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Capture 1 LE - superior RAW conversion tool

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John Davis said:
I just put the new Capture 1 LE (C1-LE) through its paces,
converting D60 and 10D images. The new product was made available
today w/ a free 15-day trial period.

C1-LE is hands down the best RAW converter for Canon RAW files. Its
output is sharp, noise-free, detailed and with a wonderful tonality.

John

P.S. - With the risk of again being labeled elitist (for the
record: I do not care) I'm afraid many in this forum may consider
their conversions for thw 10D AND the D60 pale and lacking
saturation. Not so! They are accurate! Lovers of the standard
(non-corrected) D60 output should stay w/ the Canon converter
without any corrective profiling.
Click to expand...
--
Dave

http://www.pbase.com/dgsmithmd
10D, S30
Sigma 15-30
Canon 24-85
Sigma 28, 1.8
Canon 50, 1.8
Canon 85 1.8
Canon 70-200 2.8L
Sigma 50-500
 
Mike Greer said:
I didn't think they were going to do this. I would spend the extra
for the full version simply to bust the 20 image batch limit on LE.
Click to expand...
They made clear from the beginning that the pro version would support all cameras, but availability is slated for end of the month. I'm downloading the LE version right now so I can play with 10D images (even though I've only got a 1D myself).
  • DL
 
I looked at your pages and you show the curve not reaching the highest whites. That is great if there is nothing there but often, with blown highlights, that is the only area where this is information. It is one thing to bend the curve, another to truncate.

Danny
Don Lashier said:
Regarding the highlights, C1 has a sharper shoulder in the TRC than
RIC. Most images benefit from this because it provides better
tonality in the upper midtones, but images that have a lot of data
at the extreme right of the histo will be a little more compressed
here. EC- will recover it but I tend to just adjust my exposure
practices in these situations about -1/3 ev which has the added
benefit of reducing what blowout may be inevitable in these
situations. RIC otho rolls off the shoulder early. This provides
protection against Program/matrix's tendency to overexpose but also
socks the upper midtone tonality flattening it somewhat.
  • DL
imageguy said:
I'm still fine tuning everything. This was the first time I could
really put the camera throught is paces. My over exposure was
caused by operator error - me (still need to fine tune a bit).

Thanks for the suggestion Don. I'm converting a few more images
and they should be better. I'll upload them when they are done.

I noticed that C1 deletes the EXIF info. Is there a setting that
allows the EXIF info to remain?

Mike
Click to expand...
--
http://www.lashier.com
Click to expand...
 
WSLam said:
I am totally with Paul, C1 is essential.
Sorry, Adobe Camera RAW does not even come close.
It is fast, but lack the control, precision, efficient workflow
that C1 offers.
Click to expand...
No need to be sorry for your opinion. A more lucid explanation of why you think this would be illuminating however. Specifically, why is it not even close? I find ACR control settings to offer tremendous latitude in RAW image conversion. I am interested in this product. My first impressions do not yet agree with yours, Paul's or Don's. I'm all ears :)
 
One of the reasons I shoot in RAW is to enjoy the widest dynamic range possible. I find it unnacceptable that a software would truncate that range in post processing.

Danny
Mike Greer said:
I tried them all. Linear, Film Standard, and Film Extra Shadow. No
go. If you try it, you'll see the difference, and it's not subtle.
This does not dampen my excitement over the program though. It just
means I won't use it to convert the small percentage of images
that fit in this category.
Don Lashier said:
  • DL
Mike Greer said:
Don,

I'm more than willing to believe you. But in the test shot I show
in a post below, I can't get C1LE to recover the blown highlights.
The exposure, levels, and curves adjustments I've attempted don't
get it back. However BreezeBrowser recovers it quite easily at
-2EV. So please, download the RAW file and recover the highlights
in C1LE. Then let me know the secret.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
You're right Mike, nothing I do recovers the ribs in the sign post. This isn't the experience I've had with 1D images. But looking at the image with YP I'm having a hard time believing (although I do believe you :-) that BB is able to pull ribs on the sign post. YP shows solid 255's all across the post.
  • DL
Mike Greer said:
I tried them all. Linear, Film Standard, and Film Extra Shadow. No
go. If you try it, you'll see the difference, and it's not subtle.
This does not dampen my excitement over the program though. It just
means I won't use it to convert the small percentage of images
that fit in this category.
Don Lashier said:
  • DL
Mike Greer said:
Don,

I'm more than willing to believe you. But in the test shot I show
in a post below, I can't get C1LE to recover the blown highlights.
The exposure, levels, and curves adjustments I've attempted don't
get it back. However BreezeBrowser recovers it quite easily at
-2EV. So please, download the RAW file and recover the highlights
in C1LE. Then let me know the secret.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
http://www.lashier.com
 
