Sony has announced the release of a new camera app called Digital Filter, giving photographers a way to merge parts from two or three different images into a single photo. It adds greater flexibility to a similar existing app called Sky HDR. Digital Filter is priced at $29.99 or $19.99 as an upgrade to Sky HDR.
Though they offer similar functionality, the biggest feature difference between Sky HDR and Digital Filter is that the new app supports merging sections of up to three different images, whereas Sky HDR only allows for two exposures. Sony merely states that, 'The Digital Filter application offers functionality, ease of use and image quality that go beyond the features of Sky HDR.'
Digital Filter supports the following camera models:
Alpha a7
Alpha a7 II
Alpha a7R
Alpha a7R II
Alpha a7s
Alpha a7s II
Alpha a6000
Alpha a6300
Alpha a6500
RX100 III
RX100 IV
RX100 V
RX10 II
RX10 III
RX1R II
Sky HDR supports certain camera models Digital Filter doesn't, including the a5100 and three NEX models.
With the older Sky HDR, 2 exposures are made, roughly 3 seconds apart and thus, any subject motion that occurs within the user-specified overlap zone can make the final blend useless. Both the camera and everything in the scene must remain motionless for both exposures - at least within the overlapped portions of the frame. Adding a third exposure with this new app increases the risk of motion-related failure.
Another issue with Sky HDR that would only be made worse with this new app, is the time required, looking through the viewfinder.
In bright sunlight, the LCD display is inadequate for such editing and even a WiFi-associated iPad would be cumbersome and compromised in bright sunlight, so you're pretty much confined to looking through the EVF while adjusting the settings. THAT gets old, very quickly, if the camera isn't conveniently positioned at eye level and aimed more or less level with the horizon or downward.
In other words, Sky HDR and this newer 3-exposure version, would be much easier to use if Sony or some other manufacturer offered a variable-angle viewing attachment for the a6000. (Perhaps something is already available for the other Sony cameras supported by these apps.) Seriously, just try using Sky HDR in bright sunlight, with the camera shooting from an up-angled position any lower than chest height. You'll have to contort yourself into positions you didn't think possible, for several minutes at a time.
All that said, the results can be amazing - especially if you make the poorly labeled "defocus range" really thick, so that the transition between the two exposures is all the more undetectable - which, however, only increases vulnerability to subject motion between the two exposures.
I rather bracket my exposure and deal with it later in LR or PS. By the time you're done setting up the horizon and transition zones, that sunset is gone. Plus, what if your foreground or horizon isn't flat, as is the case with a mountain range or city skyline?
many digital cameras do lots of in-camera editing tricks that are amazing to say the least ... useful too, but most of these tricks take quite some time to process the final image ...
so, it's only useful if you do have enough time to spend at least half a minute on only one shot, while missing other quickly passing moments of light or moving subjects (birds, humans, vehicles etc) ...
again, the photographic industry is doing innovative things aimed mostly at the prosumer market rather than the pros or even the advanced / enthusiast amateur photographers ... a really experienced photographer doesn't exactly need something like this when image manipulation software of all kinds are available ...
i know many people won't like this but i'm saying it anyway: if Sony (and other camera manufacturers) do want to do something useful really, then instead of coming up with 'nice' apps like this that barely anyone needs and just stop that stupid pixel race thing (which, again, satisfies the prosumer market's 'non-useful needs' more than anything else!) to produce NOISELESS 10MP APS-C sensors and 20MP FF sensors! or produce MF sensors at 40MP @ affordable prices! (preferably CCD in the latter case rather than CMOS btw ...)
just compare the much better results of CCD sensors with their much wider color range capture and higher exposure latitude with those of the CMOS and you'll see what i mean, that is, if you're not biased already!
yes: CCD is much slower than CMOS and has a number of other problems but in image quality, it's still the best one out there or NASA and other space agencies didn't use it in their satellites and telescopes!
i'm not saying CMOS is bad and has to go, but seeing CCD almost totally forgotten in the consumer photography world is not good either!
Difference in color response is caused not by the underlying sensor, but by changes over time in the color filter arrays used. This has been discussed a lot, no ccd proponent has ever been able to show otherwise. Same goes for your remarks about the so-called pixel race: passé Not relevant for a discussion about this app anyway.
