What software will I need for an M8?

[ammitsboel]

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Henrik--I'm not sure what you're asking. What's different with other cameras?

 

At one point, LR and ACR used "scripts" to align the "color settings" of the program. You could get much better results for any camera by aligning the color with the script, though you were still stuck with the basic color interpretation.

 

In the last versions of ACR and LR, Adobe introduced a new way to "profile" cameras with their own proprietary system. That's what the other thread was talking about, and yes, I remember it. Nothing I saw in that thread changed my mind about LightRoom or ACR To my eyes, and to my way of thinking, it's much improved over the original system, but you're still essentially stuck with the way LR renders. And in difficult light (like tungsten) I find LR mushy in the reds, overly magenta and has a very weird cyan profile... all of which truly limit the M8 and the DMR.

 

By contrast, C1 Pro lets you use standard ICC profiles and edit them. They will work in any version of any program that uses ICC profiles. So, for example, I can output conversions within a camera input space and then work on them seemlessly in Photoshop. However, I can't do the same in LR; on output I'm in aRGB or sRGB or ProPhoto... Further, I can (and did) edit and create M8 profiles, for example, in PM5 and other ICC editors. I could do much more (like isolate magenta only in certain grey tones) in the ICC editors than I could ever do in LR.

 

Of course, with enough work (eg post processing) you may get far enough from the color of the default RAW interpretation that it may not matter--except for the time you put in, and for the simple but important fact that while it's easy to mimic LR's output from C1, it's nearly impossible to recreate C1 colour output from LR

 

As for other cameras, yes, I think ACR and LR are actually best with Canon RAW files. FWIW, I don't like what they do to my Nikon files either (but then it has a different colour balance overall than the Canons). But to be honest I've spent zero time worrying about the Nikon's colour, because C1 does such a good job with it (and it's worth pointing out I prefer Leica's colour in the M8 and DMR to either Canon or Nikon. Must be a CCD vs CMOS thing).

 

Thanks, this makes a lot of sence to me.

I actually like the workflow in C1 despite what others say.

How is it easy to mimic LR's output in C1?

What do you not like with Canon and C1 compared to Canon and ACR?

 

Regards

Henrik

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[Jamie Roberts]

Thanks, this makes a lot of sence to me.

I actually like the workflow in C1 despite what others say.

How is it easy to mimic LR's output in C1?

What do you not like with Canon and C1 compared to Canon and ACR?

 

Regards

Henrik

 

Henrik--

 

The "out of the box" profiles from C1 are often a bit weird. For years, the best way to get good colour from a Canon 1ds2 or 5d in C1 was to use Magne Neilson's ETC profiles. They were the gold standard for use in C1.

 

By contrast, it's much quicker and easier to get reasonable results from a Canon with LR or ACR, especially now with their simpler "profiling" method.

 

I don't know why this is, except for the obvious market reason that Canon has more bodies out there than anyone else, and Adobe needed to make sure that the results were good there.

 

But the best results from a Canon, at least up until the 5d / 1d3--IMO--still come from C1 and custom or hand-tweaked profiles.

 

Now, the Leicas are the total opposite from Canon (I'd say it's a CCD vs CMOS thing but more about Nikon in a minute). In ACR / LR the files simply aren't very good, and flesh tones especially range from downright rotten to simply overly lobster-like. Of course, with a lot of work, some of this can be mitigated (but not very easily or consistently).

 

OTH, I can easily make a DMR file in C1 (or Flex Color, come to that) more magenta and cyan and more contrasty in the upper quartertone (the way LR / ACR renders it).

 

The M8 is just the worst in ACR / LR, IMO.

 

But the hardest camera for colour overall, IMO, is the Nikon D3 / D700. It's just, um, weird with skin, and you need to process it very carefully. If I didn't know better than to say this, I'd say it might even have a little IR over-sensitiity (!!), though nothing like the M8's.

 

Still, it's C1 with a custom profile that gives me the best results. No amount of tweaking in LR / ACR makes me like the colour (especially, again, skin tones) of my D3.