[LRflex] Surprise, Update from yesterday

  • From: Bille Xavier F. <hot_billexf@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:09:33 +0100

  Thanks Richard, Steve, Marc and David, others too who pointed out the strange 
effect of the ghost file, no explaination so far. The image B&W dynamic jpeg, 
resized to the proper value, coming from the camera with no mods,  is here: 
http://xavierf.b.free.fr/Temp/BWSurpriseLX5/P1010736_from-camera.jpg And the 
Raw image, developped in standard by Silkypix is here: 
http://xavierf.b.free.fr/Temp/BWSurpriseLX5/P1010736_dev.jpg David pointed off 
list that the image had a 'greyish appearance'. In fact, it has to my eye, a 
'yellow-ish' appearance. Why? In the day of film era, when you wanted to 
increase the contrast in b&w you would put a yellow filter or better a strong 
Red filter. Now, with the Sensor Era, it seems that these clever engineers of 
Panasonic have modified the parameters configuring the sensor, especially the 
white balance as to add a strong strong yellow filter. When the image is 
processed by the embedded algorithm to produce the JPEG, it's standard and it 
offers a contrasty B&W image. It saves the time to process inboard and it can 
use other interesting parameters such as Image Resolution enhancer, etc. The 
Panasonic LX5 is full of tweaks, some rather smart. Panasonic and Leica Share 
the same platform, it would be possible that the algorithm for building JPEG in 
a Leica differs from in a Panasonic. As the JPEGprocessing  is a 'standard' 
component, the idea is to work out the raw file used as input. It's an 
industrial strategy, nothing to worry. It's all about Software and shared 
interfaces..... Why a yellow cast? I think that a red cast would produce a B&W 
image as from a Xerox photocopier, the sensor is certainly too sensitive to the 
red wave length (my theory....) However, the JPEG off the LX5 is rather flat 
and muddy, compared to what could be done in post processing with 10times the 
CPU power of the LX5. Here is the Raw yellow file developped with my Recipe 
under Silkypix: http://xavierf.b.free.fr/Temp/BWSurpriseLX5/P1010736_dev_nb.jpg 
It's closer to a XP2 Ilford film, and you know what? I like it better. 
Conclusion: Panasonic has used in the type of film 'Dynamic B&W', the old trick 
of the yellow filter but to the extreme. It is very clever, they offer a 
variety of features with the same modular core of processing. The Digilux3 has 
obviously a different approach, the RAW is really what comes off the sensor and 
there is various algorithms to produce JPEG. But the Digilux 3 has not the 
tweaks such as Image Resolution factor or Image contrast factor. At 1600 ISO, 
the LX5 does better than the Digilux3, it's not a surprise but the margin is 
not as big as one would expect. The Digilux3 produces images through Silkypix 
which are similar at the 'grain' or 'pixel count' to a 135 film of the same 
speed, a very analog rendering. Mind you, the latest Fuji camera have a 
embedded tonal developpement for B&W with 'Red' or 'Yellow' filter, they have 
probably used a different approach of the processing of Raw File.
Thanks for having beared such a Blah-Blah. To thank you, let me show what is 
the mood at home when I start explaining all this: 
http://xavierf.b.free.fr/Temp/BWSurpriseLX5/P1010701_dev.jpg (LX5, Leica Lens, 
special processing, wide angle....), let's name it :"shut up! time you walk the 
dog out, Dear") Enjoy!!
#-----------------------------------
From : Xavier F. BILLE 
mail : hot_billexf@xxxxxxxxxxx
Maisons Alfort - France

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