Just bought a Sony RX100 mk 1 RAW question

Hey folks, haven't posted in the forum before.

I've been a photographer for a long time, I like taking shots when I travel and of course I have a good cellphone but always take camera gear also. I have been downsizing my gear over the years so I don't have to lug around so much gear.

I just picked up a mint Sony RX100 as it was a good deal to perhaps take on my next trips instead of my current Olympus Pen F and various lenses.

My question is around RAW, ideally I'd like to squeeze as much quality out of this Sony as possible so RAW+JPEG would seem the ideal way to go, however so far I've not had great experience with it. JPEG's so far look quite good, especially if I watch my aperture to keep it in the sweet spot and have contrast/sharpness/saturation dialed up by +1.

I tried experimenting in medium low light with some test shots, I tried using Snapseed and an online based RAW converter to compare to the camera JPEG.

I found the RAW conversions had much less detail, very surprising. Why would this be?

I have photoshop CS5 on my desktop PC but as I understand it can't process RX100 RAW files which is why I tried Snapseed and an online converter first.

What could be the issue? is it just poor RAW conversion tools? if so what free RAW converter should I try?

Thanks!

bart_dood said:

What could be the issue? is it just poor RAW conversion tools?

Click to expand...

Yes.

The raw conversion should always be better than what the camera does with its jpegs, otherwise, why would people bother to write raw conversion software?.

bart_dood said:

if so what free RAW converter should I try?

Click to expand...

The default freebie is Capture One Express for Sony. https://www.captureone.com/en/capture-one-express/sony there is only one version of Capture One being downloaded and the free Express license unlocks a limited but still good feature set.

The best and easiest to use is the pricey DxO Photolab6, a 30 day trial may prove whether it is worth proceeding https://www.dxo.com/free-trial/

There are other freebies that other people will recommend but I always have found DxO easiest and best. Particularly getting the best out of high ISO shots.

Guy Parsons said:

bart_dood said:

What could be the issue? is it just poor RAW conversion tools?

Click to expand...

Yes.

The raw conversion should always be better than what the camera does with its jpegs, otherwise, why would people bother to write raw conversion software?.

Guy Parsons said:

if so what free RAW converter should I try?

Click to expand...

The default freebie is Capture One Express for Sony. https://www.captureone.com/en/capture-one-express/sony there is only one version of Capture One being downloaded and the free Express license unlocks a limited but still good feature set.

The best and easiest to use is the pricey DxO Photolab6, a 30 day trial may prove whether it is worth proceeding https://www.dxo.com/free-trial/

There are other freebies that other people will recommend but I always have found DxO easiest and best. Particularly getting the best out of high ISO shots.

Click to expand...

Note that you need to get the Elite edition of PhotoLab.

bart_dood said:

Hey folks, haven't posted in the forum before.

I've been a photographer for a long time, I like taking shots when I travel and of course I have a good cellphone but always take camera gear also. I have been downsizing my gear over the years so I don't have to lug around so much gear.

I just picked up a mint Sony RX100 as it was a good deal to perhaps take on my next trips instead of my current Olympus Pen F and various lenses.

My question is around RAW, ideally I'd like to squeeze as much quality out of this Sony as possible so RAW+JPEG would seem the ideal way to go, however so far I've not had great experience with it. JPEG's so far look quite good, especially if I watch my aperture to keep it in the sweet spot and have contrast/sharpness/saturation dialed up by +1.

I tried experimenting in medium low light with some test shots, I tried using Snapseed and an online based RAW converter to compare to the camera JPEG.

I found the RAW conversions had much less detail, very surprising. Why would this be?

Click to expand...

What resolution images are you getting from the free raw converters? You may only be getting the small, very low res JPEG that's embedded in the raw file, not a JPEG developed from the full raw file.

bart_dood said:

I have photoshop CS5 on my desktop PC but as I understand it can't process RX100 RAW files which is why I tried Snapseed and an online converter first.

What could be the issue? is it just poor RAW conversion tools? if so what free RAW converter should I try?

Click to expand...

If you're prepared to pay for the best, then DxO PhotoLab 6 Elite. The free products are harder to use and deliver much less.

Digital Nigel said:

Guy Parsons said:

bart_dood said:

What could be the issue? is it just poor RAW conversion tools?

Click to expand...

Yes.

The raw conversion should always be better than what the camera does with its jpegs, otherwise, why would people bother to write raw conversion software?.

Digital Nigel said:

if so what free RAW converter should I try?

Click to expand...

The default freebie is Capture One Express for Sony. https://www.captureone.com/en/capture-one-express/sony there is only one version of Capture One being downloaded and the free Express license unlocks a limited but still good feature set.

The best and easiest to use is the pricey DxO Photolab6, a 30 day trial may prove whether it is worth proceeding https://www.dxo.com/free-trial/

There are other freebies that other people will recommend but I always have found DxO easiest and best. Particularly getting the best out of high ISO shots.

Click to expand...

Note that you need to get the Elite edition of PhotoLab.

Click to expand...

Yes, the sawn-off Essential version misses the excellent raw file noise reduction plus a few other items.

In a moment of madness because of discounts I updated my copy of the Nik Collection and that came with a free V5 of Essential, so that went onto a 4th computer as the Elite version only allows 3 installs. I still run V5 Elite and will upgrade to V7 later this year, skipping every second update saves a $ or two without much inconvenience.

In fact just the Nik Collection plus that free V5 Essential can be very handy as Nik has the perspective correction and the Clearimage stuff in its modules that the usual Essential is missing.

Well I tried snapseed again but realized I wasn't processing the file enough, adding saturation and sharpening etc. It did improve the images a lot.

Then I tried adobe DNG converter, then opening the DNG's in photoshop, adding adjustments.

The images look much better, superior to JPEG's from the camera!

bart_dood said:

What could be the issue? is it just poor RAW conversion tools? if so what free RAW converter should I try?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Yes, poor RAW conversion tools. I use DXO PL6 and get great results.

RAW+JPEG only fills the SD faster than RAW alone. The one value, IMHO, for RAW+JPEG is if your "slide show" app of choice can't handle RAW.

I use Irfan viewer with my DSC-RX10; no problem with viewing .ARW files, although Irfan's "pixel peeking" rapidly becomes pixelated at truly OCD-level enlargements. The same doesn't happen as quickly in PL6.

Count me as another vote for DxO PhotoLab. I've been using it since PL3. I recently added the Topaz AI suite to my workflow (AFAIK, there's no way to effectively embed Topaz AI in PL6 - at some point the image has to go through export/import). Used with caution and patience, it can add a final bit of "crunch" to an image. Or it can produce bizarre results.