Jpeg and RAW Compression Setting

[tommonego@gmail.com]

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Just found out about this, my only question is why wasn't this option set up in the firmwear, producing an uncompressed DNG? Getting there is really a chore and that it dissappears if the camera even goes to sleep. Then having to have a conversion program from a third party to produce a DNG from the Jpeg and RAW files, m8raw2dng. Just doesn't make sense. I am relatively new to the M8 (1 year). This is really a hidden feature, not well backed up but why, wouldn't an uncompressed DNG be easier. This greatly reduces noise at higher ISOs, still experimenting. 

[chris_livsey]

Bear in mind when the M8 was launched storage space on SD cards and computers was at a premium, and expensive, so compressed was seen as a positive not a negative. The firmware option may have been considered but again the memory in the camera was pushed to the limit to accommodate what it did and high iso was I think also not seen as a feature to be marketed given the known limitations of the sensor, that it was possible at all to produce a digital M was seen as a triumph whatever the limitations. The software available at the time would also not extract the performance from an uncompressed file you can see now with modern software. The free Capture One with the camera bears no resemblance to C1 v20 today in what it can to a RAW file and yes I still have it on the computer just for a laugh.

The camera needs to be seen in the context of the time, of rapid, large leaps of performance of digital cameras, it was launched in Sept. 2006 the Nikon competitor in DSLR was the just launched (June 2006) D2Xs 10mp, you don't see many of those in use today. That had iso 100-800 up to 3,200 in camera pushed and took a microdrive storage of CF card, they were horrendously expensive.

Be kind to the old girl.

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[tommonego@gmail.com]

Yes but my same vintage Nikon D200 had the option of compressed and not compressed RAW (NEF) files. Approximately 9mb vs 16mb file size. The Jpeg RAW combo on my M8 is around 20mb. The cards I use in the "old girl" are 4GB and 8GB, did fill a 4GB when trying this mode. I am using ACR for the DNG converter, but did you imply that the latest version of C1 will work with the Jpeg/RAW files? I am currently using m8RAW2DNG for the initial conversion. 

Anyway I was disappointed with the files 640 ISO and higher on the M8, but with this round about way at least ISO 640 is much better. Will have to try higher ISOs. Admittedly my D200 did not do well above ISO 800, and the D300 ISO 1600. I was very satisfied with the M8 at 160 it OK at 320. As I said I have known about this for about a week, trying to learn.

[chris_livsey]

I did not intend to imply C1 will read m8RAW2DNG files merely that current C1 will process an M8 RAW file to produce a result greatly superior to the version that was current with the M8 launch, as will all the RAW converters no doubt, the algorithms have moved on.

I applaud efforts to squeeze better high iso performance out of the M8 but if I wanted high iso I wouldn't start from an M8, it shines at base iso the rest is a compromise. I wanted to "justify" the decisions Leica made with the camera, which are assumptions and guesses mainly aiming to illustrate that:  “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”

 

 

Edited July 16, 2020 by chris_livsey