February 2004 Archives

Guggenmusic group, Bellinzona Carnival, February 2004.

An example of a photo taken at ISO 3200 - in camera noise reduction, RAW noise filter, and Olympus Studio noise filter applied.

It is hardly perfect, and possibly other cameras do better, but nevertheless it at least matches any colour slide film rated at ISO 3200!

I've just been converting some high speed (ISO 1600) photos taken last night at the carneval in Bellinzona. The differences between Adobe Camera Raw and Olympus Studio are really quite striking. I think I prefer the colour from Olympus Studio - I think it is more accurate. But ACR has more punch. Finally you end up wondering which is closest to the "truth" ...

Converted with Adobe Camera Raw:

Converted with Olympus Studio (noise reduction ON, High Speed):

Noise reduction is also interesting. I thought, from screen previews, that ACR was better. But on review in Photoshop, I found that Studio seems to do a better job - it reduces colour noise better, without losing so much detail. Of course it is not so easy to do a straight comparison, as the two programs have different controls. But for batch processing on this evidence I might tend to prefer Studio. But there are plenty more parameters to fiddle with yet.

100% zoom, ACR:

100% zoom, Studio:

One strange thing I discovered in ACR (to me anyway) is that the Preview button toggles between the current setting and the "initial" settings. Well, obviously it has to start somewhere, but it might be nicer if it used a "flat" setting as the reference, with all settings zero or neutral.

I don't know anything about this guy - just encountered his URL on the Chasseur d'Images forum.

But his daily photos, posted on his very low key website, are seriously addictive!

With all the talk of accessories and rumours of 3rd party E-System components, it is worth mentioning that one already exists: the Really Right Stuff Arca Swiss style plate for the E-1, model number BOE-1 A.

This is a really worthwhile addition to any E-1 system. I use a Acratech ball head, with an Arca Swiss style clamp, and in combination these produce a very stable platform. I also have an 84D plate for the 50-200mm lens. It isn't a perfect match - unlike the body plate it isn't a specific design - but it works.

There is also a photo of an E-1 / HLD2 with an RRS plate at Digital Outback Photo, but I don't have this one (yet), neither do I know the model number.

Anyway, RRS stuff is highly recommended.

Quick post for today:

Jon Ragnarsson has updated his Four Thirds System web page. Well worth a visit for E1 fans.

I've had a chance now to evaluate the differences between the Olympus Studio RAW conversion, and the new Photoshop CS Camera Raw 2.1. So far it isn't an easy choice.

(an inhabitant of Novaggio, Ticino, taken with the 50-200mm lens, handheld)

ACR has the big advantages of histogram display and responsiveness. The live over / under exposure warnings you can get when dragging the exposure / shadow sliders are really good. So for exposure control, no problem. ACR wins. Olympus Studio just has a single slider for increasing or reducing exposure, and, incredibly, no histogram in the RAW converter.

On the other hand, the noise reduction algorithms in Studio seem more sophisticated. ACR insists on applying colour noise reduction by default, as I've said before, but both experiment and general consensus indicate that except at ISO 3200 the E1 doesn't suffer much from this kind of noise.

What is also nice in Studio is the (presumably) intelligent lens distortion correction. There's nothing like this in ACR. It does have vignetting and chromatic aberration correction, but, again, these are not known as E1 faults.

However, ACR does have one big advantage, at least according to Digital Outback Photo's Digital Photography Workflow Handbook (highly recommended by the way), which is that the internal resizing algorithm is very good. Certainly comparing 2:1 with 1:1 ACR output I could see little significant difference.

So, whilst it is nice to think that Studio has some E1 specific tricks up its sleeve, especially since I paid for it, on balance, unless you've got a lot of time to spare, are really worried about lens distortion, and don't care too much about exposure correction, Photoshop CS ACR 2.1 seems the way to go. At least until Olympus decides to put some real development effort into Studio.

well I did manage to drag myself out of bed but it wasn't easy!

This is the first photo I processed out of about 60. Taken with the 14-54mm lens at 14mm, manual mode. Now at ISO 100 with noise reduction on. The results are much better, but still the shadow end is pretty noisy. Of course on slide film I wouldn't have got close. Probably the next step is using the "digital neutral grad" technique, exposing one shot for the shadows and one for the highlights, then combining.

Well I managed to drag myself out of bed this morning at 6am to catch the sunrise. I managed to fill up a 512Mb CF card remarkably quickly, and cursed myself for leaving the new 1Gb card I'd bought at home.

