5D Mark II’s – Calumet UK

Canon Rumors
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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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  • I posted this last night in the ACR comments, but I thought I would post it here so people saw it:

    Basically what I am getting at is ACR 5.2, in my opinion, really blows at converting the RAWs from the 5D Mark II compared to DPP, especially at high ISOs. No, I don’t have a camera of my own just yet (but hopefully soon – I ordered mine the day it was announced), but I did get my gritty little fingers on some 25,600 ISO raw files. I converted them in both programs using the same settings (no image adjustment, 100% chroma noise, 0% luma noise) and the results where staggering. DPP creates significantly finer noise, sharper detail and kills the chroma noise. ACR on the other hand can’t handle the color noise, tends to blur details somehow, and you get a weird geometric patterning that is absent in the DPP conversion. I LOVE ACR and I downloaded the demo of CS4 specifically for this purpose. But I have to say I am very disappointed with its handling of this file. Other opinions?? …

    I’ll post the links in another comment incase it doesn’t let me post links either …

  • Any idea on what Aperture or Lightroom are like with the same files? (I’ll be doing my own tests come next week – just wondering!)

  • Here are the links please don’t moderate me this time ;-)

    DPP
    freeimagehosting.net/uploads/6fceef0f9b.jpg

    ACR
    freeimagehosting.net/uploads/36ca637dc7.jpg

    your conclusions? (these are 100% crops at 25,600 ISO on the new 5D Mark II)

    I wouldn’t say these are conclusive and final, but I would say it is a fairly controlled. have you found similar results? …

  • DPP is the best IMO for Raw conversion. It’s amazing how much leniency it gives you before any kind of noise is introduced. The noise reduction function is a bit pants on colours though (seems to shift them), but curves and exposure adjustment are brilliant in DPP.

  • anonsk: Thanks for those… That’s a amazing difference….

    Out of interest, have you tried (or would you get a chance to try) using dcraw to convert them? We use that a lot here for automated conversions…..

  • 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’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!

  • just got the ‘ol “Your comment is awaiting moderation”, so you’ll need to wait to read my comment ;-)

  • I totally agree with the comments that DPP handles Raw files better than ACR. I’d already noticed that with early versions of both.having said that I really like the interface of ACR but now I try to avoid using it.

  • I got a phone call this afternoon telling me that it was already ready to be picked up… Was just a shame I was on a train to Yorkshire at the time!

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