Comments on: Advanced DRO - the A700’s magic bullet http://www.photoclubalpha.com/2007/11/01/advanced-dro-the-a700s-magic-bullet/ Search this site - over 170 articles on Alpha system topics! Subscribe to our magazine too! Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:55:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Les Leventhal http://www.photoclubalpha.com/2007/11/01/advanced-dro-the-a700s-magic-bullet/#comment-576 Les Leventhal Sun, 09 Dec 2007 23:56:40 +0000 http://photoclubalpha.com/2007/11/01/advanced-dro-the-a700s-magic-bullet/#comment-576 David, some discussions on the DPReview forum suggested that DRO advanced levels 3-5 are supposed to prevent blown highlights (as well as fill in shadows). Are you saying that DRO Advanced does not prevent blown highlights and, to prevent blown highlights on some images, underexposure must be used? When using DRO advanced, do you detect blown highlights the normal way, with the histogram and the blinking parts of the thumbnail? "David, the top picture of the bridge was taken with DRO Advanced Level 4. Was it taken at exposure -1 EV? Yes. Because the camera screen showed a seriously overexposed result at normal exposure, -1 was used. With or without DRO, not using -1 led to the well-lit parts being burned out. - David 9 December 2007, 8:51 am" David, some discussions on the DPReview forum suggested that DRO advanced levels 3-5 are supposed to prevent blown highlights (as well as fill in shadows). Are you saying that DRO Advanced does not prevent blown highlights and, to prevent blown highlights on some images, underexposure must be used? When using DRO advanced, do you detect blown highlights the normal way, with the histogram and the blinking parts of the thumbnail?

“David, the top picture of the bridge was taken with DRO Advanced Level 4. Was it taken at
exposure -1 EV?

Yes. Because the camera screen showed a seriously overexposed result at normal exposure, -1 was used. With or without DRO, not using -1 led to the well-lit parts being burned out. - David

9 December 2007, 8:51 am”

]]> By: Les Leventhal http://www.photoclubalpha.com/2007/11/01/advanced-dro-the-a700s-magic-bullet/#comment-574 Les Leventhal Sun, 09 Dec 2007 08:51:07 +0000 http://photoclubalpha.com/2007/11/01/advanced-dro-the-a700s-magic-bullet/#comment-574 <p>David, the top picture of the bridge was taken with DRO Advanced Level 4. Was it taken at<br /> exposure -1 EV?</p> Yes. Because the camera screen showed a seriously overexposed result at normal exposure, -1 was used. With or without DRO, not using -1 led to the well-lit parts being burned out. - David David, the top picture of the bridge was taken with DRO Advanced Level 4. Was it taken at
exposure -1 EV?

Yes. Because the camera screen showed a seriously overexposed result at normal exposure, -1 was used. With or without DRO, not using -1 led to the well-lit parts being burned out. - David

]]> By: brettania http://www.photoclubalpha.com/2007/11/01/advanced-dro-the-a700s-magic-bullet/#comment-519 brettania Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:33:11 +0000 http://photoclubalpha.com/2007/11/01/advanced-dro-the-a700s-magic-bullet/#comment-519 Excellent article and illustrations -- will give me a headstart when I get to test the a700 (soon, hopefully). Excellent article and illustrations — will give me a headstart when I get to test the a700 (soon, hopefully).

]]> By: grp00 http://www.photoclubalpha.com/2007/11/01/advanced-dro-the-a700s-magic-bullet/#comment-485 grp00 Wed, 21 Nov 2007 17:11:09 +0000 http://photoclubalpha.com/2007/11/01/advanced-dro-the-a700s-magic-bullet/#comment-485 <p>I'm new owner of the A700 and I've experienced that same problem you've described above with RAW & DRO. Apparently, we're unable to open a RAW DRO image in any editor and retain the DRO enhancements. I believe this may be a software bug in the RAW conversion. If you examine any of the above photos (RAW & JPG) using the Sony supplied software, Picture Motion Browser version 2.1.02.07100, you see both the RAW & JPG properly rendering with the DRO enhancement. However, opening the RAW file with any editor, like Elements 5.0 or even the Sony supplied Image Data Converter SR Ver. 2, you get the very dark image. So the Picture Motion Browser renders the RAW images correctly with the DRO enhancements, so it is possible to view the DRO RAW images as you would expect, but there's just no way to edit them. That means the DRO information is retained in the RAW file and simply means to be incorporated properly in the editor conversion software. This is probably a problem with the RAW conversion routine. I think DRO is terrific and I'd like Sony to correct this problem. We should be able to edit DRO RAW files correctly. Has anyone contacted Sony about this issue?</p> The view with DRO which you see in IDC2 etc is only the JPEG preview. It also shows up in ACR. Unfortunately, the effects seen in the JPEG preview can not be mapped to the raw data. And IDC2 does not replicate the advanced DRO process, only the basic gamma curve process. - David I’m new owner of the A700 and I’ve experienced that same problem you’ve described above with RAW & DRO. Apparently, we’re unable to open a RAW DRO image in any editor and retain the DRO enhancements. I believe this may be a software bug in the RAW conversion. If you examine any of the above photos (RAW & JPG) using the Sony supplied software, Picture Motion Browser version 2.1.02.07100, you see both the RAW & JPG properly rendering with the DRO enhancement. However, opening the RAW file with any editor, like Elements 5.0 or even the Sony supplied Image Data Converter SR Ver. 2, you get the very dark image. So the Picture Motion Browser renders the RAW images correctly with the DRO enhancements, so it is possible to view the DRO RAW images as you would expect, but there’s just no way to edit them. That means the DRO information is retained in the RAW file and simply means to be incorporated properly in the editor conversion software. This is probably a problem with the RAW conversion routine. I think DRO is terrific and I’d like Sony to correct this problem. We should be able to edit DRO RAW files correctly. Has anyone contacted Sony about this issue?

