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Author Topic: Why are the previews of Capture One Pro of such low quality?  (Read 55802 times)

Beerfueled

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Re: Why are the previews of Capture One Pro of such low quality?
« Reply #80 on: March 17, 2018, 02:19:16 pm »

Thank you very much Bart for taking a look, and for your thoughts on this. And no, when I go to 100% view in C1 (where the preview is sharp, as expected) and then back down to fit in the Viewer, the fit view is still blurry, no change.

I have been very impressed with C1, but this one thing has been bothering me for sure. Lr is no slouch, but I plan to get over the learning curve and try to get very proficient in C1. Thank you for your help here.

-larry
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TeeKay

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Re: Why are the previews of Capture One Pro of such low quality?
« Reply #81 on: March 28, 2018, 08:03:38 pm »

Proper downsampling of the larger thumbnail will induce some loss of sharpness, unless compensated for by an additional sharpening pass. When rendering to a significant enough larger size than the what the thumbnail offers, a more accurate calculation is done for the size needed, based on the original Raw data.
That's my view of the situation as well.


So, reducing the thumbnail size to less than the fit area dimensions seem like a useful workaround.
While that approach indeed addresses the blurriness, it comes with two downsides:
  • The efficiency gain that previews should normally provide is lost. Re-rendering from scratch is "expensive" and shouldn't be necessary.
  • Often adjusting images at higher magnification levels (e.g., 100%) becomes very bothersome when the preview size is set too low. During the adjustment C1 seems to revert to the preview (at least in some situations) and that preview is way too small to support good feedback during adjustments. Only after one stops making further adjustments, C1 re-renders a proper quality image again. This leads to a very jarring experience during adjustments.
The second downside does not always occur. So far, I haven't noticed a pattern.

Overall, I have to revoke what I've said about C1 11 and its preview quality. I initially thought it consistently handled previews better than C1 10 as the blurriness during adjustments (when intentionally using nominally too small preview size settings) does not always occur. However, I encountered it frequently now and this means that the situation is still unsatisfactory.

My suggestion to the C1 team, offer an option for automatically sharpened previews when resampling is involved.
Have you submitted your suggestion via a support case?

I hope that everyone suffering from the unsatisfactory preview situation lets Phase One know by creating a support case. Phase One relies on the frequency of requests to determine what priority they should assign to resolving issues.
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The View

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Re: Why are the previews of Capture One Pro of such low quality?
« Reply #82 on: March 30, 2018, 02:15:58 am »

Any examples?

Yes, at the beginning of this thread.

The problem persists and is likely a part of the outdated C1 catalog, which is also unusable through its poor interface and incredibly sluggish searching .

The whole catalog needs to be ditched and replaced with something of good quality. It feels like very old software with layers of fixes.
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The View

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Re: Why are the previews of Capture One Pro of such low quality?
« Reply #83 on: April 23, 2018, 12:02:06 am »

I just processed the first images with my new Canon 5D Mark IV, and the preview in Capture One Pro 11 is still of sub-par quality and blurry, like a highly compressed JPEG. Impossible to do any adjustments that have to do with contrast or sharpness in this software.

The first sample shows the preview in Canon DPP, the second in Capture One Pro (which also always misreads the white balance and shows images too warm)
« Last Edit: April 23, 2018, 12:07:07 am by The View »
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Jeffery Salter

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Re: Why are the previews of Capture One Pro of such low quality?
« Reply #84 on: April 24, 2018, 05:08:09 pm »

My Canon 5D Mark IV files look great in Capture One Pro 11.  The previews are excellent quality and very sharp.  You might check your computer to make sure you have sufficient  RAM memory and enough space in the Hard drive.  I would start there. 
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The View

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Re: Why are the previews of Capture One Pro of such low quality?
« Reply #85 on: April 24, 2018, 05:27:43 pm »

I have a solution for this problem.

Key is that the preview size setting has to match the size of the preview window (or be slightly larger) and NOT the size of the monitor.

My monitor has 2560 pixels in width, and so I had set the preview size to 2560 pixels.

While the real preview size window was smaller.

If the preview size set in preferences is much larger, C1 has to somehow downsample it and this leads to terrible blurs and smears.

