Doug, I do not understand why Phase, Hasselblad, Leaf and Sinar do not hire first class landscape(fashion, product, etc.) photographers to go out and shoot a bunch of raw files with their backs and put them up on their servers(with the raw conversion software) for download so prospective customers can work with them and see for themselves the IQ advantages of these backs compared to what DSLRs can provide. If you guys do believe in your products, as I think you do, the manufacturers are doing a disservice to themselves by not making it easy for people to get at the best samples they can produce.
If you're in talks with a dealer for a purchase or lease you will have no problem with receiving raw files for examination. Much of the resistance to broadly distributing raw files is that the demographic looking for raw files are generally just beginning their search for information about MFD and lack either the programs, the expertise, or the experience to properly develop a raw file to it's fullest potential. It's not rocket science, but if you take the average photographer who only has experience with dSLRs and give them a raw file they will likely not get nearly the potential out of the file that we can; the difference can be drastic.
Another reason is because the internet is a scary place and as most reasonable board members have noticed, is often a place where nits are picked with surprising gusto. Finally, who is going to share their raws? In beauty/fashion/portrait we all know that even the best photographers in the world use drastic amounts of retouching for skin, blemishes, and reshaping (almost without exception), so seeing their raw will take away much of their mystique. For landscape the amount of retouching and effects can often be surprising and for marketing purposes generally strongly denied (e.g. walk into a Peter Lik gallery and ask if the images are retouched; they will bite your head off with adamant denials). Posting 100% JPGs let alone raw files on the internet is anathema to nearly every landscape photographer I know.
Despite all of these obstacles we have a catalog of customer images as well as our own images (we are shooters too you know; see
portfolio) which we are happy to share in controlled situations in which we can respect the rights and wishes of the photographer.
In fact we have several raw files, including one from the P65+ on our website
Test Section.
Hopefully you appreciate the candor here since much of this is usually unsaid.
Also, are the lens corrections that are applied to raw files in C1 from files shot with Mamiya lenses the same as the lens corrections in the Hasselblad software? Do the corrections carry over into a DNG and get applied to a file that is opened for raw processing in ACR or Lightroom?
The type of corrections (sharpness, distortion, light fall-off, chromatic aberration) are similar to Hasselblad's corrections. In fact we provide corrections for Hasselblad H, Contax, and Mamiya lenses in Capture One. These corrections do not transfer to a DNG. Phase is committed to openness and offers DNG output as well as welcoming programs like Lightroom to open the files directly. However, I cannot state strongly enough just what a fabulous job Capture One 4 does with Phase One raw files. Especially among those who are quality-minded I have had few people take our
online training who didn't then switch to processing most or all of their shots in C1.
__________________
Doug Peterson
(Email Me)Head of Technical Services
Phase One, Canon, Apple, Profoto, Eizo & More
National: 877.217.9870 | Cell: 740.707.2183
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