The view with DRO which you see in IDC2 etc is only the JPEG preview. It also shows up in ACR. Unfortunately, the effects seen in the JPEG preview can not be mapped to the raw data. And IDC2 does not replicate the advanced DRO process, only the basic gamma curve process. - David

]]> By: Stef http://www.photoclubalpha.com/2007/11/01/advanced-dro-the-a700s-magic-bullet/#comment-391 Stef Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:26:10 +0000 http://photoclubalpha.com/2007/11/01/advanced-dro-the-a700s-magic-bullet/#comment-391 David- the scary thing is: I have actually tried it out...I set the camera to RAW only (not Raw +Jpeg), DRO+5 (to get an extreme example) and voila...I had a perfectly exposed RAW file on the back of my camera until I opened it up in Adobe Raw converter and also in Image Data Converter. Both showed an underexposed RAW file and both programms were unable to fully recreate the image that I had on the back of my camera screen. So my conclusion is to turn DRO OFF (completely) when shooting in RAW. Not sure though why Sony claims that RAW files are now supported in DRO??? Stef. David- the scary thing is: I have actually tried it out…I set the camera to RAW only (not Raw +Jpeg), DRO+5 (to get an extreme example) and voila…I had a perfectly exposed RAW file on the back of my camera until I opened it up in Adobe Raw converter and also in Image Data Converter. Both showed an underexposed RAW file and both programms were unable to fully recreate the image that I had on the back of my camera screen.
So my conclusion is to turn DRO OFF (completely) when shooting in RAW. Not sure though why Sony claims that RAW files are now supported in DRO???
Stef.

]]> By: Stef http://www.photoclubalpha.com/2007/11/01/advanced-dro-the-a700s-magic-bullet/#comment-390 Stef Fri, 02 Nov 2007 14:36:20 +0000 http://photoclubalpha.com/2007/11/01/advanced-dro-the-a700s-magic-bullet/#comment-390 <p>Dear David</p> <p>Many thanks for your great article. Had to go and try it out immediately. Sorry for my ignorance, but just for me to get this right: If I want to shoot ONLY in raw and if I leave by accident D-R on for example +5 than I get the wrong impression from the image displayed on the camera screen as it gives me a JPEG version that is adjusted to D-R+5 and I will consequently have underexposed my image? So in other words if I shoot in RAW only I do have to turn DRO OFF to get an image on my camera's display that reflects the "true" image in my RAW file? Why does it then say somewhere on the Sony website that RAW files now support DRO as well if there is no way to replicate the in camera DRO +5 setting anywhere in either the Image Data Converter nor in Adobe Raw?<br /> Slightly confused..<br /> Stef.</p> Stef, I think you may be right. DRO with RAW only sets a flag for Sony IDC to use Auto DRO - but the effect is nothing like the actual DRO. I will have to check this. It could be very misleading if you just shoot raw, but get a processed preview image hiding a darker .ARW file, and then you can not get the same result through IDC or other converters. But this may well be happening. - David Dear David

Many thanks for your great article. Had to go and try it out immediately. Sorry for my ignorance, but just for me to get this right: If I want to shoot ONLY in raw and if I leave by accident D-R on for example +5 than I get the wrong impression from the image displayed on the camera screen as it gives me a JPEG version that is adjusted to D-R+5 and I will consequently have underexposed my image? So in other words if I shoot in RAW only I do have to turn DRO OFF to get an image on my camera’s display that reflects the “true” image in my RAW file? Why does it then say somewhere on the Sony website that RAW files now support DRO as well if there is no way to replicate the in camera DRO +5 setting anywhere in either the Image Data Converter nor in Adobe Raw?
Slightly confused..
Stef.

Stef, I think you may be right. DRO with RAW only sets a flag for Sony IDC to use Auto DRO - but the effect is nothing like the actual DRO. I will have to check this. It could be very misleading if you just shoot raw, but get a processed preview image hiding a darker .ARW file, and then you can not get the same result through IDC or other converters. But this may well be happening. - David

]]> By: christm http://www.photoclubalpha.com/2007/11/01/advanced-dro-the-a700s-magic-bullet/#comment-386 christm Thu, 01 Nov 2007 23:08:55 +0000 http://photoclubalpha.com/2007/11/01/advanced-dro-the-a700s-magic-bullet/#comment-386 Wow. Thanks for this. I've not been a huge user of DRO+ on the 100 as I simply haven't seen a big difference. Perhaps because of its own limitations (and mine too) but now that I've seen the new levels and usability, just can't wait to get my hands on the 700. Wow. Thanks for this. I’ve not been a huge user of DRO+ on the 100 as I simply haven’t seen a big difference. Perhaps because of its own limitations (and mine too) but now that I’ve seen the new levels and usability, just can’t wait to get my hands on the 700.

]]> By: Philip http://www.photoclubalpha.com/2007/11/01/advanced-dro-the-a700s-magic-bullet/#comment-379 Philip Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:09:29 +0000 http://photoclubalpha.com/2007/11/01/advanced-dro-the-a700s-magic-bullet/#comment-379 Many thanks for a great article. Never having bothered with DRO+ on the A100 because it prevented me using RAW at the same time, I'll give it a go on the A700. Many thanks for a great article. Never having bothered with DRO+ on the A100 because it prevented me using RAW at the same time, I’ll give it a go on the A700.

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