LX3 RAW

[RovingMike]

From my comments on the posts below, you'll see that while I like the LX3 in 100 ISO, I am massively underwhelmed by it at 400.

Having now tried it in RAW at 400, I have to say I am worse than that. The results are awful. Is there something I don't know? Colour is miles off and noise is far more prominent. Sharpness on things like lettering seems nowhere near as good as Jpeg. Processing was in Silkypix.

[alanS]

If it's any help at all to you I use CS2 to process RAW from my LX2.

[RovingMike]

If it's any help at all to you I use CS2 to process RAW from my LX2.

Thanks. Given that Panasonic say LX3 is a country mile better than 2 in noise at higher ISO do you find you get better or worse images shooting in RAW at say 400?

[alanS]

You can see noise at all ISO settings (LX2.) I try and stay at 100 but I've gone as high as 800 when light is an issue.

It's nowhere near the noise performance that I get from my 8mp Canon eos 20D, but it is what it is and noise reduction can improve things.

Overall I'm happy with the camera but I wouldn't want any more noise.

PS - Just a quick comment about the colours being off -

I've noticed this, when I first got the camera I used Rawtherapee and I just couldn't get the colours to look natural but CS2 manages it without problem. I haven't used the Panasonic software.

[RovingMike]

If it's any help at all to you I use CS2 to process RAW from my LX2.

Is it a plug-in? I don't see any way to open Raw files in PS2.
Thanks.

[alanS]

Hello,

I don't remember loading any plug-ins although it has "updated" itself a couple of times.

If I go to "help" and look at "about plug-ins" Camera Raw is indeed there along with a huge list of other things, although I haven't specifically loaded any plug-ins myself.

I'm sorry that I can't be of much help other than to say that it works with my 20D and LX2 RAW files.

Perhaps you could down load some plug-ins?

[El_Sid]

Having now tried it in RAW at 400, I have to say I am worse than that. The results are awful. Is there something I don't know? Colour is miles off and noise is far more prominent. Sharpness on things like lettering seems nowhere near as good as Jpeg. Processing was in Silkypix.

Unlike the JPEG the RAW file is the data as the sensor recorded it with nothing added nor taken away.

When the data is processed in camera to create a JPEG the firmware applies a noise reduction algorithm during the processing (along with sharpening, saturation, contrast and other adjustments) to give you a 'print ready' picture. With RAW I'm afraid you have to do this yourself. This does add time to the whole picture producing process and equally it takes time to get the hang of RAW conversion to the point where you can equal and then better the in-camera conversion.

I don't know much (ie nowt) about Silkypix but if it doesn't offer some form of noise reduction control then you may need to use a different converter that does (I believe the Adobe converter in Lightroom & CS# offers this) or apply it post conversion. A couple of popular post-conversion noise reducing programs are Neat Image and NoiseNinja - both of which I understand are available as standalone programs or 'plug-ins' that can be used with Photoshop (or other programs that are compatible with PS-style plug-ins).

[Chris Cool]

If it's any help at all to you I use CS2 to process RAW from my LX2.

Is it a plug-in? I don't see any way to open Raw files in PS2.
Thanks.

There is no plug-in yet for the LX3 - but Adobe are working on it

[Chris Cool]

Well, the good news is the LX3 plug-in is done - the bad news is the Camera Raw 5.2 plug-in is not compatible with versions of Photoshop earlier than Photoshop CS4, versions of Photoshop Elements earlier than Photoshop Elements 6, or versions of Adobe Premiere Elements earlier than 4.0.

Camera Raw update 5.2

[RovingMike]

Thanks, that explains a lot. I use RAW all the time with my Oly 510 and results are fine. I use Noise Ninja as a plug in to Pshop CS.
Finding Silkypix a bit tricky and in not showing a preview of all the pics it takes longer than I'm used to with Oly Master, so I think I'll try another Raw processor.

[Benchista]

Finding Silkypix a bit tricky

You're not alone in that - I gave up on it very quickly, but to be fair, that's some time back now.

[RovingMike]

OK thanks for that.