Well, I have done a first careful test shot, inside, with daylight coming through the windows on the other side of the room and a silvered light bulb above, streaming down through a brown-yellow straw lamp, a pretty nasty mixed lighting scenario. I placed my Contax 139Q on my table, put the SLR/n on the tripod, mounted the Zeiss 100MP, and exposed at ISO 6.
There is nothing really special about this shot, except for two things: first of all, I exposed poorly (and I have to figure out why), and had to increase the exposure by almost two stops, and secondly, I can't find any noise anywhere, just nice colour and lots of detail.
I developed it in Photo Desk at first, but I am not happy using two different programs for raw development, so on Bernie's recommendation, I tried it in Aperture too (well, he uses Lightroom). At a glance, the Photo Desk colours and contrast looked a lot more natural, but with a bit of fiddling, I was able to match the look in Aperture, so for now, I think I will handle things that way. I will load the shots up in Photo Desk as a reference, and only set the exposure and maybe the Look, and then do all the work in Aperture, using Photo Desk as a reference for images with tricky colours.
Next up: daylight colour testing outside, ISO 160 testing, comparison of colours to my X-Rite Passport, testing with Nikon lenses, and comparison to my Nikon D3, not necessarily all at the same time.
I was out trying my Kodak SLR/n today, and although I was generally very pleased while shooting, things changed when I got home and looked at the images. I had two corrupted images, and a fair number of images showing nasty blooming. I am wondering if this is just the nature of the beast, or if I have a camera with problems. Here are the results. Note that there is a possibility that the corrupted images were taken soon after the camera was turned on, at least for one of them.
I would appreciate any comments on this, as I am still evaluating the camera after purchasing it, and need to come to a conclusion as to whether to keep it or send it back.
Corrupted first photo, yes, sometimes. But only the first photo after power-on and only sometimes. The image itself is always fine, it's only DCS that leaves a corrupted file message. ACR opens it without issues at all. Never got a photo like the ones you show.
Photo Desk wouldn't open those two first files, but Aperture generated those images, after looking okay in the thumbnail (probably taken from the camera's thumbnail).
So, you have never seen this purple fringe stuff? Those are both with the ZF21. the sun is somewhere over the edge, but not right where the blob is.
I could live with the corrupted first image, since I only had two and know when they will happen, but the purple stuff is just wild, and a bit more than I would be happy to take on.
Photo Desk doesn't work with Windows 7 (or Vista IIRC) so I don't bother with it (I'll eventually try XP emulation, if I ever find the time). ACR does, however, seem to work pretty well with the SLR/n files. I looked at Capture One, but it unfortunately doesn't support the Kodak SLR/x cameras. At least with ACR, I've not experienced any corrupted files, or any with the blooming you are experiencing.
I have noticed a menu item called lens optimization. Is that something I can use to get rid of the purple stuff? I was using a ZF 21 (not ZF.2), so the lens was unrecognized by the camera.
carstenw wrote:
I was using a ZF 21 (not ZF.2), so the lens was unrecognized by the camera.
I guess it may be the rather extreme angle the light is falling on the sensor and microlenses with a 21mm lens. I remember having had heavy colour casts when using the SLR-n with the 28mm shift Nikkor in vertical orientation (just like you). Can't tell you about lens optimization in camera, haven't had the camera long enough yet...
And I agree with the other poster, what is a problem for photodesk may not be one with Adobe converters (PS, LR).
The lens optimization will not recognise newer lenses, not to mention adapted ones. Just set it to auto.
I think I may have run into the same corrupted problem once. I am using a 8GB Sandisk Ultra III card which it recognizes on and off until one fine day, it stopped working with that card. Now I just use Lexar cards lesser than 4GB. I do not know for sure what is the issue.
mortyb wrote:
DCS Photo Desk works perfectly on Windows 7 Home Premium.
Please tell me how. I use Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. I can not get it work, and from what i understand I am not the only one. Also, I believe development of the product ended before Vista came out.
Lotusm50 wrote:
Please tell me how. I use Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. I can not get it work, and from what i understand I am not the only one. Also, I believe development of the product ended before Vista came out.
Can't say anything else than it just works as any other application. Never been a problem at all. I use version 4.3.0.13.
BTW, my SLR/c doesn't work with SanDisk Ultra II cards. Lexars are all fine.
I have version 4.3.0.13 as well. The software seems to load OK. However, when I open a Kodak raw file (*.dcr), it crashes before it finishes opening the file. I've tried running it under various compatibility modes, but nothing seems to work.
When I think of it, I believe the guy I bought the camera from told me that Win 7 Pro would have problems with DCS while Home would not. Maybe he was right. I think ACR works OK with the Kodak files, but DCS does a better job with the colors IMO. Also you have many different picture styles to choose form (you can download more from Kodak), and they are very good.
Edit: My workstation, now partly retired, runs Win 7 Pro. I can try to install DCS on it later and see how it works out.
The card I used was a Sandisk Extreme (not III or IV, just plain). I haven't observed any problems with it, other than if the corruption is due to the card. Given that others have reported corruption if taking pictures too soon, I am not sure if there is anything left to blame on the card? The purple fringing is probably due to the angle of incidence of my ZF21 on the sensor. I am not sure why it shows up on some shots but not others, and I don't quite know what I will use instead, if it insists on behaving like this. The ZF21 is part of my holy trinity!
Paul Yi wrote:
I had a similar problem with Sandisk 8.0 GB CF Card, but the problem went away after I formatted the disk from the camera.
I hope it works out okay for you ......
Thanks Paul. I did format the card in the camera, and I don't think I had any problems with it. The other two cards I have tried did give different kinds of problems, but this one was rock-solid. I think. Hard to know, really. I will try one of Bernie's soon, just to see if it helps.
