Can anyone tell me what causes this?

[back alley]

i can't believe that it's the sensor...unless the sensor is damaged in some way. i have never gotten anything remotely looking like that with any of the 3 rd1 bodies that i have used.

[Keith]

It's all good ... I understand what's happening now. A combination of the sensor's limited dynamic range combined with the white balance confusion caused by the halogens and topped of by ACDSee's rather dodgy raw file converter that is obviously not optimal for the Epson's output.

Thank **** it's not the camera because that would be a little 'uncool!'

I think it may be time to get Lightroom 4 and learn to use it in spite of my preference for the interface of ACDSee Pro. Can anyone offer any suggestions as to where to shop for Lightroom 4 ... remembering I live downunder!

[f16sunshine]

I used to get similar results with the earlier raw convertion of Aperture. Aperture2 forward has been great.
So I guess what I'm saying is to confirm as you found.
It's not the camera but rather, the anchient raw processor that caused the problem.

[kermaier]

There might also be a bit of IR sensitivity going on here. I've found that under regular incandescent lighting, but I don know if halogen may be richer in the particular wavelengths the sensor picks up.
Ari

[Pablito]

Originally Posted by Keith

Can anyone offer any suggestions as to where to shop for Lightroom 4 ... remembering I live downunder!

just download it.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by Pablito

just download it.

How big is the download? ... I have limited bandwidth and less than stellar speed!

[paradoxbox]

That's definitely a software problem.

Blown highlights are just a part of shooting digital or slide film, but the software is really messing up the highlights even more. Try lightroom 4.

I find the R-D1 underexposes by 2/3 of a stop when set to aperture mode, I have never had a problem with blown highlights but I can understand why it could happen.

Keep in mind the R-D1 is bottom-left centerweighted so if the bottom left half of your frame has lots of dark stuff in it but your brightly highlighted main subject is in the top right of the frame you could get an inaccurate scene reading resulting in photos like the ones you posted.

[astro8]

Keith, do you have Epson Raw? It's tiny, and does great b&w... at least until you get Lightroom, which is huge from memory. If you're out in the boonies (like my parents) bandwidth is a joke.

links here

[huntjump]

ive gotten recommendations to stick with lightroom 3, not to upgrade to 4. Keith, i bet you can pick up a copy for cheap on ebay, even down under lol. And its great

[Keith]

Originally Posted by astro8

Keith, do you have Epson Raw? It's tiny, and does great b&w... at least until you get Lightroom, which is huge from memory. If you're out in the boonies (like my parents) bandwidth is a joke.

links here

I've read that Epson Raw is very good but unfortunately I got no software disc with the camera. I've searched the net to try and find a download for it but all the links on various Epson sites are dead or just not listed any more!

Adobe in OZ will mail you the software on a disc but I noticed it costs a fair bit more. There seems to be a couple of legit ebay sellers in OZ that have it for just below adobe's retail and free postage.

I was mucking around with Lightroom 2 this morning ... I could get used to it I guess!

[Keith]

Originally Posted by astro8

Keith, do you have Epson Raw? It's tiny, and does great b&w... at least until you get Lightroom, which is huge from memory. If you're out in the boonies (like my parents) bandwidth is a joke.

links here

Ahhh ... I've just noticed you gave a link for the download which I didn't notice.

Thanks.

[Gabriel M.A.]

Originally Posted by Keith

I also meant to mention I use my D700 in this area all the time and have had no issues at all.

Of course

[Gabriel M.A.]

Originally Posted by Keith

I'm using ACDSee Pro and I don't have a jpeg as the camera's set for raw output only. You can see it on the LCD when reviewing though and I gather that's a jpeg generated in the camera.

I think it was the lighting ... these lights they use at QUT are pretty intense and play havock with the white balance on the D700.

I hope it's not the camera messing up the highlights. To me, it looks like a color profiling issue made even worse by poor processing.

I would use ACR (either Lightroom 3.x or Photoshop CS4 or CS5) with a tone curve set to linear, blacks set to 0 (meaning, unchanged) as well as the highlights. No "highlight recovery", and use AdobeRGB all the way through, converting to sRGB when you save as a JPEG.

[ruediger]

Originally Posted by Keith

I... I was mucking around with Lightroom 2 this morning ... I could get used to it I guess!

Well, I can only speak for myself, but since I started with Lightroom, I never felt the need for any other program to work with my images. But that is just me, not doing stuff like composings, hdr or whatever fancy things you can do to your image data. And there is also a big improvement when going from LR2 to LR4.

Cheers
Ruediger

[astro8]

That link looks messed up..here's another

[Ezzie]

Never ever saw anything resembling that on my, now Adam's R-D1. However I used Apple RAW (Aperture) or Epson RAW. The latter was in fact the better of the two. Rather antiquated user GUI, but works very well with the R-D1 RAW files. I can also add that I usually underexposed in extremely contrasty conditions to avoid clipping the highlights (too much).

[Keith]

Originally Posted by astro8

That link looks messed up..here's another

It's all good .... I managed to find the correct link by going to the cameraquest site and searching the RD-1 resource pages earlier.

You're right about Epson Raw ... it does stunning black and white conversions! Then just output them to ACDSee Pro as tifs for final twiddling and conversion to jpeg.

I love this camera ... I was prowling around the gallery last night snapping the various patrons who were still there cleaning up the remaining cheese and wine! It's very subtle after having had the D700 banging away at them all evening ... they barely noticed me!

[Keith]

Originally Posted by Ezzie

Never ever saw anything resembling that on my, now Adam's R-D1. However I used Apple RAW (Aperture) or Epson RAW. The latter was in fact the better of the two. Rather antiquated user GUI, but works very well with the R-D1 RAW files. I can also add that I usually underexposed in extremely contrasty conditions to avoid clipping the highlights (too much).

Yes, even after doing the black and white conversions in Epson Raw I noticed that it's very easy to go beyond the sensor's capabilities ... as you say in these conditions the rule of thumb should be under exposure to avoid blowing highlights.

[Keith]

This image was run through Epson Raw and the only thing added was the black and white film simulation before exporting as a tif to ACDSee where I resized it and converted it to jpeg .... no other post processing whatsoever.

They're right about Epson Raw's black and white conversions!

[jarski]

∧ cool shot Keith!

Originally Posted by huntjump

ive gotten recommendations to stick with lightroom 3, not to upgrade to 4. ...

sry OT, but am planning buy 3 instead of 4. is it possible to use latest developments of Adobe RAW, without using latest Lightroom? similarly than upgrading only ACR and not touch Photoshop?

[Ezzie]

Agreed Keith, They can really shine. This one is no exception. Very nice, lovely tones and contrast, smooth gradation too.

[willie_901]

That is a great B&W rendering... Very nice indeed.

[umcelinho]

I've shot a few concerts using my R-D1 and got pretty good results always at -1 or -2 EV. I've already had some pretty overexposed shots, but never had seen something like it happens in Keith's photos.. then again I always use LR3 to develop my RAW files, could be a conversion issue too.

[back alley]

i use pse...simple and easy...

[gilpen123]

LR is the best IMO to process raw files from RD1, then export to any software you may have for further tweaking.