They want your money
I've been told Calumet in the UK is calling all preorders to collect their cash. The cameras will be available for pickup on Monday or Tuesday.
thanks hugh
cr
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18 Comments
never heard of it. I’ll have to give it a try. Does it have a particular reputation for a specific quality in its raw conversions. I also tried DXO Optics 5.3 raw converter (the 5D Mark II is not supported but have tried it with my 5D and 50D) and too have been dissapointed in certain regards. At high ISOs it simply smothers details with *no* noise reduction – it is just the raw conversion engine. It creates a very fine grain, but as it is pasted on an overly smooth image, it just doesn’t look right. I’ll have to dig up some comparisons for you to post later today maybe. I’ll also look into dcraw (free trial??)
dcraw is great because it’s open-source and free and command-line, which is great for those of us who have huge amounts of conversions that we want to process over a number of machines. (Works on Linux, OSX and Windows, too)
I’m not sure it’s quality is particularly highly regarded, but it’d be good to see where it stands by DPP and ACR
If you’re on OSX, do grab this version (ready-compiled for OSX):
http://www.insflug.org/raw/
It was rebuilt yesterday, so I’m assuming it’s got the 5D MkII support built in.
Just saw your comment about DXO… I’d imagine you’d see the same results from dcraw – just doing the raw conversion. I don’t think dcraw does anything clever other than the debayering.
I got the call about my preorder yesterday. I got the kit. It’s in the mail now.
I’m hoping to hear from my store today about whether I might get it this week, or if I’ll need to wait till next week.
As far as conversions go, here are two examples at 6400 ISO (a little more realistic shooting speed). The results aren’t so stark, but the difference is still there. Do you think its enough to warrent interupting my workflow for that extra quality? I guess for an 8×10 print, no. But for a 24×36, it may just be worth it. What do you think?
DPP: freeimagehosting.net/uploads/31394d40bd.jpg
ACR: freeimagehosting.net/uploads/6c2d7ad3dd.jpg
I couldn’t find my examples of my DXO conversions (I printed them, so I might consider scanning a close up detail to post), and my trial has run out, so I guess you’ll just have to try it yourself.
This whole raw conversion stuff is a little frustrating, hey? ACR is beautifully integrated into my workflow, but the difference is quite stark in my opinion (but the prints will be the real tellers). I think I’m done searching for raw converters – ACR for small stuff, DPP for real important stuff and thats that.
Can’t wait for this camera though! I would have to say that the noise is worse at 25,600 ISO than the D700, but its twice the megapixels, so its a trade off. And at 6400 I’d say they are tied! Wow!