I'm still trying to figure this out, because with the 1D, if anything, gives MORE (at least usable) dynamic range. YP is just erroring all over the place on Mike's image and I don't have BB, so I can't investigate too far at this point other than noting that YP is not showing any recoverable data in the sign post.
  • DL
Daniel Lauring said:
Danny
Mike Greer said:
I tried them all. Linear, Film Standard, and Film Extra Shadow. No
go. If you try it, you'll see the difference, and it's not subtle.
This does not dampen my excitement over the program though. It just
means I won't use it to convert the small percentage of images
that fit in this category.
Don Lashier said:
  • DL
Mike Greer said:
Don,

I'm more than willing to believe you. But in the test shot I show
in a post below, I can't get C1LE to recover the blown highlights.
The exposure, levels, and curves adjustments I've attempted don't
get it back. However BreezeBrowser recovers it quite easily at
-2EV. So please, download the RAW file and recover the highlights
in C1LE. Then let me know the secret.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
http://www.lashier.com
 
Daniel, it is not truncating. Truncating would be where the curve reaches the top before reaching the right and would represent over exposure. The 'vertical' placement of the shoulder (and toe, for that matter) is purely a function of exposure.

Compare to the curves from the other converters.
  • DL
Daniel Lauring said:
I looked at your pages and you show the curve not reaching the
highest whites. That is great if there is nothing there but often,
with blown highlights, that is the only area where this is
information. It is one thing to bend the curve, another to
truncate.

Danny
Click to expand...
 
You can see the ribs in C1 by doing an auto gray balance. This brings them out but you get an ugly green color cast on the white areas of the sign that is impossible to eliminate. Wonder if this is something they will fix in a later release? It still comes up as release candidate RC1 (ie. Beta) when you run the program.

Would be nice if they expand it to -2 EC. It does +2.
Don Lashier said:
  • DL
Mike Greer said:
I tried them all. Linear, Film Standard, and Film Extra Shadow. No
go. If you try it, you'll see the difference, and it's not subtle.
This does not dampen my excitement over the program though. It just
means I won't use it to convert the small percentage of images
that fit in this category.
Don Lashier said:
  • DL
Mike Greer said:
Don,

I'm more than willing to believe you. But in the test shot I show
in a post below, I can't get C1LE to recover the blown highlights.
The exposure, levels, and curves adjustments I've attempted don't
get it back. However BreezeBrowser recovers it quite easily at
-2EV. So please, download the RAW file and recover the highlights
in C1LE. Then let me know the secret.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
http://www.lashier.com
Click to expand...
 
Danny, I'm not sure how my experience with a 1D relates to the 10D processing, but after viewing/tweaking 10,000+ shots with C1, at least half of which I also processed with other means (Canon, CR, YP) I've never seen C1 'truncate' highlights. Yes, it compresses extreme highlights a little more than other converters, but for properly exposed shots (including ones that are unavoidably blown because of wide dynamics) I prefer C1's treatment. Why? Simply because extreme highlights are not usually the primary subject and I don't want to give up shadow detail and superb midtone tonality to make room from fine gradients in extreme highlights. If I'm shooting something where highlights are paramount I'll expose accordingly. eg.
http://www.lashier.com/home.cfm?dir_cat=22240&sr=4&nr=1&gal_col=2
http://www.lashier.com/home.cfm?dir_cat=22240&sr=7&nr=1&gal_col=2

I've got no problems with C1's highlight treatment. C1 doesn't give point & shoot results nor is it perhaps quite as forgiving to point & shoot technique.
  • DL
Daniel Lauring said:
I don't see particularly badly blown highlights in the image till
after C1 gets done with it. Once the highlights have been
truncated off there is no recovering them.

Danny
Click to expand...
 
You have to have -1.5 EC dialed in as well as doing the auto gray balance for them to come out. The detail is definetly there.
Greg Melton said:
Would be nice if they expand it to -2 EC. It does +2.
Don Lashier said:
  • DL
Mike Greer said:
I tried them all. Linear, Film Standard, and Film Extra Shadow. No
go. If you try it, you'll see the difference, and it's not subtle.
This does not dampen my excitement over the program though. It just
means I won't use it to convert the small percentage of images
that fit in this category.
Don Lashier said:
  • DL
Mike Greer said:
Don,

I'm more than willing to believe you. But in the test shot I show
in a post below, I can't get C1LE to recover the blown highlights.
The exposure, levels, and curves adjustments I've attempted don't
get it back. However BreezeBrowser recovers it quite easily at
-2EV. So please, download the RAW file and recover the highlights
in C1LE. Then let me know the secret.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
http://www.lashier.com
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
In my tired state I read the input/output curve backwards. You are right...moving the curve down does not truncate it. It just reduces the output range.

Danny
Don Lashier said:
Compare to the curves from the other converters.
  • DL
Daniel Lauring said:
I looked at your pages and you show the curve not reaching the
highest whites. That is great if there is nothing there but often,
with blown highlights, that is the only area where this is
information. It is one thing to bend the curve, another to
truncate.

Danny
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
or Fred miranda's highlight recovery action
If you care ....

I often don't care about a few blown highlights ...sometimes I do it quite on purpose.
Mike Greer said:
All that you say is fact. But isn't your post misplaced? This
thread is about C1LE. It won't handle 1Ds files. The issue here is
what advantages does C1LE offer over the alternatives for D30/60,
and 10D users where the file sizes aren't as severe as those of the
1Ds. Also, whether the software is "essential" or not depends
entirely on application.

