Rocks and Ice

January 19, 2008 in Photo | No comments

While out for a walk, I saw ice on the water surface and some rocks. This is one of the images of the series, “Rocks and Ice XXI” as it came from the camera (the raw converter, actually).

Rocks and Ice XXI (original)

Here is what the image looks like after some mild editing:

Close-up of Rocks and Ice

Rocks and Ice XXI

The web version looks pretty good, but I am still not entirely happy with the way the prints for this series are turning out. The prints lack the final bit of “punch” that I’m looking for. I think a lot more time in Photoshop is called for … 

Measuring Konica-Minolta DiMAGE A2 Sensor Noise

November 29, 2007 in Hardware, Photography, Review | 1 comment

My sensor measurement series (G9 and 5D) continues. This time, I measured a Konica-Minolta DiMAGE A2, a 8MP camera which was introduced in 2004. How does it compare to a modern 12MP Canon G9?

Konica-Minolta
DiMAGE A2		 Canon G9
ISO 64 / 80 Konica-Minolta DiMAGE A2 ISO 64 f3.5 1/50 Canon G9 ISO 80 f3.2 1/60s
ISO 100 Konica-Minolta DiMAGE A2 ISO 100 f3.2 1/60 Canon G9 ISO 100 f3.2 1/80s
ISO 200 Konica-Minolta DiMAGE A2 ISO 200 f3.5 1/100 Canon G9 ISO 200 f3.2 1/160s
ISO 400 Konica-Minolta DiMAGE A2 ISO 400 f4.5 1/125 Canon G9 ISO 400 f4.5 1/160s
ISO 800 Konica-Minolta DiMAGE A2 ISO 800 f6.3 1/125 Canon G9 ISO 800 f6.3 1/160s
ISO 1600 N/A Canon G9 ISO 1600 f8 1/200s

Up to ISO 100 there is little difference between the cameras. At ISO 200 and above the 12MP sensor of the G9 shows more noise than the 3 year older 8MP sensor of the A2.

According to dpreview.com the DiMAGE A2 has a 2/3″ (8.80 x 6.60 mm) sensor. The G9 sensor is a 1/1.7″ (7.60 x 5.60 mm) unit. In other words: the pixel pitch is much smaller on the G9. Noise seems to be inversely proportional to the pixel pitch, so it is not surprising that the G9 does worse than the A2.

What happens when the images are run through Noise Ninja?

Konica-Minolta
DiMAGE A2
(Noise Ninja)		 Canon G9
(Noise Ninja)
ISO 64 / 80 Konica-Minolta DiMAGE A2 ISO 64 f3.5 1/50 NN Canon G9 ISO 80 f3.2 1/60s
ISO 100 Konica-Minolta DiMAGE A2 ISO 100 f3.2 1/60 NN Canon G9 ISO 100 f3.2 1/80s
ISO 200 Konica-Minolta DiMAGE A2 ISO 200 f3.5 1/100 NN Canon G9 ISO 200 f3.2 1/160s
ISO 400 Konica-Minolta DiMAGE A2 ISO 400 f4.5 1/125 NN Canon G9 ISO 400 f4.5 1/160s
ISO 800 Konica-Minolta DiMAGE A2 ISO 800 f6.3 1/125 NN Canon G9 ISO 800 f6.3 1/160s
ISO 1600 N/A Canon G9 ISO 1600 f8 1/200s

Up to ISO 200, there is little difference between the cleaned up images. At ISO 400 there is slightly more noise in the G9 image, but the difference is very slight. At ISO 800 the A2 image seems definitely cleaner than the G9 image.

I am surprised that in three years there is no improvement in sensor noise. Well, there might have been if you where to create a 2/3″ 8MP sensor with todays technology, but unfortunately there is no such product.

Measuring Canon EOS 5D Sensor Noise

November 8, 2007 in Hardware, Review | No comments

I continued my sensor noise measurements, this time with a Canon EOD 5D. The setup was the same as previously, the only change being the exact location of the WhiBal card.

Surprisingly (at least to me) there is a little noise evident even at the very lowest ISO settings. Read the rest of this entry »

Measuring Canon G9 Sensor Noise

November 4, 2007 in Hardware, Photography, Review | 1 comment

I recently decided that a new tool would be nice and that I needed a fairly compact camera that performs well under low light conditions. Both the Canon G9 and the Panasonic DMC-FZ18 seemed interesting from their specs. [I also looked at FujiFilms offering because in the past they performed very well at high ISO. Unfortunately, a camera with the SuperCCD and image stabilization is currently missing from their model lineup.]
Trawling the net for hard information on sensor noise for these fairly new cameras proved to be a frustrating experience. There seems to be very little information available that allows a good comparison of various cameras. Yes, I know there are many snapshots available, but the conditions under which they are taken varies greatly.
The big review sites (I personally prefer dpreview.com) are somewhat better, but none had a review of both cameras online. In fact, dpreview had published a review on neither camera.
So I decided to create my own test setup to determine how the cameras that I have access to perform and to allow a comparison. Because I just got it, I started with the Canon G9.
Read the rest of this entry »

Using Lightroom with Expression Media to Add Metadata to RAW Files

November 3, 2007 in Software, Technique | 1 comment

In the past, I have used Capture One Pro (C1) to edit the RAW files (which I exclusively shoot) and then output JPEG files. I would then employ iView Media Pro to add metadata to both the RAW the JPEG files. I exported the metadata to a XMP sidecar file for each RAW file and archived the RAW with the sidecar XMP.

It turns out that this workflow is far from ideal: both the RAW and the JPEG files’ metadata needs to be kept in sync. If I go back to create another JPEG from a RAW that has already be processed, I have to manually copy the metadata from the RAW to the new JPEG because C1 3.x looses most of the metadata during processing.

When Adobe Lightroom (LR) came out, I started using it and eventually replaced C1 with it because (among other reasons) it supports XMP metadata very well. I can now add metadata to a RAW file and it will be preserved no matter what I do with the file in Lightroom (or Photoshop, for that matter).

But here the problems started: Read the rest of this entry »

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