Hi There

I am new to shooting RAW. Since getting my new E-PL1 I have been shooting both JPEG and RAW at thee same time.

I have uploaded the Olympus program, but I must say I don't like it as it wants to upload everything directly (I prefer maintaining control and check things in folders before). Also, when I tried to change things with ib, the slider didn't seem to be very responsive.

I have now downloaded UFRAW which I use with Gimp. I think the control are really good in this and it's so easy to adjust WB with it and correct exposure. It's incredible when you have not used RAW before.

However, I am having some problems with (I believe) they files themselves as they come out of the camera. The JPEGs have crisp colours, great comlour rendition, and the lines are straight. When I open the RAW files, they have strong lines distortion, the colours are quite faded and lacking punch. Why would JPEG and RAW files be so different? I can understand they might handle the colour differently, but why would there be distortion in the RAW files than is not present in the JPEGS?

Am I doing something wrong? Could it be do to the fact that I sue UFRAW? Or is anyone else experiencing these problems?

Thanks

Cosimo

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E-PL1
Olympus Zuiko 14-42mm F3.5-5.6; Olympus OM Zuiko 50mm F1.8

Cosimo, 1st off...Welcome.
Your raw problem may be due to the converter. I don't believe anything supports the new raw files yet. Hopefully that's all that's wrong. You may want to post a raw file and see if any one here can convert it and see the results.
The jpegs from the Oly cameras are some of the best out there...
shooter

__________________
"If you don't stand for something,
You'll fall for anything."

http://www.streetshooter.us

~ Shooter's Flickr photostream

thanks Shooter
for the welcome and for the answer. Well the UFRAW seems to support Olympus in general, and I am able to open the files and actually it looks like it makes it really easy to work on them. But what I am surprised about is the lack of quality to start with. There is a sort of pincushion (I think) which is really strong and is not apparent in the JPEG.

I am quite happy to upload both files (so people can see the difference) but I suppose they are quite large. Also (and here it show my being a total newby) would it matter which program you use to open a RAW file?

Thanks again

Cosimo

__________________
E-PL1
Olympus Zuiko 14-42mm F3.5-5.6; Olympus OM Zuiko 50mm F1.8

Cosimo,
The raw should open in any converter provided the program supports the file. To date, I'm unsure which programs do support the new camera. It sounds like your converter is not updated to read the file. Lens corrections are generally incorporated in the converter....

__________________
"If you don't stand for something,
You'll fall for anything."

http://www.streetshooter.us

~ Shooter's Flickr photostream

Welcome to the brand new world of in-camera optical correction... No hope for ufraw here, but you might try hugin http://hugin.sourceforge.net/, there's a tool to correct lenses aberrations.

I will try that, and I will also try ib, the program from Olympus. I will just have to make sure that i change the options so that it won't open everything by default.

So that I understand this, does it mean that the jpegs that come out of the camera are already adjusted for lens aberration? And does it mean that it i open the raw file with another converter, it might rad in a different way?

Sorry if I'm being a bit thick here :-P

Cosimo

__________________
E-PL1
Olympus Zuiko 14-42mm F3.5-5.6; Olympus OM Zuiko 50mm F1.8

You ain't no thicker than me...
Yes, the jpegs are some what corrected. You can see differences in different converters with raw files. I use PS4 and LR3 Beta....

__________________
"If you don't stand for something,
You'll fall for anything."

http://www.streetshooter.us

~ Shooter's Flickr photostream

Hi Cosimo, and a huge welcome to exactly the right place make yourself right at home

The E-PL1 is so new that the major raw converter vendors will have to reverse engineer the raw format (should be quite straightforward, since it's likely to be almost identical to the E-P1/2) and produce a colour profile which works.

Every raw converter will have a different colour signature - and I personally don't think any of them compare well to the Olympus colour signature... which you get for free using out of camera jpeg or from raw using Olympus Master/Studio/IB software.

jpegs are corrected for distortion - many 3rd party converters do not automatically correct for distortion - but can do so if you know how to use the tools.

Will say more later - just about to sit down to dinner (tea here in Yorkshire)

Cheers

Brian

Now, your jpegs are essentially the best IQ you can get out of the camera - short of spending a lot of time mastering

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Founder, Olympus Photo Safari Group
http://www.ukphotosafari.org

thanks Shooter and Brian

I had not realised as much. I had a look and there is a plugin for ufraw called lensfun, but apparently it's a beta version and the developer suggest only experienced people should use it. So that's a no-no for me.

I will give ib another try. I wasn't impressed as it keeps on hijacking every photo file and try to upload them straight away. I will need to look at the settings and make sure I control it.

I am so impressed though about the quality of the jpegs out of the camera, that I'm tempted to just continue shooting jpeg. But everyone suggests otherwise.

Cheers

Cosimo

__________________
E-PL1
Olympus Zuiko 14-42mm F3.5-5.6; Olympus OM Zuiko 50mm F1.8

Hi Cosimo,

I think you're doing the right thing - shooting raw + jpeg and keep the raw files for your archive (effectively, they're the digital negative).

To improve on the jpegs, you'd have to master a decent raw converter... which will take some time - in the meantime, the jpegs are pretty darned good.

Cheers

Brian

__________________
Founder, Olympus Photo Safari Group
http://www.ukphotosafari.org