Ricoh’s new, compact CX1 camera offers “a dynamic range double shot mode.” This mode “takes two images in succession with different exposures and then combines them automatically to present the best of both images.” DPReview offers additional details. Very cool. It’s rare that I need much more than the 8MP offered by my slightly aged SLR, but I’d always like less noise and greater dynamic range. I’d love a future cam that could shoot high resolution when desired, but if necessary shoot with lower res/broader dynamic range. [Via Jerry Harris]
HDRsoft, makers of the popular Photomatix Pro, offer a Lightroom export plug-in. They’ve just posted a step-by-step tutorial showing how to send multiple images from LR to Photomatix for processing, then automatically pull the results back into your LR library. (Note the little “Next” arrow up top for navigating to subsequent pages.) [Via Tom Hogarty]
If you’re looking for a detailed primer on the whole topic of dynamic range, check out The Online Photographer’s thorough write-up.
6 thoughts on “New HDR camera, Lightroom tips”
Fantastic! I was wondering how long it would take for HDR technology to be integrated directly into the camera itself. Way cool.
John, please update HDR in Photoshop CS5! I need more possibilities in terms of tonemapping. And btw. HDR produces horrible artifacts on high contrast edges (for example windows in an indoor shot)in the “local adaption” mode.
Interesting that Ricoh has taken the bracketing concept to HDR use. The next step (one hopes) is adjustable dynamic range in the camera at the sensor level. While very processor intensive, it would be great to have a camera that could ‘roll off’ the sensitivity of each pixel site as the exposure is made. Rather than linear collection, the charge on each pixel could be limited nonlinearly so highlights don’t completely blow out. But I think this would require some fundamental change in the way the receptors work, or some kind of ‘pre-exposure’ filter that behaves like an LCD shutter over each individual pixel.
Either way, it’s a tricky setup to be sure. Looks like Ricoh’s got the shortcut, which would only be limited by the time scale involved in firing two shots.
Pentax has been shipping the K20D with built-in multi-exposure “HDR” for more than a year now. It is a regular function that can combine up to 9 exposures in succession. Sadly, the result is still an LDR image (albeit well-exposed), but at least the AEB on the K20D goes to 5 brackets at 2ev steps.
Beyond that, the camera can apply “fake Photomatix-style HDR tmo” as a post-process, and a “shout out to Adobe” is that it can be set to save DNG files as the raw default. Not bad for a (now) $700 DSLR!
…yeah, I’m a fanboi. 😉
Fantastic! I was wondering how long it would take for HDR technology to be integrated directly into the camera itself. Way cool.
Hi John,
Interesting post! I’ve just finished a video tutorial showing the use of the Photomatix Plug-in within Lightroom. Takes you from start to finish inside Lightroom. Here’s the link (I hope I’m allowed to post it).
http://www.profiphotos.com/blog/en/2009/02/hdr-photo-tutorial-using-photomatix-pro-in-lightroom/
Cheers, Markus
[Thanks, Markus; I’ll check it out. –J.]
John, please update HDR in Photoshop CS5! I need more possibilities in terms of tonemapping. And btw. HDR produces horrible artifacts on high contrast edges (for example windows in an indoor shot)in the “local adaption” mode.
Interesting that Ricoh has taken the bracketing concept to HDR use. The next step (one hopes) is adjustable dynamic range in the camera at the sensor level. While very processor intensive, it would be great to have a camera that could ‘roll off’ the sensitivity of each pixel site as the exposure is made. Rather than linear collection, the charge on each pixel could be limited nonlinearly so highlights don’t completely blow out. But I think this would require some fundamental change in the way the receptors work, or some kind of ‘pre-exposure’ filter that behaves like an LCD shutter over each individual pixel.
Either way, it’s a tricky setup to be sure. Looks like Ricoh’s got the shortcut, which would only be limited by the time scale involved in firing two shots.
Pentax has been shipping the K20D with built-in multi-exposure “HDR” for more than a year now. It is a regular function that can combine up to 9 exposures in succession. Sadly, the result is still an LDR image (albeit well-exposed), but at least the AEB on the K20D goes to 5 brackets at 2ev steps.
Beyond that, the camera can apply “fake Photomatix-style HDR tmo” as a post-process, and a “shout out to Adobe” is that it can be set to save DNG files as the raw default. Not bad for a (now) $700 DSLR!
…yeah, I’m a fanboi. 😉
Hi John,
Interesting post!