The next two smaller settings are 1680 pixels and 1920 pixels.

For now I have shrunk my preview to 1680 and confirmed it with a screen ruler, and the preview is sharp now.

I will experiment and see if I get the same sharpness with 1920 pixels as well.


While preview image size is floating and you can adjust it as you like, it is paramount for quality preview to match preview size setting and preview window size as close as possible.


Update: when I set the preview size to 1920 pixels and match the viewer, the preview sharpness is not that great. It probably depends on the size of the preview stored in the catalog. Up to 1680 pixels you get great sharpness, anything larger will already reduce sharpness.
« Last Edit: April 24, 2018, 05:35:05 pm by The View »
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Jeffery Salter

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Re: Why are the previews of Capture One Pro of such low quality?
« Reply #86 on: April 24, 2018, 06:59:13 pm »

Happy that you found a solution to your problem.  I use the preview or thumbnails like a contact sheet and the "Viewer" to look at a selected image or multiple selected images.  A quick to tip to look at the "thumbnails" at %100 percent, is to press the "P" key, which selects the "Loupe".  Then simply use your 'mouse" or "pen" to click on the thumbnail to view at %100 percent.  You can set the "loupe" tool for even higher % if you desire.

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The View

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Re: Why are the previews of Capture One Pro of such low quality?
« Reply #87 on: May 29, 2018, 03:24:07 am »

The solution is only of limited quality.

I found that 1680 pixels wide is the largest preview size that Capture One Pro can do.

Any larger preview window gets blurry again - not as bad as I had it before, but still bad.

I'm currently at 1920 pixel preview window size, and it is blurry.

So I will reduce the preview window size again to 1680 pixels.

Phase One needs to fix this preview issue.

Another tip: match the size of the preview window you chose in preferences as good as possible and save the setting in the workspace. If you stray from that setting you'll lose sharpness.
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The View

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Re: Why are the previews of Capture One Pro of such low quality?
« Reply #88 on: June 24, 2018, 05:11:49 pm »

I want to add that this is still a problem that needs fixing.

While it is not as horribly blurry as before, I still and regularly think that an image is out of focus, and zooming in 100% shows it's tack sharp.

This happens a lot with faces.

So, sharpness and detail needs to improve in the preview. Take a look at Canon DPP, where there is good sharpness that realistically shows the state of the image you are working on.

Reducing the window size to 1680 pixel (the largest preview size Capture One Pro 11 can handle without getting too blurry) is not giving a good enough result.

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mscherlacher

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Re: Why are the previews of Capture One Pro of such low quality?
« Reply #89 on: July 25, 2018, 07:37:23 pm »

This is really strange to me. I use both C1 and DPP and both give me previews that are tack sharp. If anything C1's fit to screen previews are a tad sharper. I've used this setup for a number of years and with three OS's. Why does my setup work and other's don't? Maybe it's not playing nice with certain video cards?
« Last Edit: July 26, 2018, 09:48:22 am by mscherlacher »
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IanSeward

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Re: Why are the previews of Capture One Pro of such low quality?
« Reply #90 on: July 26, 2018, 04:21:02 am »

That is my feeling as well.  C1pro is aimed at professional photographers who are critical as it is their livelihood.

I am sure there is a problem for some people but it must be a small minority of users or else PhaseOne would be out of the software business.

If the people who are effected could post detailed hardware logs then a pattern might be detected.  Unless the scope of the issue can be narrowed down I can't see how PhaseOne can fix the issue.

Basic questions like is this a Mac or Windows issue, Nvidia or AMD etc.

Ian
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The View

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Re: Why are the previews of Capture One Pro of such low quality?
« Reply #91 on: September 03, 2018, 03:31:02 am »

I don't see why a MacBook Pro shouldn't perform properly.

Because of this blurriness I had the MBP even checked by Apple.

DPP is way sharper and more detailed than C1 - no comparison.

Maybe some are working on poor displays and don't see the difference. For me as a professional the shortcomings of C1 make it impossible to do extended adjustments in C1. I adjust mildly as I know I have no control over the fine adjustments in C1 as C1 simply does not show enough detail in its previews.