@ robert1955 > yes, i'm over 18, been into film photography since age 8 and into digital (photography as well as computer graphics) since the 1970s when Kodak (and others) started its research in that area ...
and i follow all the whole gingle as well as doing photography on a daily basis! so, i'm sure you'd agree i'm not a non-informed person ... (and i didn't make my comment regarding this particular app either! but since you're responding, i continue, ok?) :)
long story short, what you occupy your mind in theory, i compensate for in practice! to finish it off, go back to my first response to you: rather than accepting those stupid mostly-nonsense benchmark tests and almost always flawed tables etc filled up with rather meaningless DIGITS as Bible Truth, compare the image results of CCD vs CMOS using your own EYES please! after all, photography (and video) is all about Seeing Is Believing, isn't it?
Haha. You’re wasting your time on Robert1955, unfortunately. I’m not sure he shoots much anymore these days. Most of his time now seems to be spent parroting the circular thinking he’s heard from others here. Anything outside of his tiny box, like CCD sensors still having a color advantage at base ISO, only ruffles his feathers. ;-D
Do you have to log in to other sites with a user ID and password? That's about the extent of the nightmare when doing it directly from the camera. Set up your account first with Sony via desktop/laptop with a valid CC and you're good to go.
If you follow procedure, the app install is really easy. The main stumbling block is choice of browser: Only Safari (Apple) and Internet Explorer (PC) are supported by the Sony app store.
To date the only Sony app I have found to be useful is the Time Lapse app which I use as an internal intervalometer. But that app is totally clunky and kluge and has limited value. I merely use it for the intervalometer feature to time my photos. Once done shooting I transfer the RAW images to my computer, process them in Lightroom and/or Photoshop, then create my video with another app. I don't ever allow Sony apps to process my files as they will make a mess of them.
This new app seems to be in the category of useless to me. I can just shoot bracketed images or multiple images from a tripod, then better process them in LR and/or PS. Sony apps like this will take too long to set up and will be too clunky to use. The moment will be long gone by the time you get that darn app set up to take the photo. Sunset will have already passed and the middle of the night will be upon you!
I like the camera apps from sony, and I dont mind to pay for them. However, these more complex ones I think would be better served in a phone/tablet/cloud editing app for post production. Something like snapseed, but for sony RAW files. I would pay for that app too.
This could then be an app for any sony camera that can transfer images in any capacity (Eye-Fi), expanding function to OLD dslr and SLT cameras.
Instead of trying to milk their customers out of every penny, with clunky apps, Sony should include filters like this in a firmware update to their cameras. This is just another gimmick that's not worth 30 cents. Anyone can achieve such results with bracketing.
Put it in the firmware, Sony. You owe it to your customers, who pay big money for your cameras. You are not a little software house trying to make a living out of making little programs to just survive. You are manufacturing expensive cameras!! Shame on you, Sony.
I currently use the predecessor to this app, Sky HDR. I really like it, because it allows you to get a preview of what the final image will look like.
Before using this App I used to shoot brackets and then merged them in lightroom. With this process I had 3 raw files for every scene, which was lots of pictures. Doing all the merging in post was time-consuming. I like to be out in the field much more than sitting in front of the computer and process images. So, I like that I can get it right in the field and save some time in post.
Sony has the right idea here to bring more and more post-processing steps into the camera since all new photographers will come from smartphones where no computer is involved in processing images at all. But for sure there is lots of work to do, namely make all of this touch-sensitive for ease of use (and provide the hardware for it as well).
do you really have to set the gradients _before_ taking any picture or could you go out to run-tripod-and-gun the fleeting moments with a standard bracketing set and do the fiddling later?
Yes, you need to set the exposure for the zones. This exposure for each zone is then used to take the picture per zone. Directly after the shot you still have the option to move the gradient and feathering. But ones it is saved, you cannot change it anymore.
Depending on your camera you also get the raw files for each zone (mark 2 A7x). So, for a three zone config you would get four files, three exposures and combined picture.
Merging only works on pictures taken in the app, not on pictures already taken with bracketing.
For slow subjects like sunset/sunrise I like to get it right in the field already. You usually set up gradient ones (I use tripod for this and scouted location/composition before) and then adjust exposure as the sun goes up/down like you would with bracketing. In the end I like to have Less files to import and process. But thats just me.
In general, If you do more gun-and-run style of shooting, this app is not for you. This is really meant for slow paced work on a tripod, like you would with physical filters.
I've only used Sky HDR, but the way that works is the app takes the exposures separately and saves 3 files (even RAW if desired)--the sky, land, and combined. So you can ultimately still go back to the individual RAWs later (in photoshop, etc) if you want to do a more nuanced blend or adjustment later. The app will also let you move the gradient lines right after you've taken your exposures too. Sure, you can just use a standard bracketing set to run-n-gun if you're in a rush to get the right moment, but the power of the app is really to set a custom set of brackets.
