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M8raw2dng - Tool to convert Leica M8 RAW files to DNG


bla

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Thanks Arvid!

 

The site looks great, no need to be modest and I am looking forward, experimenting with the tool.

It would be very helpful, to share some short tutorials about how to use the tool to convert files for people who usually do not dive deep into computers.

 

How would I achieve to create a droplet for batch processing DNG files with the use of Apple script or Automator?

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Hello Dirk,

 

How would I achieve to create a droplet for batch processing DNG files with the use of Apple script or Automator?

 

I am not familiar with Apple but on my system the following works:

 

# global variable definitions
global TheApp, Params

# TheApp should point to the m8raw2dng executable
on setTheApp()
   set TheApp to "/Applications/m8raw2dng"
end setTheApp

# Params are the Parameters you want to hand over to the script
on setParams()
   set Params to " -v -r -b -p -o /Users/YourName/Pictures"
end setParams

# From here on leave it be
on open filelist
   setTheApp()
   setParams()
   repeat with i in filelist
       tell application "Terminal"
           activate
           set filecount to 1
           set filename to do shell script ¬
               "perl -e \"print quotemeta ('" & POSIX path of i & "');\""
           if (count of windows) is 0 then
               do script TheApp & " -i " & filename & " " & Params
           else
               do script TheApp & " -i " & filename & " " & Params in window 1
           end if
       end tell
   end repeat
end open

set filecount to 0
if filecount < 1 then
   setTheApp()
   setParams()
   tell application "Terminal"
       do script TheApp
   end tell
end if

 

Just paste to AppleScript and save as application. You have to change the TheApp path and the Params according to your needs. The droplet is now available on the site for download and I posted a more detailed explanation.

 

You can either put it into a folder containing RAW files and run it from there with double click or you can drag RAW files of your choice onto the icon.

 

Is that working for you?

 

Greetings,

Arvid

Edited by bla
Forgot to explain :)
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Just downloaded the Windows version.

 

After a reset to look in folder 102LEICA instead of 100LEICA, the program converted the images as advertised in Windows 7.

 

And the DNG files opens nicely in Adobe CS6.

 

All good! :)

 

Hi Erik,

 

nice to hear! Of course the 100LEICA was just an example. One has to take whatever folder the RAW files are stored. I created a batch file for windows easing the use of the tool and I will upload it right now. You might want to try it.

 

Greetings,

Arvid

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Both droplets works just fine, the conversions of the files are near instant.

 

Thats great :)

 

It will take some getting used to how to expose for the best result and also PP is completely different.

 

So will have to do some testing to see....

 

Thanks so far, all works.

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I think you are getting different results because the raw developer programs still take this as a standard M8 raw file. I think it is necessary to create new color profiles for the new files as they differ from the M8 files. Nevertheless do I think that the files have to be better once they are developed properly if I just look at the histograms there are so many additional values which are thrown away in a standard M8 DNG.

 

I do not have a colorchecker passport or something of that sort yet, but I will try to get hold of one soon and see if I can get to better profiles.

 

Additionally, there is one thing that might right now pose some minor problems: the conversion tool uses the color matrices from my M8, might be that they differ from yours. I plan on extracting the color matrix from a standard M8 DNG as a dummy file for a workaround as they are neither stored in the RAW nor in the JPG.

 

Just don't delete the RAW+JPG pairs for now, the conversion will definitely be improved in future versions.

 

Thanks for your feedback!

 

Arvid

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The DNG files look really good in Capture One Pro! ..

 

For some reason I can't open the DNG files in C1 Pro (7.1.5 x64) in Windows 7. Not even the thumbnails are showing. The files open fine in PS CS6 and LR, I even tried them on PSP and ACDSee and all are fine.

 

Are there some settings I must change in order to open these DNG files in C1Pro?

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Hi Phil,

Are there some settings I must change in order to open these DNG files in C1Pro?

Thank you for your input. I have not tested the files in that program, but Erik below seems to have had no problems opening them.

 

Greetings,

Arvid

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For some reason I can't open the DNG files in C1 Pro (7.1.5 x64) in Windows 7. Not even the thumbnails are showing. The files open fine in PS CS6 and LR, I even tried them on PSP and ACDSee and all are fine.

 

Are there some settings I must change in order to open these DNG files in C1Pro?

 

My C1P is on my Mac, so don't know what could be the problem. Sorry

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Arvid, the droplet is great!

The conversion works fine and the DNGs are readable with Lightroom 5 on OS X.

 

I have played a little with the files.

It seems that there are mainly two differences immediately visible, when comparing between the files when developing for B&W (I didn't test any colours):

 

- noise patterns are less obtrusive as with the original files

- more detail in shadows

 

I have one major problem though that now forbids for me to use these files unfortunately until I find a solution.

It seems, that using these direct RAW files completely circumvents the cameras ability to remove dead pixels during raw conversion.

Every single RAW file from my camera shows with this method one half row of dead pixels right in the center of the frame :-(

 

There is no easy way of removing this unfortunately.

 

This dead pixel line does not show up in the original DNG files from the camera, nor does it show in the JPG files (neither original JPGs, nor the JPGs, generated with "RAW+JPG fine").

 

Arvid, do you see any way, how to deal with such issues?

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Arvid, do you see any way, how to deal with such issues?

Hello Dirk,

 

I encounter something similar in some situations with my M8 so I have already some ideas how to address this.

1.) DNG has the option to include defective pixels so that the raw converters can interpolate them (this would increase the filesize a little bit though)

2.) interpolate the Pixels directly in the data during conversion. (i.e. fix the raw data) (this changes the raw data though)

 

Main problem right now is: how to create a sensor mapping? Manually would be easy but tedious (though you only have to do it once), automatically is a lot of programming effort, error handling, testing... I can't decide on how to do it.

 

But be assured that there will be a solution as I myself have this issue... :)

 

Arvid, Erik:

 

Any Win 7 users out there tried the DNG files on C1Pro?

 

I tried it (unfortunately also on Mac) with C1Pro 7.1.4. No problems there... So I think that there is something else messed up especially since the files do open in all DNG converters fine.

 

@all: I experimented with the color profiles a little bit more and found out some interesting things.

1.) Lightroom doesn't care for the embedded color matrices as long as it recognizes the camera model (in our case M8), so I changed the tool to give "M8RAW Digital Camera" as model.

2.) Thanks to M9 owner photoallee (Carsten) I am now in possession of an uncompressed M9 DNG and extracted the color matrice and included them in the conversion tool. I somehow like how the converted files look like.

3.) I changed the method of Blacklevel determination. Now some more Pixels are set to black but I feel like it works better now.

 

Not sure though if these changes justify the release of v1.1... and if you want to try it :)

 

Cheers, Arvid

Edited by bla
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