New Leica M8.x firmware??!!

[jaapv]

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Michael, it makes sense to me for the Summilux 24 (and 21)It simply cannot be used wide open at 160 and 1/4000 in the daytime. The filter is quite unpractical to use, so ISO 80, with its technical drawbacks is still good news to me from a photographic point of view

[rosuna]

JPEG files aren’t derived from DNG files, unless you are talking about a raw converter on your PC. DNG is just some specific file format for raw data and it isn’t involved in the processing from 14 bit raw sensor data to JPEG output. Most importantly, there is no compression step involved, other than JPEG compression as such. Reducing the raw data to 8 bit along the way would be completely unnecessary as for any real image processing, the data would have to be expanded to 14 bits again. It would mean throwing away information for nothing and would actually increase processing time. Furthermore, processing data that was originally compressed to 8 bits would lead to a deterioration of image quality which is why compression is always applied as the very last step in the processing pipeline – sqrt compression in the case of DNGs and JPEG compression in the case of JPEG files. And it is a matter of either/or – only one of these two lossy compression methods will ever be applied.

 

So, JPEG processing time in no way depends on whether raw files are stored in compressed or uncompressed form.

 

 

JPGs are built from some kind of RAW data. The question is when the sqrt compression to RAW data is done in the pipeline, and if this has some impact on the general performance of the camera when it builds a JPG image. Does the camera get RAW data, compress it to non-linear 8-bits per channel and then builds the JPG (8 bits, linear compression) from it, storing the DNG file and JPG? Or does the camera gets the RAW data (14 bits tonal separation), and in a separate way and simultaneously generates the JPG and compressed DNG files from it? DNG is a type of file, so my first post was confusing. Call it (unstored) RAW data. Is there a sequential process like RAW(14bits)->RAW(non linear 8bits compression)->JPG(different compressions)+DNG(8bits)->storage? Or is there a paralell process like RAW(14bits)->DNG(8bits compression) & JPG(compressions)? If the first scheme is true, non linear compression of the original RAW data can be a factor in making the whole process of JPG generation faster. But you can avoid an unacceptable slowing down by allowing DNG(14bit) file output from RAW(14bits) original data if you give up JPG.

[scott kirkpatrick]

Scott,

 

I was reading it into the wording of the leaked menu shots in the Youtube movie, and it was "confirmed" by the microsite. In one of the screenshots of the microsite of the M9 with the title "Menu" it is says: "..for example automatic lens recognition by 6-Bit coding, or manual lens selection.." So if the microsite was not a fake then the M9 will have Automatic and manual lens selection and I really hope this will be made available to M8.x users. But I for me exposure bracketing would be the more important option and the ISO 80 possibility.

 

My apologies. I didn't see that in the leaked brochure. That is intriguing, since I can see Leica's interest in putting a small barrier in place against competitors'lenses. Perhaps our sharpie-coding convinced them that it was not worth the ill-feelings caused, or they have survey data that shows that making more lenses work well will sell more M8/9 camera bodies.

 

scott

 

edit: I can't find what you describe in the leaked brochure. Could you give me a hint of where you saw the description of menu entries? There might be others of interest.

[mboerma]

My apologies.

No need to apologize.

 

edit: I can't find what you describe in the leaked brochure. Could you give me a hint of where you saw the description of menu entries? There might be others of interest.

 

If you search for "Leica M9 Microsite" on Google you'll be able to find some screenshots of this Leica website which was available for a short time. Or go to the Leicarumors dot com website and find the link there. The screenshots of the websites are on Flickr. Hope this helps.

[scott kirkpatrick]

Yup, already Googled and found it.

 

scott

 

The manual lens profile selection sounds intriguing. And the use of the info button in capture mode (where in the M8, it doesn't do anything) is very sensible.-- I'd like to see that retrofitted into M8 firmware.

[mjh]

JPGs are built from some kind of RAW data.

Agreed, but not from raw files – and DNG is really just a file format for raw and meta data. There is one processing pipeline taking raw sensor data as input and delivering a DNG file as output, and a second pipeline starting with the same raw sensor data and delivering a JPEG file. Both pipelines will share some of the early stages, but from then on they diverge, never to meet again.

 

The question is when the sqrt compression to RAW data is done in the pipeline, and if this has some impact on the general performance of the camera when it builds a JPG image.

No, certainly not in the JPEG pipeline. If you apply sqrt compression to some raw data that will eventually be used to create a JPEG image, all you can with the compressed data is to expand it to its original size again. It would be difficult to do image processing with compressed data. The compression/decompression step would only add to the processing time (although not by much) and subtract from the resolution of tonal values, for absolutely no gain.