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Poor resolution/out of focus look when zooming in on a DNG shot.


masquar

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Hi everybody,

 

I must admit that I didn't go through all the manual but from what I saw, when zooming in on a DNG shot its resolution is really poor compared with the one of the jpg shot, as a well as the DNG+jpg one. It looks like an out of focus shot.

When I discovered this I thought there was a problem with autofocus.  But after uploading the shots in the mac they looked absolutely perfect.

Does anybody know why this happens? Am I doing anything wrong?

 

Thank for your answer.

Massimo

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Don't be disappointed. If Leica included a high resolution preview JPEG in the DNG file, you would loose the advantage of the smaller file sizes when shooting JPEG only and you might as well shoot DNG+JPEG. The small embedded preview JPEG looks soft because of the high resolution EVF compared to the M9 or even M240. Have you ever noticed how small JPEGs that looks fine on older laptops all of a sudden look soft on the Retina displays? If you want to use a zoomed in view on a high resolution display, you need a big file.

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Don't be disappointed. If Leica included a high resolution preview JPEG in the DNG file, you would loose the advantage of the smaller file sizes when shooting JPEG only and you might as well shoot DNG+JPEG. The small embedded preview JPEG looks soft because of the high resolution EVF compared to the M9 or even M240. Have you ever noticed how small JPEGs that looks fine on older laptops all of a sudden look soft on the Retina displays? If you want to use a zoomed in view on a high resolution display, you need a big file.

I understand your point, but I never use JPEG and this is the only camera I have with an almost unusable embedded JPEG ( I have other Leica's, Nikon, Sony, Fuji...)

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I see this as a plausible tradeoff.  My Ricoh GR also needs to have me shoot RAW + JPEG if I want to have a decent review image in camera.  So I will probably shoot DNG + JPEG in the SL, buy bigger cards, and nag Leica to allow "split saving" so that the jpegs go onto card #2 while the DNGs which I save go on card #1.  Cards are cheap, and the SL writes them quickly.

 

scott

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Leica have adopted this with all the recent cameras ....... T, XV, Q and now SL

All use the jpg for review.

On the T this is obvious when you use the lower jpg resolution settings. 

I don't think Leica will change this as it appears to be a deliberate decision  and part of their uniformity of file handling with the firmware ..... which if they had any sense they would make as common to all platforms as possible .... saves time consuming and costly re-writes

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I see this as a plausible tradeoff.  My Ricoh GR also needs to have me shoot RAW + JPEG if I want to have a decent review image in camera.  So I will probably shoot DNG + JPEG in the SL, buy bigger cards, and nag Leica to allow "split saving" so that the jpegs go onto card #2 while the DNGs which I save go on card #1.  Cards are cheap, and the SL writes them quickly.

 

scott

 

I like the idea to split the JPG and DNG on different cards.

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Guest JonathanP

It does seem odd, given that the M240 is often criticised on here by people complaining that it has an underpowered processor, yet does provide a nice zooming preview with DNG only.

 

I wonder if this is one of the compromises needed to support a higher FPS on the SL?

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I wonder if this is one of the compromises needed to support a higher FPS on the SL?

 

I don't think so, since the fps guarantee is stated to work for DNG + JPG.  I think it is a side effect of having a 4 MPx viewfinder with which to review in camera.  I don't know how big the embedded jpeg in the M240's raw files is, but I do notice that enlarging more than 8 or 10x doesn't produce more meaningful information when checked on its LCD screen, which has about 1 MPx resolution.

 

scott

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I like how it works with the M240. I'm not sure why we're back to the M9 days.

 

Well, with the M240 and the M9 as well it was possible to have a good DNG preview in camera but zooming in was damn slow. I don't know the reason why Leica has changed the reviewing method and having a jpg close to the DNG might be useful (black and white jpg, for instance). What I see is that with the SL the reviewing speed of the image, whatever it is, has been increased a lot. I think it is worthy to be noticed that now you can shoot with the preview off and there is no frozen image that delay the next shot. This is very important to me, so far.

 

Massimo

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I seem to recall that you can tell LightRoom not to download the Jpeg files, and they get ditched with the card formatting.

 

With the M9, I followed Thorsten's advice to set the Jpeg to B&W so you got a B&W image on the LCD.  Even the Monochrom has a small embedded Jpeg for the LCD while the DNG loaded.  I don't really see this as a huge chore.  File storage is cheap, and generating a Jpeg for those times you do want to check the LCD is not really an issue.

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I seem to recall that you can tell LightRoom not to download the Jpeg files, and they get ditched with the card formatting.

 

 

Correct, if you shoot DNG+JPG but will only load DNG into Lightroom, you deactivate "Treat JPEG files next to raw files as separate photos" in Lightroom/Preferences/General.

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