility, and to a large degree it is. However there are some subtle differences. Firstly the thumbnail view looks subtly different, the folder view is still there on the side but along the top is the oversized tool bar with big 'press here to adjust' buttons (mostly for RAW manipulation). There are also several things you can't do in DPP, you can't connect to an attached camera, you can change the camera settings, nor can you use DPP to transfer images from the camera to your hard disk.

The main thumbnail view has three different size options as well as an interesting thumbnail with information view as seen below. Note that adjustments such as brightness and white balance can be made to single or multiple files (just like EVU) and are remembered across multiple sessions (although EVU and DPP don't appear to share this database of adjustments).

Select one or more images and click on the 'Edit image window' (or simply double click on a single image) to switch to the edit window where you can carry out various RAW adjustments such as digital exposure compensation, white balance, tone curve and color. Curiously DPP's sharpness setting is on the save dialog which means you can't tune (or store) a sharpness setting for each image. The shot below shows the oversized toolbar running along the top of the window, selected thumbnails down the left side (this can be turned off), a before and after (optional) view of the image in the center and adjustments to the right. Note that unlike EVU adjustments

On the right side of the edit window are the adjustments tabs, the first allows you to carry out adjustment to brightness (digital exposure compensation; +/-2 EV in 0.01 EV steps), white balance, RAW tone curve, color adjustment (shot, faithful, custom), custom tone curve (multi point), brightness, contrast, hue and saturation.