Having said all of that, I'm going to purchase it. The workflow
efficiency for my application (weddings) makes it worth it. But as
you see in my posts in the previous thread, C1LE dosen't seem to
handle blown highlights as well as Canon SDK based solutions. Maybe
it does, but until somebody tells me how they did it, I can't get
C1 to recover blown highlights like Breeze. So I'll use C1LE for
everything except those shots that have blown highlights.
Paul Pope said:
I cannot even begin to imagine using any other method of RC then C1
for the 1Ds...
The size of the files dictates that time is always going to be a
issue when processing 1Ds raw files. Capture One and only Capture
One provides the fastest means of displaying,editing and converting
huge numbers of 1Ds images in the shortest possible time because of
its real time display and editing feature together with its unique
ability to process conversions in the background while you are
editing other files. It also offers easy tools for the mass
application of sharpening,white balance and exposure settings to
batches of images AND the ability to tweak each image seperately as
well.
No other RAW conversion software can offer anything like the
feature set of Capture One.
No other RAW conversion software has the easy color managment or
output options of Capture One.
I'd rate Capture One as ESSENTIAL software...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Curious. You can also see it by sliding the WB slider to around 2500. The detail seems to be in the green channel. This may just be a profile tweaking thing. These can get very touchy at the extremes.
  • DL
Greg Melton said:
You have to have -1.5 EC dialed in as well as doing the auto gray
balance for them to come out. The detail is definetly there.
Click to expand...
 
I wouldn't hold my breath as I don't believe they've announced any plans or intent for a Mac version.
  • DL
 
I own a 1D so I downloaded the LE just for kicks...

As far as I can tell the curve tool is improved you can actually retrain the highlights better now. I still waiting to get this update for my 1D though...
where is it !!!
Don Race said:
Thanks for your observations

Don
Mike Greer said:
I shot this image and purposely severely over exposed it to test
the 10D RAW recovery capability in blown highlights.

Comparison Image with RAW conversion in BreezeBrowser and no
exposure correction, BB conversion with maximum (-) exposure
correction, an C1 conversion with maximum (-) exposure correction:



RAW Image file:

http://www.greeraa.com/misc/CRW_8125.CRW

Perform you own test. If you can get detail on the white
column/post from C1, please post and tell me how you got it.
John Davis said:
I just put the new Capture 1 LE (C1-LE) through its paces,
converting D60 and 10D images. The new product was made available
today w/ a free 15-day trial period.

C1-LE is hands down the best RAW converter for Canon RAW files. Its
output is sharp, noise-free, detailed and with a wonderful tonality.

John

P.S. - With the risk of again being labeled elitist (for the
record: I do not care) I'm afraid many in this forum may consider
their conversions for thw 10D AND the D60 pale and lacking
saturation. Not so! They are accurate! Lovers of the standard
(non-corrected) D60 output should stay w/ the Canon converter
without any corrective profiling.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I dl'd LE for kicks too and I'm jazzed about the improvements. You can now move the endpoints of the curve (ala PS) although I'm pretty accustomed to setting WP and BP in levels at this point. But what I really like is they added the curve readout. I find this invaluable in those cases that call for a curve adjustment. I also like the new RGB histos.
  • DL
DigitalDreamland said:
I own a 1D so I downloaded the LE just for kicks...
As far as I can tell the curve tool is improved you can actually
retrain the highlights better now. I still waiting to get this
update for my 1D though...
where is it !!!
Click to expand...
 
and somehow fitted a 1DS one !!!!!!!!!!! ..

That's the impression I get after using Capture-One LE after the canon one or JPG Fine!. ......

I've got some things to work out such as making the most of the Levels and curves but even doing a linear conversion and 60 to 75% sharpening and sorting the levels etc in PS7 it's a totally different camera ! ..

--
Please ignore the Typos, I'm the world's worst Typist

My Ugly mug and submitted Photos at -------->
http://www.photosig.com/viewuser.php?id=27855

 
I agree....

I've been shooting JPEG's since I got the 10D since Yarcplus hasnt' been updated yet.

I downloaded C1 LE last night, shot a few Raw's.....all I can say is WOW

(sigh) Oh well....it's only money.
Adam-T said:
and somehow fitted a 1DS one !!!!!!!!!!! ..

That's the impression I get after using Capture-One LE after the
canon one or JPG Fine!. ......

I've got some things to work out such as making the most of the
Levels and curves but even doing a linear conversion and 60 to 75%
sharpening and sorting the levels etc in PS7 it's a totally
different camera ! ..

--
Please ignore the Typos, I'm the world's worst Typist

My Ugly mug and submitted Photos at -------->
http://www.photosig.com/viewuser.php?id=27855

Click to expand...
--
John
http://www.pbase.com/mankman
Canon EOS 10D

Equipment list in profile...subject to change on a daily basis ;^)

Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together
 
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