It's convenient to get a single RAW file out of camera to edit, but you can decide whether that's worth the price of the app since there's nothing here that can't be done with multiple exposures in post.
I'm not saying it should be free but I guarantee you they would make more profit if it was priced at $2.99, not many people are going to spend $30 just to try an app out.
I love the idea of this because I hate using ND filters and doing it digitally can be time consuming. I'm not convinced how good the results would be though and for that much money I won't be taking any chances.
Yeah, $30 takes this app completely out of the "impulse buy" category and into the level of a serious photographer, but serious photographers are more likely to already know how to use brackets to do HDR in post. So this price point seems really stupid because unlike some of the apps they *could* make (taking full focus brackets automatically based on DOF) this app doesn't do anything you can't already do in post.
Actually, much as I like raw too, the fact that the RESULT is A raw means it can't be doing all that wonderful computational alignment Sony does in most multi-shot capture modes. This is why you need a tripod. Ideal would be a JPEG of the final image and/or the set of raws from which it was constructed along with a specification of how to merge them.
Is there an embedded timer? Can it be operated with the Smart Remote app from a phone for long exposures? RX100V has no other options for remote shooting.
$30 for something that could easily be a free app or even a firmware update. This is unfortunately copying an old Minolta thing (program cards) too closely. :-(
It shouldn't be too long now before the Open Memories interface starts producing more interesting and useful apps for free....
You're not understanding this app. It's a revolution. You can start thinking the frame as many little frames inside of it. Each one with its exposure, time, aperture, wb, etc. Working with raw files. Still can't believe it.
_Frederico_: I'm a lot more revolutionary than that, and implement lots of stuff inside commodity cameras. ;-) For example, my current work has largely centered on being able to capture and process image data so that you can adjust the time interval represented by an exposure after the fact (TDCI -- time domain continuous imaging) and we've actually implemented this inside Canon PowerShots using CHDK, as reported in a paper at Electronic Imaging 2017.
I'm sure this is a nice app; I just don't think Sony should restrict app development to themselves nor do they need to charge $30 for one.
I ran out of fingers after about 30 button presses. So it looks like about 50 or so adjustments before the final product, in the field, on a small screen, on tiny controls and with the light fading. Yeah, that'll run. Could've been button-less and dial-less with a decent touch screen interpretation.
Has anyone tried to install previously purchased apps after upgrading their RX100, e.g from a MK3 to a MK4? Guess what, they make you buy the apps all over again.
@Mako109 Not true! Your purchases on the app store are connected to the camera number and you can reinstall, if needed, as many times as you wish (never lost any after any firmware update) Also, every app purchased is good for 10 different Sony cameras you own (your buy additional cameras, the app purchase is good for the new cameras).
He's not talking about a firmware update but a real camera update, RX100 Mark 3 to mark 4: to OP: I don't exactly know the mechanism or if it's the same on all Sony Cameraa but you should be able to download the app again freely if you enter than same information. I could do it on the apps purchased by an a7 to an a7rII. Contact Sony.
Thanks everyone for your input. I believe it may be too late for me to seek reimbursement since I upgraded quite a while ago, when the M4 was newly released. I recall attempting to install the same apps that I had originally purchased on my M3 on to my M4, and to my surprise the install would not proceed. Instead it detected I was installing on a new camera and terminated the install. Only way to proceed was to repurchase, so I bit the bullet. Maybe I did something wrong. Oh well, lesson learned.
it is a great idea..... it also feels like sony is just being a cheap and greedy corporation trying to nickel and dime its parishioners
i fel the same way when a camera maker is wise enough to include USB charging in the body and uses that as an excuse to save a couple of bucks leaving out a stand alone charger..... despicable
do better sony .... and fuji please reverse engineer this and include it in one of you excellent and always free firmware updates
And how much did u pay for that product if not subscription. Unless it was torrented the product runs over 600 dollars. A 29 dollar vs 500 plus dollar is not even a close comparison
Bro u paid over 1000 dollars now..how do u say both are same. This is 29 dollars for the same reason. It's like someone selling a well working action pack.
Thing is, Photoshop does a little, teensy, eensy bit MORE than just merge photos for HDR! I use it professionally, and can totally justify its price, even twice over (PC and Mac).
Got to agree with @Thematic here. Not only do other makers not support such a feature, this app supports cameras as old as the first gen A7 cameras. Incredible. If you want this app, buy it.
The cost of this app in comparison with a good set of filters that will create the same image is VERY small. My set of Cokin filters ran over 300 dollars, and I am not sure they work as well as this app will.
