Camera Raw 5.5 Release Candidate

[madmanchan]

Just FYI ...

http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Camera_Raw_5.5

[robertjm]

thx for the info
A question: I wasn't aware camera's like these existed:
"Camera Raw 5.5 includes a correction to the demosaic algorithms for Bayer sensor cameras with unequal green response "

What does unequal mean? Between the two G's in RGBG?

cheers

Robert

[Ben Rubinstein]

Any new tools or features other than the green demosaicing thingy?

[madmanchan]

Robert, usually the mosaic pattern contains 2 green pixel types, and in many cases they behave identically, but sometimes not (the fix is to handle the latter case).

Ben, no -- just a camera support and bug fix update. I would not expect to see new features/tools until the next major release of either PS or LR.

[JeffKohn]

Robert, usually the mosaic pattern contains 2 green pixel types, and in many cases they behave identically, but sometimes not (the fix is to handle the latter case).

Do you have a list of some of the cameras affected by this?

[madmanchan]

Not an explicit list, no. But primarily Sony, Panasonic, and Olympus cameras.

[01af]

Sony announced a four-colour sensor with two different kinds of green, one of them called 'emerald' (a blueish green), as early as July 2003---see http://www.imaging-resource.com/NEWS/1058329666.html. I think the first Sony camera featuring this RGBE sensor was the Sony Cybershot DSC-F828, released in November 2003. The current Sony Alpha DSLR cameras still seem to have Bayer filter arrays with two different greens, even though they don't make a fuss about it in the tech specs or in the advertising materials. I guess the difference between the two greens today is far less than it used to be in the F828's RGBE sensor ... umm, does anyone know for sure?

Anyway---when converting a current Sony ARW file twice, once with ACR 5.4 (or earlier) and once with ACR 5.5 beta, then the difference between the two results will be so tiny it's virtually invisible at 100 % view. Basically, ACR 5.5 will yield slightly better tonal separation and colour separation, at the expense of slightly less acutance (lower micro contrast). The most significant differences between the two conversions will occur around high-contrast edges. However, in order to notice you'd have to compare at 400 % view or so.

-- Olaf

[Tklimek]

Did LR get this update yet?  I don't recall seeing it.

Cheers....

Todd in Chicago

Not an explicit list, no. But primarily Sony, Panasonic, and Olympus cameras.

[madmanchan]

Not yet, Todd. The current public version of Lightroom is 2.4, released June 23, 2009.

Olaf, if I recall correctly the F828 was definitely a 4-color camera (with primaries quite different from most RGB cameras), but recent Sony Alpha cameras have the standard RGGB Bayer pattern.