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LR 2.0 & camera profiles


ilkka_nissila

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This isn't a question but I wanted to note that Lightroom 2.0 is now available as a finished version.

 

Adobe has also made available camera-specific profiles that emulate the basic picture control modes of Nikon DSLRs. The profiles are

beta but I checked them out and they seem to work nicely. They didn't work on LR2 beta so I had to upgrade to 2.0.

 

The final result is not quite identical to conversions made with Capture but they're really close. Sharpening is not exactly the same, but if

you adjust it to be roughly equal, the noise level, highlight behaviour, and colors are really close to what Capture produces at the various

picture control defaults - with subtle differences.

 

I am extremely pleased with this new development as I've been frustrated with trying to get capture-like skin tones and high ISO image

quality (with D3 files) from previous versions of Lightroom without success. Especially the recovery of highlights in high ISO D3 images

was a problem.

 

The profiles also work with PS CS3 after you download ACR 4.5.

 

I am very glad about the timing of this release. I have always liked LR because of its speed, user interface and stability. Now it seems the

image quality is also up there.

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Illka I use the ACR version 4.5 since the early beta state. I agree with you about improvements for D3 NEF

conversion. I have some presets (stored settings) for differing light but the differences are very slight and

using these I need to change settings very slightly. While I need significantly more fiddling with D200 or older

D70 files the D3 files are amazingly consistent. If this is mainly due to the camera or the better profiles is

hard to say but my impression is that it is primarily due to the D3 and the new ACR version gives a finishing touch.

 

Unfortunately there seems to be some bug or inconsistency in the automatic application of ISO dependent ACR

settings. This worked very well and I had a whole set of stored settings for all ISO speeds (took me an evening)

and these are now not automatically applied.

 

At high ISO speeds and strong moire effects NX2 still gives visibly better results but the user interface is

hardly bearable and with "difficult" images I often do not see the effects of several settings - so I usually

just do simple batch conversions to tiff and then import into ACR.

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"While I need significantly more fiddling with D200 or older D70 files... "

 

Noooooooooo! Damn.

 

So the profiles arent as good for the D70 files? Any insight as to if they are better than in Lightroom 1.4? What exactly seems to

need the fiddling? Thanks.

 

I dont think I can manage to swing "The LR profiles arent as hot for the D70 so I need to upgrade to LR 2.0 AND upgrade to a

D700." Probably not even worth a try haha.

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Very good news, have to find some room from my budget though... I can live with the instability of Capture, but the lack of speed and the bad event handling (everything grinds to a halt when processing) are seriously ticking me off. I don't remember ever having such problems with LR when I tried it...
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Interesting thread. I am still using PSE3, and I nearly ordered LR2.0 this morning. It's definitley time for a change.

 

I wonder if I could use LR2.0 as my only editing tool, and leavel PS in the past, for now.

 

I usually only do lighting adjustments, slight color adjustment over the entire image, and then the usual cropping, sizing,

sharpening, and file format changes.

 

Would LR2.0 do all this for me?

 

 

Thanks...

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David I think the problem are not necessarily the profiles. I guess one factor is the matrix metering, another the quality of the white balance metering. Perhaps I should have used spot or center weight more often but now with the D3 I am rarely off when in matrix metering mode. Interestingly I was under the impression that metering with the D70 and the D200 was already "pretty good" with an advantage to the D200. Changing to the D3 I was a bit puzzled in the first say 2000 shots by apparently differing (from the D200 matrix metering) responses of the matrix metering to scenes but now I got used to it and "see" scenes and likely misjudges by the matrix metering in advance. The differences were not large but noticeable.
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Oskar - "I can live with the instability of Capture, but the lack of speed and the bad event handling (everything grinds to a halt when processing) are seriously ticking me off."

 

There's been a couple of interesting threads on dpReview and the Nikon Cafe concerning NX speed and stability. Someone found out that NX is linked against some pretty old Microsoft shared libraries. The newer versions of the libraries emulate the older versions in a way that slows things down dramatically. (what, is the Capture NX team developing their software on Windows 2000 machines?) Apparently, though, if you load the older libraries in addition to the newer ones, NX will use the old ones, and software that needs the new ones will use the new ones. Win-win situation.

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