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New Olympus E-M1 and Lenses - Question about RAW files

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Colin Smith1

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Hi everyone. After nearly a year of wishing I wasn't getting older (and that my back would get better) I am selling my Canon Full Frame cameras and lenses and moving to M4/3's . I have ordered the M1 and four lenses, 12-40 PRO, 75-300, 60 macro, and the 75 1.8. They will be delivered next week. Since I always shoot RAW, I am wondering about post processing. I use Adobe PS 5 and it won't open the M1 raw files. I can also use Adobe's free DNG converter like I currently do with my 6D, and than the files will open in PS. Is the Olympus software supplied with this camera worth using? Anyone have any other suggestions, other than moving to Lightroom which I do not want to do. Thanks.
 
Colin Smith1 said:
Hi everyone. After nearly a year of wishing I wasn't getting older (and that my back would get better) I am selling my Canon Full Frame cameras and lenses and moving to M4/3's . I have ordered the M1 and four lenses, 12-40 PRO, 75-300, 60 macro, and the 75 1.8. They will be delivered next week. Since I always shoot RAW, I am wondering about post processing. I use Adobe PS 5 and it won't open the M1 raw files. I can also use Adobe's free DNG converter like I currently do with my 6D, and than the files will open in PS. Is the Olympus software supplied with this camera worth using? Anyone have any other suggestions, other than moving to Lightroom which I do not want to do. Thanks.
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Use the DNG converter if you are fine with the additional processing step that requires. Or upgrade your PS 5 to a version that can handle the E-M1 RAWs. In my view, the free Oly software is nowhere close in capability to what PS (ACR) or LR can offer.
 
Colin Smith1 said:
Hi everyone. After nearly a year of wishing I wasn't getting older (and that my back would get better) I am selling my Canon Full Frame cameras and lenses and moving to M4/3's . I have ordered the M1 and four lenses, 12-40 PRO, 75-300, 60 macro, and the 75 1.8. They will be delivered next week. Since I always shoot RAW, I am wondering about post processing. I use Adobe PS 5 and it won't open the M1 raw files. I can also use Adobe's free DNG converter like I currently do with my 6D, and than the files will open in PS. Is the Olympus software supplied with this camera worth using? Anyone have any other suggestions, other than moving to Lightroom which I do not want to do. Thanks.
Click to expand...
 
Colin Smith1 said:
Hi everyone. After nearly a year of wishing I wasn't getting older (and that my back would get better) I am selling my Canon Full Frame cameras and lenses and moving to M4/3's . I have ordered the M1 and four lenses, 12-40 PRO, 75-300, 60 macro, and the 75 1.8. They will be delivered next week. Since I always shoot RAW, I am wondering about post processing. I use Adobe PS 5 and it won't open the M1 raw files. I can also use Adobe's free DNG converter like I currently do with my 6D, and than the files will open in PS. Is the Olympus software supplied with this camera worth using? Anyone have any other suggestions, other than moving to Lightroom which I do not want to do. Thanks.

--
Colin Smith
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If I were you, I'd either look into a good free raw converter that supports E-M1, like RawTherapee, or move to a good workflow tool like ACDSee Pro (or, Lightroom, or CaptureOne) for raw conversions. Using the free DNG conversion tool is a slow PITA, in my mind; and that would override any reluctance I had to moving to Lr or its competitors.

BTW, in my experience, ACDSee Pro and CaptureOne produce almost identical results with about the same amount of work. If you go that route, I would suggest buying the one that has the UI you are most comfortable with.

--
I look good fat, I'm gonna look good old. . .
http://glenbarrington.blogspot.com/
 
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AFAIK PS CS6 is still for sale. I have it and use ACR which I believe has a new improved engine and supports the EM1 and ORFs. You could upgrade your CS5. LR uses the same engine and has a few more tools plus other sections including cataloging. People are talking about a new LR6 coming in a few months so it may be better to wait a bit if you will purchase LR. I believe there is a trial version of LR also.

Harvo
 
I'm unclear why you don't want to move to LightRoom. It's very well suited to handling OMD files. It will correct lens aberrations automatically, and can be set up to do the same for chromatic aberration. Also many people have produced profiles for the cameras, which work very well.
 
I have CS6 and LR5.6, but I use Olympus Viewer 3 to convert the RAW files to tiff (16 bit) and then process the tiff files in LR (or CS6 if I want more precise control over the PP). I personally like Viewer 3's RAW conversion better than Adobes. Viewer is very slow, so I just select the files for conversion and export. Then I go have a cup of coffee or a light lunch (if there are a lot of files) and then come back and import the tiff files into LR.
 
You can use OV3 & I'm about 90% sure the latest beta versions of Raw Therapee & Lightzone will read the E-M1's raw files.
 
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While waiting for the camera, go to http://support.olympus-imaging.com/ov3download/ to download Oly Viewer 3, use "123456789" as a serial number to allow download.

That way you can have a few moments alone with it to see if you like it.

It will open any brand cameras' jpeg files for edits, but of course for RAW only handles Olympus RAWs which usually can be found as samples on the Internet. I use RAWs for testing software derived from the DPReview image comparo thing.

As for RAW converters, the pick of the crop appear to be Capture One (seems best for studio and portrait work, good skin tones) and DxO (seems best for technical ability and lens corrections tables) with Lightroom and many of the rest very close behind. Silkypix is one of the best but quirky and "different" so most people reject it, main trouble is that it is too darn expensive.

