SPP Reverse Compatibility

xpatUSA wrote:

G Radford wrote:

xpatUSA wrote:

With the advent of the Quattro and SPP6, we learned that Merrill files opened and saved from SPP6 could no longer be opened in SPP5.

Today, with all my Merrills sold, I decided to go from SPP 5.5.3 back to SPP 4.2 ... but recently I've been using 5.5.3 for everything. And so it is that ALL my SD15 X3Fs crash SPP 4.2. On the other hand, a much older DP1s shots did not.

Elementary, my dear Watson:

SPP5 and previous versions come with a text file 'english.txt' in the root folder for each version. In the one for SPP5, I discovered this little jewel:

"If you use this feature, this X3F file cannot be opened by SIGMA Photo Pro 5.4.1 or earlier version. Do you want continue?"

So, I'm stuck with 5.5.3 for my recently used but older cameras. BTW, I never saw that warning when editing recent SD15 files in SPP5 - so thanks for that, Sigma.

The only faintly bright light is that 5.5.3 has a folder 'lens profiles' and 4.2 does not. One lives in hope that those profiles are used for pre-Merrill shot. I'd bet a pound to a pinch of you-know-what that they are not ...

... but I got you fooled, Sigma, because RawTherapee can access them all.

Glad to hear that RawTherapee works !

In my world, RT roolz OK for serious work.

I can understand that struggling with all the hurdles that Sigma/Foveon place in our path causes some people to sell up and take a hard right or left into CaNikon or Sonji territory!

I've never saved new, updated data to my X3F files, simply because I don't trust any software that alters the original file.

Good point.

I only use raw editors to get an image somewhere in the ballpark, then save as a 16 bit TIFF, for final editing. Updating software can be full of surprises, and am sure this is true for Windows, Mac or Linux systems. -Gary

Definitely agreed.

Ted

I don't exactly understand the issues you are having, either your dislike for SPP 6 or the problem with the files: but I would never intentionally alter the original X3F file.

My assumption is that Sigma is not deliberately making the processing of SPP worse, although that could happen inadvertently, and it is certainly possible that a user, meaning you, or any one of us, could legitimately prefer the output of one version of SPP output over another.

My ONLY issue with SPP is the evident or possible "linkage" of the different aspects of the "processing" so that a lot of what is going on in SPP is in two areas at once... Or so it seems. This is the exact opposite, as I see it, compared to Raw Therapee. But that is only an argument for getting to a tif and into RT as soon as possible.

I think Sigma is trying to do the right thing, but it has several different types of users, many of whom just create a tif file and never look back, and some of whom, like me, for the moment, who may go back at some point to the X3F file and attempt to create a new and better (Maybe? We hope?) tif from the original file. Other users may, on occasion, simply desire to get it all done in SPP, regardless of its limitations.

I tend to think the past is greatly over-rated. "Progress" is not a given, and should not be assumed, and one has to watch out for the pernicious and harmful; but assuming that things were better before is equally invalid. We just coped with different issues.

In any event, my few very good images from the SD10 are almost as good as most of the images from the sdQ. The sdQ is also a lot easier to use. I'm curious to see how the SD10 works with the new 30mm and the latest version of SPP and RT. The SD10 has its own charm.

So, best wishes,

Richard