Bibble 5

Has anyone got any good and/or bad comments on using Bibble 5?

I need a good RAW program for my new Nikon D7000. (I don't think ViewNX2 is worth the CD it's printed on!)

Thanks.

brucet said:

I need a good RAW program for my new Nikon D7000. (I don't think ViewNX2 is worth the CD it's printed on!)

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I occasionally use Bibble 5. I really like Bibble and it would probably be my first choice if not for the improvements in the latest DxO Optics Pro. Bibble is much faster and offers many features but I usually choose DxO for slightly better image quality. By the way, DxO Optics Pro is on sale at 30% off for a few more days.

I have not yet used Lightroom, Aperture, etc., but only Nikon View NX2 and PSE8.

I am evaluating Bibble 5 for use on a laptop which runs Linux. I was completely blown away and loved it. It was fast, and I really liked the Perfectly Clear plug-in. It fit in well with my workflow. Before using this product, I was oversold on the value Nikon software using the picture controls from my D90. Now that I've seen what Bibble can do, I'm not so concerned about that.

I was able to use Bibble for processing the RAW files on my laptop and export the additional EXIF data. I was then able to move all of the files to my desktop where I brought them into the PSE8 organizer and all of the tags, etc. were with the processed jpeg files and I worked with them from there the way I usually do.

I'm still only half way into my evaluation period with Bibble, but I will probably postpone purchasing a license when the trial is over until I build up the hobby budget again.

Because I enjoy using Linux on my laptop, I expect that I will get Bibble, without evaluating the alternatives, when my budget allows. The license will allow me to run Bibble on both my Linux laptop and my Vista desktop (though not concurrently).

I'm also re-evaluating Bibble. I used to use Bibble 4, but that was superseded by Bibble 5 before Bibble 5 was really stable enough and complete enough for release.

As I shoot Nikon I spent a while using Capture NX2 which gave excellent results and had some great tools for selective adjustments, but since upgrading my PC to Windows 7 Capture NX2 has been very unstable and remains VERY slow.

My evaluation of Bibble 5 shows it to have significantly improved since my first trial about 9 months ago. It is extremely fast with some very comprehensive editing tools and a nice on-screen layout. The conversions, once the preferences are configured correctly, are excellent.

There do, however, remain some significant glitches:-

One is in the use of selective adjustment layers and masks which seem very tempremental and seem to change what they show is selected as you zoom in and out of the image.

Another is a fairly clunky system for cloning and spot healing dust spots.

Another and perhaps more serious failing is that the Asset management and catalogue system is not yet fully resolved. For instance there is no real way of synchronising the catalogue with your pc file structure and also there are glitches which make it virtually impossible to remove folders from the catalogue if they have been moved or deleted outside of Bibble 5 software (ie deleted or moved using the computer file structure).

The software is really attractive in terms of how it works and its speed and quality, but it remains frustrating that a number of glitches remain which make basic tasks such as cataloguing your images much more difficult than they shoutl be.

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Have Fun
Photo Pete

I really like Bibble. It is so quick to power through large quantity of photos. I no longer use a seperate browser. Two things really turned the page for me in my trial period...1) the ability to isolate a section of a photograph and tune its white balance seperately from the rest of the image and, 2), the ability to target an area and diminish or augment exposure values.

There are a few quirks, but I have become accustomed to them. I am surprised that there are not more people using this excellent software or commenting on it. I used to use Nikon Capture exclusively...the slowness and crashing made me nuts, although, I now think that that was attributable to my antivirus software. I have since disabled it and disconnected the computer from the net.

I tried Lightroom, and started to like aspects of it, but felt something was missing in the raw conversions. The other aspect of Lightroom that did not agree with me was, at least my understanding of it, that it basically wanted to take over your entire machine, to catalog it. I just don't work that way, for better or worse.

Like the previous poster, I do not care for the clone control. As a general comment though, there are instances when I prefer the look of Bibbles raw development to Nikon's.

Another plus is that you can install the software on any number of machines which is really handy for me since I have three comps at home and that many at work. The only stipulation being that you are using the one instance of software at one time.

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Jeff Smith

I am pretty happy with Bibble 5 and consider it a high end raw conversion software, image quality compares favorably with other products. Attached is comparison of a 100% crop of a test file I used to compare the converts I use at present.

From left to right, Bibble Pro 5 with adjustments; Lightroom 3.3 with some adjustments; Lightroom 3.3 default settings + 1/2 stop increase in exposure; Olympus Viewer 2 (the camera manufacturers software, will match the camera jpeg output); SilkyPix 4 with some adjustments. The file is 100 ISO so there is no noise reduction applied or any advanced editing done, the intention is to concentrate on tone and color rendition.





The original files can be viewed here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/baxter43/sets/72157625678052039/
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Denis de Gannes

Certainly as far as Canon bodies are concerned, although Nikon users have reported issues too.

It is simply useless at dealing with colours well (it is hopeless with greens), and transitions from dark to light areas in an an image guarantee really bad posterisation and "noise" in the transition areas.

It's noisy too, thanks to a very poor demosaicing algorithm (which is probably also responsible for the issues above), and the built-in Noise Ninja (even the licenced version) simply kills detail without any particularly useful effect on noise - if there's noise profile for your camera, which it's entirely likely there won't be.

Posts on the Bibble forum provides ample evidence of all of this.