Oly Viewer 3 is excellent (slow and crummy to drive though) but really only is duplicating what the in-camera jpeg processing is doing (not quite 100% accurate but very close), it is not to be rejected, it can be used as a processing standard to see if you can improve on it with some other RAW converter. The Firmware Update module that installs with it is used for camera/lens/flash etc firmware updates when the camera is connected via the supplied special USB cable (never lose that!).

My links page may help if exploring the Oly M4/3 world http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/olyepl1/03-epl1-links.html

Other things like finding the true shot count of the camera starts from here http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/olyepl1/01-epl1-menu.html where there's a fair bit of general Olympus M4/3 stuff.

Regards.... Guy
 
Colin Smith1 said:
I use Adobe PS 5 and it won't open the M1 raw files.
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You might give a look at DxO optics Pro. The latest version is version 9. But the old version 7 is available for free until the end of this month:
http://www.dxo.com/intl/practicalphotography

I don't know if it can open OM-D e-m1's RAW files. If it does, you can open them with that software, save the picture as a 16-bit TIFF file and then, open it with Photoshop PS5.

I'm using their latest version (DxO Optics Pro 9) to PP my most underexposed shots. It does a better job than Photoshop CS6 in these cases.
 
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Pretty much everything I can think of is covered. The free Oly software will provide loads of image information (more than the PS exif table) and as noted, you can export tiffs to process in PS5. All the detail will be preserved. You can also add Art filters in post, just for fun.

If you shoot a lot, LR is able to handle most processing not involving layers and it batch-processes and organizes and tags files--a huge time-saver.

I can say the E-M1 files are very forgiving and can be manipulated a lot, compared to my earlier cameras. I think you'll be pleased.

Cheers,

Rick

--
"Whiskey is for drinking, digicams are for fighting over."
—Mark Twain
 
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Colin Smith1 said:
Hi everyone. After nearly a year of wishing I wasn't getting older (and that my back would get better) I am selling my Canon Full Frame cameras and lenses and moving to M4/3's . I have ordered the M1 and four lenses, 12-40 PRO, 75-300, 60 macro, and the 75 1.8. They will be delivered next week. Since I always shoot RAW, I am wondering about post processing. I use Adobe PS 5 and it won't open the M1 raw files. I can also use Adobe's free DNG converter like I currently do with my 6D, and than the files will open in PS. Is the Olympus software supplied with this camera worth using? Anyone have any other suggestions, other than moving to Lightroom which I do not want to do. Thanks.
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For databasing and raw processing.

maljo
 
Gregm61 said:
It's an external jpeg engine and nothing more. If your main goal in shooting raw is to get a better result compared to just shooting jpeg, Viewer is not what you want to be using.

Get Lightroom.
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I believe OV3 can develop raw into 16bit tiffs, it you'll be limited to sRGB and AdobeRGB color gamuts. Most other raw developers will be more respectful of the camera's own gamut and allow further processing in ProphotoRGB.
 
mb shaffer said:
I believe OV3 can develop raw into 16bit tiffs, it you'll be limited to sRGB and AdobeRGB color gamuts. Most other raw developers will be more respectful of the camera's own gamut and allow further processing in ProphotoRGB.
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Isn't the E-M1 limited to sRGB or AdobeRGB, so why would this be a limitation for the E-M1?
 
drj3 said:
mb shaffer said:
I believe OV3 can develop raw into 16bit tiffs, it you'll be limited to sRGB and AdobeRGB color gamuts. Most other raw developers will be more respectful of the camera's own gamut and allow further processing in ProphotoRGB.
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Isn't the E-M1 limited to sRGB or AdobeRGB, so why would this be a limitation for the E-M1?

--
drj3
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The RAW file from the sensor essentially has no gamut so can be transmogrified to any suitable standard.

I have yet to be shown any usable improvement in using a wider gamut than sRGB, in fact it may have some negative effects. Most displays and prints are stuck with sRGB or narrower so why the wider gamut?

Regards..... Guy
 
You have selected a very nice camera in my opinion.

On the other hand, you have made a poor choice to bypass Lightroom.

Lightroom is as necessary as the camera body and the lens. The price is low enough to own it, and the results are top of the line. I do not shoot jpg files anymore as the workflow in Lightroom is so fast and the results are as pro as you are going to get.

Whatever you have against Lightroom, you should make every attempt to get over it, as it will pair with the EM1 beautifully. I don't say this lightly, and i wouldn't bother to comment, except you are shortchanging your EM1 experience by not using Lightroom. The subscription is not necessary with LR, you just buy it outright.

Peter
 
I would avoid DNG or use it after making sure about the quality of the conversion.

When I bought my first m43 camera nearly 3 years ago (an EPL-3) I first used the DNG converter. A few months later I updated to the newer ACR version. Having made a series of photographs for illustrating a book I checked the quality: I had to develop again all my images because ACR delivered *much* better detail.

Here an example, 100%crop: left DNG, right ACR conversion.

0340588e1c0e4128ba2bbb4c04bf6db2.jpg
 
what many ppl do is use olympus desktop software to convert the file out to a suitable format for PS or LR. this is because the oly software applies its processing, which is very difficult to beat. so you save it out then open it in PS/ACR and do further mods to it.

I'm using PS 6 and ACR so no problems opening the raws but even still, as clunky as the olympus software is, it does a REALLY good processing job on the raw.
 
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