Robin128 wrote:
Offertonhatter

That's why I drive a T5 and not a 330i.

In marketing terms....cost leadership comes to mind....loved all my Pentax cameras....why pay more for a brand?



Rob

MattMatic wrote:
In response to some other threads, I thought it appropriate to give a little guidance on the way you should set up a Windows machine for colour with Capture One and Photoshop.

First of all, you need to decide on a colour space you are going to work with (as a rule). I suggest one of three:

• AdobeRGB: my preferred everyday choice. This can handle a good range of colours and is ideally suited for printing - both offset litho and modern inkjets (which have driver options for AdobeRGB)

• ProPhoto: an astonishingly wide colour gamut. This can cover almost any colour you can see. However, because it is so wide you should always work in 16-bit per pixel mode, otherwise you risk posterisation. If you want to eek out every ounce of colour detail, or have absolutely precise adjustments in colour, then this is a great colour space.

• sRGB: if you don't want to get bogged down in colour stuff, then sRGB is the choice for you! It's the gamut that the web uses, as well as most high-street and internet printing services. It's pretty cramped colour wise, but generally it will do fine (but this one is last on my list when it comes to editing images!).

Calibrate your monitor
An absolutely essential step! Preferably you should use something like a Spyder/Huey etc which will physically measure your screen and produce a profile. Failing that there's the free WiziWYG from www.praxisoft.com - which is available for both Mac and PC (95,98,XP).

If you use WiziWYG, pick "Generic LCD" if you have an LCD monitor, and use D50 white point (but have very subdued lighting in the room), and 2.2 gamma.

Once your monitor is calibrated Windows will always display through that profile - you never need to reference the monitor profile again (it is used by the video driver, and once setup should always use it).

Setting up Capture One
Go into the colour management settings and set "Output destination (working space)" to your chosen colour space.
e.g. AdobeRGB

Never should this be your monitor profile or anything else. Capture One will translate the CCD information, using the "Camera Profile" you choose (e.g. Pentax istD generic v2) into that working space. This working space should be a standard - i.e. one of the three I listed above.

It's worth noting that you can try other "Camera Profiles" for your Pentax DSLR. Try any of the Nikon D100 profiles as they share the same sensor Capture One provides a "Portrait" profile that has much more muted colours. By changing the camera profile C1 is assuming the DSLR has a slightly different response - but still it will convert into the "Working space" - which should be AdobeRGB (or one of the others).

Setting up Photoshop
Go into the "Color Settings" dialog and, under "Working Spaces", set RGB to your chosen colour space.
e.g. AdobeRGB.

The "Conversion Options" can be set as follows:
Engine = Adobe (ACE)
Intent = Relative Colormetric
Use black point compression = checked
Use dither (8-bit/channel images) = checked

Under CS and CS2 there are "Soft Proof" options. For 99% of photographic work you should completely ignore this and not enable the Soft Proof! I'll can explain, but it's another huge chunk of info...

Saving for Web
If you are not using sRGB as your chosen colour space, then before you save for web you need to convert into the sRGB colour space.
Photoshop provides the option to do this under the Image menu (and annoyingly CS/CS2 puts it in a different place compared to PS7 and before).


I'll update this post with some more details later, but hopefully this should clear away some misunderstandings of colour!

MattMatic wrote:
Do you mean "it took a long time to transfer the files to the PC", or do you mean "it took a long time to produce JPG images"?

i) Copying 2Gb takes a while - and this will be the same time whether it's 2Gb of JPG or 2Gb of PEF or 2Gb of DNG. I use the Sandisk Extreme III card reader - fastest card reader I have.

ii) Converting RAW into JPG/TIFF does take a while. You have more flexibility, and more options for noise reduction & sharpening. Some RAW converters are achingly slow, others are faster. Lightroom and Capture One provide background processing - so you can be working on the next shot(s) while the previous one is being processed. Other converters work in a batch mode (like Silkypix). I would reckon around 30 seconds per image for a K20D RAW file (even on a fast machine).

Do be aware that there is an embedded JPG image inside each RAW file. That can be extracted using a stand-alone tool.


If JPG suits your needs, then yes, without a doubt it will always be faster.
If you want to eek the greatest amount of detail (both sharpness and tone) then RAW is definitely the way to go.

I would say - consider using RAW if you have reached a "ceiling" in your image processing and expectations. RAW heightens the bar but at the cost of data storage and time If you are not feeling limited by JPG - then continue using it!!

HTH!
Matt

Greytop wrote:
Hello Rees,
it may also be worth having a look at CaptureOne4 from PhaseOne http://www.phaseone.com/

Very intuitive work flow and batch processing if you want. I use it pretty much exclusively now with my RAW files.

BTW CaptureOne prefers PEF RAW format

Snootchies wrote:
Hi Rees.

If you are interested in sheer speed; try Fastone Image Viewer. It's free; and you can perform batch jpeg conversion from PEF RAW files.

I always prefer the way my RAW files are shown in Fastone as opposed to how Photoshop initially previews them; and if I'm not bothered with a bit of post processing work (read: i've got LOADS to do and not enough time); i'm always happy in doing a batch conversion from Fastone.

For greater control and flexibilty, then yes you must use Photoshop, or Lightroom. But with that becomes the issue of time consumtion.

It's striking the balance between the two really....

Personally though I enjoy processing my pics in Photoshop, and for a pic to get just 'right' I dont mind how long it takes - it's part of my creative relationship with digital photography.

shim wrote:
Camera shops have had their day. All the high profit margin lines are gone. D&P gone. Projector Bulbs and trays (massive profits gone). Paper and chemicals (gone). Fuji and other decent margin film (gone) Kodak film very low margin (gone). Cine cameras and film (gone). People trading up SLR's and lenses (gone). Polaroid Cameras and Film (gone). Filters (gone apart from POL and UV). Projectors and screens (gone). Enlargers lenses and timers + dev. equipment (gone). Batteries (now sold everywhere) That's the bulk of the profits gone.

All that's left is Mail Order Digital Cameras and lenses, flashguns and if they aren't doing that there isn't much of a future for them.
shim

greynolds999 wrote:
My personal view is for an MZ-7. Mine has never let me down. Yes, it has lots of fancy features but I leave it on Manual, usually with a manual 50mm lens and a roll of Ilford FP4.

Becasue it's the closest thing to a DSLR you still have autofocus and various programme modes, if you want them.

BUT... don't worry too much about the camera. Make sure it has a Manual option (and AV for when you're feeling lazy) and appreciate how much more you start to concentrate when every shutter press costs you money!