Jas4 said:

. . .

I tried Lightroom, and started to like aspects of it, but felt something was missing in the raw conversions. The other aspect of Lightroom that did not agree with me was, at least my understanding of it, that it basically wanted to take over your entire machine, to catalog it. I just don't work that way, for better or worse.

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I just started trying out Lightroom so there's much about it that I'm not aware of, but I think that you're mistaken about it wanting to take over the entire computer, if by that you mean that it wants to add every photo on the computer to its catalog. Only the files or folders that you select will be imported, and what's imported aren't the actual image files, only very small preview images. So for example, if you've imported all of the images from a folder on an external hard drive, if you disconnect/dismount that external hard drive, Lightroom can still show you those images from its catalog and let you rank, rate, sort and do many other operations. But if you want to edit any of the photos in that folder, the hard drive would have be be attached/mounted again. This is a pretty good article (with a pro-Lightroom bias) that explains Lightroom's advantages as well as the types of photo operations where it's better for LR to work with other photo editors, for the types of tasks that it wasn't designed to do.

http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials/mark-galer/adobe-photoshop-lightroom.html

Wrong! ViewNX2 is fast and excellent on my Win 7 Pro 64-bit system.

It is very evident that View NX works flawlessly on some machines/installations and not so well on others.Just search in the Nikon D3 forum! I have spent too much of my life trying to configure my rather expensive photo computer to be stable with NX products. I may have come close recently.
FIngers crossed. Sincerely glad that your installation works!
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Jeff Smith

Thanks for taking the time to clear up my misconception and the link.
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Jeff Smith

Keith, I seldom get the opportunity to shoot anything with green in it!

I generally am always inside in theatre settings. Again, what works for me in these situations, is the ability to quickly isolate areas that are too bright or not bright enough, have difficult color (due to the gelling of the theatrical lights) and/or have multiple color temperatures.

i am shooting at high iso levels to begin with as a matter of course, so re your noise comments...Nikon software employs a very low level nr as a default. Bibble does not, so it will have a bit more noise to begin with. I kind of like the Noise Ninja if I use it selectively to target an area.

I have waded through most of the Bibble forums and Canon posterziation is an issue. I have seen some of that on some of my files as well.

I can get a neutral (Product Reduced) Bibble file to look like a Nikon View neutral conversion to a similar degree-although not exactly. If I was more adept at creating curves, I would get closer. I don't really like the Product Reduced Neutral look, but it is a good base to start from, and I shot my Nikons in neutral mode for many years. The other advantages of the quick workflow sway the case for me.
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Jeff Smith

oh, another thing....Bibble automatically displays Nikon files as brighter than shot...there is an explanation in the Bibble forums that I cannot intelligently qoute...bump the exposure control down, usually by .25 or .50.

Denis, thanks for your setup with the color chart and gray cards. The Olympus software performs well. To my eye, it utilizes more sharpening and a deeper black level. Bibble seems to be conservative in its sharpening settings...I am attempting to be more aggressive with it. I just came across an explanation that Nikon software employs two different kinds of sharpening, one that is more or less inherent in the raw conversion.

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Jeff Smith

Agree 100%.. mixed results even on my own system.. Win XP not so good.. Windows 7 - works fine.

Hi Keith

I have checked out the Canon complaints on the Bibble site...frustrating that the issue has not been acknowledged or dealt with for Canon users.

I also downloaded Raw Therapee based on your suggestion to someone...

I was really hopeful at first, however, and this is odd, the complaints you have about Bibble, are present for me with RT! I was hopeful because the "problem" image I was using as a test rendered the facial tone exactly as Capture NX. The dark areas were a mess though.
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Jeff Smith

I simply love bibble for four reasons:

1) runs on my macbook pro as well as on my windows PC at home as well as occasionally on my work laptop (again windows) whenever I shoot for work
2) it is fast, very fast, even on slower computers

3) it gives me the complete freedom to work from my folder structure (I have never used its database feature although its supposedly nice)

4) I can configure keyboard shortcuts to my liking. I copy the profiles file to all computers I use to I have identical shortcuts for all of them. VERY handy if you need to screen through hundreds of images

Yes, I too have seen that occasionally the Image quality is not as good as e.g. when using Canons DPP or Photoshop (I use CS4). And yes, its image repair features like the clone/heal feature or working with layers is not really nice to use.

But guess what: Of all the images I shoot the need for that extra bit of image quality is rare. And if it happens (occasionally it does) that there is a real outstanding shot, nobody is preventing me from using the same image again and converting it e.g. in Photoshop.

Summary: the big plus of bibble is in the workflow support!

Bibble's DAM side of things is terrible... something everyone hoped would be better so I'm not sure why you think it is good.

I use the layer function constantly. It is one of the major reasons I migrated from Capture, plus, the image quality to my eyes was significantly better than lightroom.

Additionally, I like the way Bibble does NOT impose a file management system on my rather loose organizational attempts.

I have been exploring some of the curve plugins that are available through the generosity of Bibble users which is opening up new possibilities.
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Jeff Smith

I have iBibble Pro which I upgraded for a small fee from the former Bibble and I like it. It is really great as straightening out photos. More than I can say for CS5.
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Melissa
PBASE Supporter

mustang_fan said:

It is really great as straightening out photos. More than I can say for CS5.

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I honestly can't imagine many things in life that are easier than straightening images in CS 5!