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Lens profiles for Leica lenses?


joeq

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It's down to Adobe.

No, it's not.

 

Actually I am waiting for Leica to provide manufacturer-made lens profiles for use with Adode Camera Raw and Lightroom since the lens profile feature was introduced. Sigma was very quick with providing profiles for all current Sigma lenses. Leica, however, keeps sleeping—which is particularly aggravating as Lightroom is bundled as Leica's official post-processing software package, so they should be interested in taking full advantage of all the features this software has to offer :mad:

 

Unfortunately, the Adobe Lens Profile format is poorly designed so it's unable to address colour casts that vary across the frame. Still, it's better than no profile at all, as it can address geometric distortions and light fall-off.

 

Anyway ... until Leica eventually wake up, I am using the Alpa Lens Corrector plug-in for Photoshop (which addresses geometry only); it has lens profiles for all current (and a few older) Leica M lenses.

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Well, it looks like the profiles are starting to appear, just a little slowly (and poorly documented.)

 

I noticed today that the new release candidate for Lightroom (3.4) mentioned some Leica lenses, only they were mis-labeled as Nikons in the press release:

 

Lens Mount Lens Name

Nikon Leica APO-MACRO-SUMMARIT-S 1:2.5/120mm

Nikon Leica SUMMARIT-S 1:2.5/35mm ASPH.

Nikon Leica SUMMARIT-S 1:2.5/70 mm ASPH.

 

Downloading the latest version ( found here ) shows the following profiles:

 

leica_profiles.jpg

 

Of course, just my luck... they aren't lenses I own. Though I suppose I could buy one, just to see if the correction works...

 

Cheers,

James

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Actually I don't want any digital fiddling with my lens character, I have Leica lenses for the way they render. They don't need "improvement" .

 

Seems Leica/Adobe have different thoughts about this...

 

Oh well, it's just for those mediocre S lenses :rolleyes:

 

Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw 6.4 | digital camera raw file support - Adobe Labs

 

i think it's a good thing Leica/Adobe provide this option, users are free to use this if they feel it enhances there photo's. Can't see anything wrong with that.

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Though I suppose I could buy one, just to see if the correction works...

 

 

You realize, of course, that these are for the S2. The set of 3 lenses would only cost you about $19k before tax. Or, you could wait for the CS versions and spend another $4k.

 

Oh, but then you'd probably want the camera, too...add another $23-$28k before tax.

 

Let us know how things work.:D

 

 

 

Jeff

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Seems Leica/Adobe have different thoughts about this...

 

Oh well, it's just for those mediocre S lenses :rolleyes:

 

Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw 6.4 | digital camera raw file support - Adobe Labs

 

i think it's a good thing Leica/Adobe provide this option, users are free to use this if they feel it enhances there photo's. Can't see anything wrong with that.

As long as we don't know what the lens profiles actually correct, it is nearly impossible to say anything about it. At a guess I would say that the S2 lenses are so perfect that "character" read specific aberrations, does not come into the equation. More likely a remnant of vignetting and distortion is finetuned here.
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You're right Peter. If it gets done, it's a plus.

 

Perhaps Adobe will soon begin introducing them for the M.

 

For my Nikon equipment, I find the idea of lens profiles a no-brainer necessity. For Leica, it's much less necessary. But if they come, I'll use them. :)

 

Even if the profiles are dummies that don't do anything, I'll feel that "someone cared." :p

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As long as we don't know what the lens profiles actually correct, it is nearly impossible to say anything about it.

 

That was precisely my point :cool:

 

At a guess I would say that the S2 lenses are so perfect that "character" read specific aberrations, does not come into the equation. More likely a remnant of vignetting and distortion is finetuned here.

 

Again, every lens design is in a way a compromise, so if software can help in PP, I see no shame in that. The S lenses are no doubt outstanding, so they can come a long way without "software correction". Still I'm happy that Leica/adobe offer the option.

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