Advice please - image sharp in camera, blurred when imported.

[Denys]

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Hi! I wonder if someone can help me(looked at forum FAQ but didn’t find a match). I took lots of images with M9-P yesterday. Battery wasn’t flat and I didn’t turn the camera off before images were written to memory card. All images look sharp in camera using PLAY mode, and zoom in confirms that. Most are the same when imported to iPad using card reader. Plenty of room in iPad storage. For a handful of images they are fuzzy after import to iPad. Tried a few times, deleting images from iPad in between. Anyone experienced this? Thanks in advance for any help!

Edited June 11, 2018 by Denys

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[Mark II]

If you are shooting in RAW (DNG files), iOS's Photos app will currently only display the DNG file's low resolution JPEG preview. This will look horribly pixelated and low resolution, but if this is your problem there are some workarounds:

 

1) shoot JPEG or JPEG+RAW. If you enable both, iOS will display the JPEG file but when you get home you can still copy the RAW files off the iPad (eg using Image Capture on a Mac)

 

2) use non-Apple software to open and view the files once they are imported to iOS. I use Affinity Photo, and this will open and edit the DNGs correctly, and I believe that Lightroom for iOS can do the same. It is a bit clunky needing to use another app just to view the files though.

 

3) upgrade to iOS 12, which in theory will allow Photos to use DNGs directly. Unfortunately, this is currently only available as a developer beta, and it will be the autumn before the final version is available.

 

Incidentally, one of the big advantages of the M10 is that the JPEG previews in the DNG files are huge (I think full size, or nearly so). Although this increases the file size, it makes using the DNGs with iOS much easier. Leica probably has done this deliberately given their interest in supporting iOS via the WiFi connection.

[Denys]

If you are shooting in RAW (DNG files), iOS's Photos app will currently only display the DNG file's low resolution JPEG preview. This will look horribly pixelated and low resolution, but if this is your problem there are some workarounds:

 

1) shoot JPEG or JPEG+RAW. If you enable both, iOS will display the JPEG file but when you get home you can still copy the RAW files off the iPad (eg using Image Capture on a Mac)

 

2) use non-Apple software to open and view the files once they are imported to iOS. I use Affinity Photo, and this will open and edit the DNGs correctly, and I believe that Lightroom for iOS can do the same. It is a bit clunky needing to use another app just to view the files though.

 

3) upgrade to iOS 12, which in theory will allow Photos to use DNGs directly. Unfortunately, this is currently only available as a developer beta, and it will be the autumn before the final version is available.

 

Incidentally, one of the big advantages of the M10 is that the JPEG previews in the DNG files are huge (I think full size, or nearly so). Although this increases the file size, it makes using the DNGs with iOS much easier. Leica probably has done this deliberately given their interest in supporting iOS via the WiFi connection.

Mark - many thanks for your comprehensive, prompt response! I thought I was shooting RAW and JPEG, but I’ve just checked and it seems I selected only RAW... ..goodness knows how I’ve done that. The main thing I don’t understand is that when I import, say, 30 images at the same time, all but 10 of them look as sharp on the iPad as on the back of the camera.. ..those 10 look sharp in camera but fuzzy on the iPad.

[Richardgb]

This has occasionally cropped up with me when quickly viewing thumbnails (with a PC, BTW, nothing to do with Apple / Mac), presumably something to do with the video card buffer memory being slower to catch up with the data being loaded onto it. In Lightroom, too, when enlarging from 'fit' to 1:1 or 3:1 there is sometimes a few seconds fuzziness until loading is finished.

 

So, what happens when loading just a single file rather than several? Is it always the same file(s) which is / are fuzzy? Can you try loading them onto another machine / via other software?

[250swb]

I think Richardgb has the answer.

[Denys]

This has occasionally cropped up with me when quickly viewing thumbnails (with a PC, BTW, nothing to do with Apple / Mac), presumably something to do with the video card buffer memory being slower to catch up with the data being loaded onto it. In Lightroom, too, when enlarging from 'fit' to 1:1 or 3:1 there is sometimes a few seconds fuzziness until loading is finished.

 

So, what happens when loading just a single file rather than several? Is it always the same file(s) which is / are fuzzy? Can you try loading them onto another machine / via other software?

 

Thanks Richard - I’ll try and report back!