In article .com,
Savageduck says...

This sounds like operator error rather than a software failure.

It's very easy to call things "operator error". Sometimes the software
is at fault.

Other RAW converters just apply the lens profile. ON1 did not. This
should happen automatically - if the software is not capable of that,
it's not good enough.

snip

I have a feeling that you need to develop some familiarity with the software
before making a blanket condemnation. As I said in my OP I have been
impressed with the result I have managed to get from it, and from other
reports other folks seem to be happy with the results.

Other RAW converters create good results by default.

Besides, I did spend some effort to get good results out of ON1, and I'm
not exactly clueless for what concerns image processing and RAW
conversions.

So that was not a SOOC JPEG.

The out of camera JPEG is image in the top right, the other three images
are RAW conversions. I posted also (a crop of) the out of camera JPEG as
a comparison.

To my mind that is a scene which calls for HDR.

In fact I also did that (have five RAWs, at 0EV and +-2EV).

Also, the JPEG crop is quite severe, and does not do the entire scene
justice.

Now I don't follow you. The JPEG crop is just meant to show a section of
the image at 100%, to be able to compare the pixel level image.

That was a blown highlight area. However, the recovery by each of the apps is
minimal.

The output of ON1 and another RAW converter show the details in the
overblown area (except for the door area, where there is just too much
overexposure; but the column highlight is recovered much better).

snip

Then regarding whatever you did to fix the CA/fringing, it looks like you
exacerbated the problem rather than correcting it. Again I think it boils
down to your lack of familiarity with the software, or just poor technique.
However, the CA/Fringing is worse in all three examples from On1, ACDSEE, or
PS7 than in the alleged SOOC JPEG.

The CA you see is what the ON1 converter is creating, simply because it
is not using the lens profile information. The ON1 and ACDSee RAW
converters here have the worst CA (left side of the image; top right is
the out of camera JPEG).

snip

That is the reason the crop you shared was not a fair representation of the
entire image. It was not an SOOC JPEG.

I'm not complaining about the CA or highlight recovery. I'm complaining
about the lack of crispness (at pixel level) in the image and the
unability of the RAW converter to apply the lens profile. These two
issues make the ON1 converter useless for me.

By the way, the Corel converter (the latest versíon) initially even
refused to open the RAW files of the Olympus E-M1 II.
I had to raise the issue to Corel and they gave me a link to a place
where I could download a camera profile for the E-M1 II. Only after I
did that and loaded the camera profile into Aftershot, Aftershot was
able to open the ORFs of the E-M1 II.

This is not operator error - it's a clear programming error of Corel.
The E-M1 II has been around for a year, yet Corel haven't managed to
include it in their Aftershot RAW converter.

snip

You have only just posted what the entire image looks like, and still not
posted a good full final rendition.

I don't follow you here. I'm posting crops of the RAW conversion
results. Or do you want me to post the four full resolution images?

Why did you not test a RAW image file, or do you shoot JPEG only?

This *is* a RAW file test.

Not the file you originally shared, that was not even what you claimed it to
be, a SOOC JPEG. What you originally shared was a severe crop of a small area
of the original, and the artifacting due to the crop was misleading.

Seems you still have not understood what the first test result is.

- Top left is a crop of the ON1 RAW conversion
- Top right is a crop of the out of camera JPEG (from the RAW+JPEG
output of the camera)
- Bottom left is a crop of the ACDSee RAW conversion
- Bottom right is a crop of the ACR RAW conversion

By the way, all crops are 100% crops.
--
Alfred Molon

Olympus E-series DSLRs and micro 4/3 forum at
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MyOlympus/
http://myolympus.org/ photo sharing site