And I can't adjust in 100% as I'm then flying blind, only seeing part of the image.

This is why Photoshop is still indispensable. There are also some problems, that certain images, when you flatten them, look slightly different in non-100% view. But it is relatively minor compared to the blur in C1.

As noted, by limiting my preview to a small 1680 pixel window (C1 cannot do any larger previews without passing out on quality) I have reduced the blurring, but I still cannot rely on the details in this software.

Things like this happen in software if a company just puts more and more floors of features on top of the software, without recoding the foundation. The result is loss of detail - a kind of mp3-ing of image quality.

The final output is great - otherwise I'd have already left. So I'm balancing the shortcomings of the preview by doing only minor adjustments in C1 and leaving all those extra features like layers unused.
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bcf

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Re: Why are the previews of Capture One Pro of such low quality?
« Reply #92 on: December 19, 2018, 02:59:53 am »

I revive this topic to mention that this problem has not been solved in version 12 Pro (Mac).

Phase One support says that this is just the way Capture One works, to avoid recalculating the preview every time. They don't seem to acknowledge that this is not the issue: even recalculated every time, the preview is sub par. And they won't comment on the fact that other software does not have this problem.

So far the only "solution" I have found is to use a process recipe with some screen sharpening and "recipe proofing". Hardly a desirable way to work.

This is infurating!
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DP

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Re: Why are the previews of Capture One Pro of such low quality?
« Reply #93 on: December 20, 2018, 06:00:48 am »

I revive this topic to mention that this problem has not been solved in version 12 Pro (Mac).

Phase One support says that this is just the way Capture One works, to avoid recalculating the preview every time. They don't seem to acknowledge that this is not the issue: even recalculated every time, the preview is sub par. And they won't comment on the fact that other software does not have this problem.

So far the only "solution" I have found is to use a process recipe with some screen sharpening and "recipe proofing". Hardly a desirable way to work.

This is infurating!

what if you use previews @ 640px, isn't it solving the issue on a fast computer forcing C1 to recalculate in 99% use cases ?
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bcf

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Re: Why are the previews of Capture One Pro of such low quality?
« Reply #94 on: December 20, 2018, 06:18:14 am »

Yes, it does work to some extent, at the expense of some delay in displaying the preview.

But I find that even so, the preview as displayed by Capture One is usually not as detailed as that displayed by Lightroom or Luminar.
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DP

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Re: Why are the previews of Capture One Pro of such low quality?
« Reply #95 on: December 20, 2018, 06:22:44 am »

Yes, it does work to some extent, at the expense of some delay in displaying the preview.

But I find that even so, the preview as displayed by Capture One is usually not as detailed as that displayed by Lightroom or Luminar.

I do not see any difference between ACR and C1 (I use 640px)...
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bcf

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Re: Why are the previews of Capture One Pro of such low quality?
« Reply #96 on: December 20, 2018, 06:29:30 am »

Interesting… I will have to test some more !
What is the size (the width) of the images on your screen in C1 (do you use a margin?), and in ACR?
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bcf

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Re: Why are the previews of Capture One Pro of such low quality?
« Reply #97 on: December 20, 2018, 07:20:59 am »

Here is an example, with a photo from my Fuji X-T2 - screen copies in both cases. I hope the difference will be visible on screen.

In C1 v12 (top): previews 640px, image displayed in "Fit screen" mode, i.e. at a width of 1680px on my 27" monitor, increased sharpening in C1 (at the limit at what I would find acceptable when viewed at 100%)
In LR Classic CC 7.5 (bottom): image displayed in "Fit screen" mode, i.e. at a width of 1680px on my 27" monitor, default LR sharpening.
« Last Edit: December 20, 2018, 10:37:42 am by bcf »
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bcf

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Re: Why are the previews of Capture One Pro of such low quality?
« Reply #98 on: December 20, 2018, 07:22:34 am »

The C1 photo was not uploaded, here it is again.
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bcf

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Re: Why are the previews of Capture One Pro of such low quality?
« Reply #99 on: December 20, 2018, 08:06:53 am »

And now C1, same settings, with "Recipe proofing" (long edge 1680px, no output sharpening).
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