So out of 47 or so photos, one of which you can see here, 6 or so are now fully processed and printed. I'm quite pleased with the results - these are not easy lighting conditions for a camera to cope with. Having said that, I spent most of the time in manual mode, using the histogram to check exposures.

Unfortunately, when I first set up, I tried to get a light meter reading at 400ASA. I realised it wasn't going to work, so switched to manual... but forgot to change ISO. So I ended up with everything at 400.

I have to say there is a lot of noise in deep shadow at 400 - a very unpleasant mottling. Of course, I also completely forgot noise reduction mode. I've now programmed in a Reset with mirror lock up and noise reduction for twilight conditions. Also, I processed everything using Adobe Camera Raw 2.1 - possibly I would get better results with Olympus Studio, but this is a test still to be done. In parallel to all this I'm working on a comprehensive web site update, reprocessing some 200 photos, scanning new ones, and updating scripts - and I managed to fit in a second, late afternoon photo session.

Maybe I'll have another go at sunrises tomorrow...

I'm being very slow at adding updates here - partly because I'm spending a lot of time totally rebuilding my web site. I have started using the E-1 quite extensively, although not routinely yet. However, I have not shot a single frame of film since I bought it! Fuji stock price must be going through the floor.

Just to illustrate the point that the camera has little to do with the result, Ian Kingsnorth recently advertised some E-1 photos he's published, on the DP Review Olympus SLR forum. Nice to see that the E-1 can actually be used for other things than cat photos and back gardens :-)

I've grown to quick like Olympus Studio, enough even to put up with it's slug-like response. The various tools provided to compare and sort images are very nice, such as the Lightbox, the labels, the A / B lists (these are all in Viewer too). The Batch mode helps get over the speed issues, although the way you set it up is a bit strange...feels a bit like a "non-linear Action Editor" for Photoshop. I would probably stick with the Studio RAW convertor even after Photoshop CS is updated, as the controls map more specifically to the camera.

Of course the huge fuss at the moment remains the PMA (unless you speak French in which case its the DXO Lab tests in Chasseur d'Images). There doesn't seem to be anything terribly exciting at PMA for E-1 users, but I have to say I think they hype around this year's show is at an incredible level. Digital photography progress just keeps accelerating, and more and more people are getting sucked into the "gear watch" addiction...me too.

The wonders of digital. On film I'd never have bothered scanning this obvious mistake. But in digital...

...I started playing around in Olympus Studio, added a medium red filter, cropped a bit, and, presto -- quite an atmospheric result!

Just a quick note today. I've just printed my first full A3 borderless print from an E-1 photo. This was the big test...

...well it is certainly up to 35mm 4800dpi scan standards.

I simply enlarged to 30 x 40cm at 200dpi in Photoshop CS, using one step with Bicubic Smoother. The photo itself was probably not the best example. Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll try something more challenging. But so far everything looks good!

Finally I managed to get out to take a few photos. I hoped that the weather would work for me, but finally it was a bit bland. Anyway, I got a bit of real-world experience using the E-1 in evening light.

This photo was taken using the 14-54mm lens with 1.4 teleconvertor, at ASA 200. I'm impressed with the colour rendition, although I quickly discovered two things: in this sort of light, it pays to underexpose by about 2/3 when using ESP. Second, the LCD screen is of very limited use in judging colour.

One annoyance: it is a great pity that when the screen displays a shot after it is taken, that you can't press INFO to bring up the histogram. This is weird. If I start pressing appropriate buttons at this point the camera should realise I want to go into review mode and just let me.

One bit of user stupidity: I had real trouble with the AF, and was constantly correcting it. Im some cases I found it impossible to focus even in manual mode. Later, when showing the camera to a guy in the shop I bought it from, who hadn't seen an E-1 yet, he pointed out that the diopter was way off. I must have moved it when changing the eyecup.... oops.

I've been a bit quieter than planned this week. Unfortunately the aftermath of a mega-party last weekend (not that I'm complaining) and a workload from hell this week (yes, here I am complaining) has kept the E-1 very unused.

However, one small development: I ordered the Studio software (I can't wait for Photoshop CS to maybe support the E-1 forever) and the EP-2 Eye Cup. The EP-2 is really worth it. It helps cut out external distractions when looking through the viewfinder and really rounds off the handling. I paid about 30 CHF for it (20 Euros, so $20 give or take).

Oh, and the software and EP-2 took under 2 days to arrive at my dealer after I placed the order, so here in Switzerland anyway there doesn't seem to be any problem getting Studio.

We shouldn't have to pay for it though...

Photos soon - PROMISE!