Basically, if you pay for a product, you get the product you payed for. If you thought something essential was missing from the product, then maybe you shouldn't have bought it, or you could have waited until the price came down to a more reasonable level. Free upgrades and add-ons are a nice bonus, but it's not something the manufacturer owes us.
You say that if it were 4.99 "maybe"...seems to me that it is a feature that you really couldn't care less about if you wouldn't even spend 4.99. The incentive for developers to create and sell apps is so that they can make a profit. I don't shoot Sony, but if I did, I would spend the money for this app. In fact if they made a decent Tilt Shift lens, I would sell my Canon gear and go Sony just for this app. HINT, HINT!
That's certainly a great app. But still not as good as my preferred Sony camera App, the Smooth Reflection App. Both apps output RAW but the Smooth Reflection App can do it from hundred exposures rather than just three. Which gives much more post processing latitude.
Hmmm... Reading the original post I am under the impression that this is a kind of digital graduated ND, and that its objective is to set different exposure in different area of the *same* shot. If this is really changing the photosites amplifier row by row, could be even better than a physical graduated ND for dynamic range ...
Hand holding might be a problem, but luckily you could just throw the camera on a tripod and use your smartphone to adjust all camera settings and never have to touch it for the shot.
Well, glad Sony is still putting out upgraded apps. This looks like it will be much better than the kind of underwhelming original. But, $30 is kind of outrageous for this one trick pony for images with a clean horizon. In camera App pricing should be like phone app pricing, not $30 a pop!
I'd much prefer if Sony would make a more complete API for tethering and update the in camera apps with better functionality. I'd like to do focus stacking, and using the precision and repeat ability of the built in lens focus motors. However, the "Bracket Pro" app gives you a whopping 3 different images - an entirely arbitrary number that shows that "Bracket Pro" is no such thing.
So, since Sony won't create an app for focus stacking, they should at least let their API control focusing so I could tether to a phone or laptop to create stacks. I'm interested in stacks enough to buy an app for it, but not enough to want to buy a $500+ motorized macro sled to do it.
Very interesting app. I'm not sure, though, if I could get the hang of "post processing" my photo before I take the shot. For me, I think I'd prefer to just exposure bracket and deal with merging afterwards.
I am not worried about doing manipulations while hand-holding but more interested in knowing if it takes multiple shots and merged them? That could make it harder to handhold. Though having said that it's possible to handhold for MFNR.
Although I like the idea of adding apps to my A7II, in actual practice, the Play Memories experience (https://www.playmemoriescameraapps.com/portal/) when adding an app to the camera is a nightmare. I have added a few apps by connecting my camera to my iMac, but each time it is extremely painful. I'm not sure, but I think it might play better on a PC than a Mac, though maybe someone else can confirm this. If you get caught in the "PMCADownloader" death spiral, just walk away or you will soon find yourself throwing things. Please Sony, fix this and make it straightforward and consistent across platforms, i.e. browsers, Mac and Windows, etc. and provide clear directions that you have tested thoroughly.
I agree completely - it is a broken mess and for someone using a Mac, its more painful. Now how I alleviated this issue? I just setup PayPal as my preferred option for payment on playmemories website on my mac and then went on to purchase and download apps from my A7Rii itself. No connecting to the Mac and PMCADownloader mumbo jumbo. Works like a charm.
I agree with You, I have the same problem, I can not make a download with my Mac. Always the same problem, dowload , restar and than the same nightmare, No succeesfull download
But the whole Sony app thing is poorly thought out and unnecessarily aggravates customers. After charging $1k-$3k for a cam body, Sony has the temerity to charge an extra $10 for software that should have been included and is a hassle to install.
Sony has a real problem with user interfaces. Like that awful video button that can't be pressed without fumbling. And nobody really likes the menu design, they just get beaten down and accept it.
I am finding the Playmemories experience very seamless and without issues. I use it from the camera alone though. I would never even consider to install Sony software on my Mac or PC. I am using a RX100m3.
I agree with Falconeyes, I've always installed through wi-fi direct to my A7. The first time was a pain because of the lack of a keyboard for name input, etc. but from then on the info is saved and it's simple.
I have to admit, somewhat embarrassingly, that I had not recently given the wifi option a chance. I tried it early on and, finding the typing of username/password frustrating (I think I had fat-fingered the password and it was downhill from there), as noted by Eric Hensel and probert500, I focused on the USB connection method and, myopically, never dug myself out of my stupor of frustration. So, I agree, having just updated one of my apps via the wifi method, that it is much easier and removes all frustration. Thanks to all above who mentioned this.
This is pretty cool. Certainly cheaper than an actual ND grad. Would love to see an in-depth review and comparison to some high quality glass ND grads.
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