Sinar eXposure - Release Information

[nicolas claris]

Today we had a long dissussion with Lorenz Koch from Sinar.

Among the talks and decisions about the "what" and "how" Sinar and I will collaborate this year, I am pleased to let you know that the long awaited new Sinar raw developper called "eXposure" will be out in April!
If the SW does all for what it is intended,, it will be a great improvement.
Did I say I'm impatient?

As soon as I'll get a copy, I'll post my first impression in OPF.

 

[nicolas claris]

Silly me!

I forgot two very good news for the Hy6 users:

One:
Enfin! the revolving Adapter for the Sinarback eMotion will be ready for delivery by the month of April 2008.
(it allows the user to change from landscape to portrait format – and vice versa – without having to remove the back from the camera…)

Two:
The waist-level finder with swing-out magnifier as well as 90° high-eyepoint reflex finder will also be available very soon… a real relief for me to get the horizon horizontal!
Imagine being on a chase boat on moving sea shooting a boat sailing at 12 knots ridding the waves hand seeing all that thru the standard MF viewfinder with left being on right and vice versa… better not being sea-sick! waistfinder welcome!

 

[Thierry Hagenauer]

Some more news about these products/accessories, from yesterday:

- Revolving Adapter for Sinar Hy6: released

- Sinar eXposure SW: release next week, possibly Tuesday

- 50mm AFD lens: possibly first units released the second week of April

- 90° Finder for Sinar Hy6: release mid or end of April

best regards,
Thierry

 

[nicolas claris]

- Sinar eXposure SW: release next week, possibly Tuesday

hehehehe tomorrow is…

 

[Thierry Hagenauer]

For your information:

the new Sinar eXposure will be officially released with the public version 6.0 next Monday, April 07th in the morning (GMT +1)

In the meantime, our distributors have been informed that they can download and get this eXposure version 6.0 for their own use as per now, for them to be ready to distribute it to our customers starting next Monday.

Best regards,
Thierry

 

[nicolas claris]

It's gonna be a long week-end !

 

[nicolas claris]

For registered at Sinar, eXposure 6.0 is downloadable from Sinar's web site (http://www.sinarcameras.com) under the download/software menu

We'll report !

 

[Thierry Hagenauer]

just a slight correction, Nicolas:

the Sinar website is

www.sinarcameras.com

Best regards,
Thierry

For registered at Sinar, eXposure 6.0 is downloadable from Sinar's web site (http://www.sinarcameras.com) under the download/software menu

We'll report !

 

[nicolas claris]

Corrected on both your and mine posts ! sorry …

 

[Thierry Hagenauer]

no harm at all!

Thierry

Corrected on both your and mine posts ! sorry …

 

[nicolas claris]

For registered at Sinar, eXposure 6.0 is downloadable from Sinar's web site (http://www.sinarcameras.com) under the download/software menu

We'll report !

So here we are!

Caution! This is a report made after a few hours only trial…
some of my critics maybe the user's fault, if so, Thierry Hagenauer is more than welcome to correct me…

I have tried eXposure since this Monday morning, but not intensively…

As per the read me file:
Currently, the following back types are supported:
• Sinarback eMotion 75 and 75 LV
• Sinarback eMotion 54 LV
• Sinarback eMotion 22

Mac only!
Minimum System Requirements:
Processor G4/G5 Processor with 1.5 GHz
Physical RAM 1 GB
Hard disk space 3 GB + space for capturing images
Mac OS 10.4.11 or newer

Images that are created using Sinar eXposure™ are saved as DNG-files.
In principle it is possible to process these images with software packages of third party suppliers that are able to interpret DNG-data.

Basically Sinar eXposure™ is able to read images that have been captured with eyelike Capture Pro, The support of images captured with Sinar CaptureShop™ 5.x (Sinar Tagged Image, “.sti“ raw data) will follow in a future release of Sinar eXposure™.

One can export 16 and 8 bits tif file and Jpeg as well.

Below are my first findings (I have tried yet tethered shooting…):

Working station: 2x2.66 Dual-Core Intel Xeon – 8 Gb 667 Mhz Ram – Mac OS X v. 10.5.2

In order to read images if not tethered, the original files (together with ".IA"" et ".BR" files) must be on a CF card in an external card reader.

The first impression is a much more easy GUY than CaptureShop, tabs and widgets can be organised using 2 different monitors.

There are 4 tabs:
• Import
• Developp
• Export
• Tethered shooting

Each tab has it owns widgets.
In the developp tab, one can find widgets for:
• Working color space
• Default input profile
• Luminosity/Contrast (with sliders and fields to enter values)
• Temp and Hue (with sliders and fields to enter values)
• Saturation (with sliders and fields to enter values)
• Crop ( (with fields to enter values for Top/bottom/left/right)
• USM (with sliders and fields to enter values)

Otherwise you can find tools for:
• cropping
• zoom
• neutral picker
• 90° clockwise and counter clockwise rotation
• Arbitrary rotation sliders and fields to enter values (with and without viual grid)
• Highlight and shadow warnings


In the Developp tab I have found a lack of :
• Denoise “widget”
• Exposure compensation “widget” (it does exist in the Tethered Tab)
• Highlight recovery (my findings are that it does not recover highlights as Brumbaer and still clip the highlights)

A few issues…
Some of the file exported (in 16 or 8 bit tif and jpeg as well) have a thin horizontal stripe.
This happen only when files are exported thru eXposure, the same DNG import can be opened in ACR or C1-4 and has not the line…
I will try on another computer (Macpro, later)

I have found that some of the DNGs, when opened with another Raw Developper (ACR or C1-4) may still be open in eXposure but export were not possible…
I will have to determine which RC is the culprit…

Despite these few issues, I found eXposure much more "workable" than Captureshop.
Still have to learn and practice a lot to get the benefit of its power…

 

[nicolas claris]

Forgot to say, eXposure don't read Brumbear DNGs…

 

[Ben Dearnley]

eXposure first impressions and requests

Hi Thierry,

I am an Eyelike Precision user, and I have downloaded and played with eXposure to become familiar with it for when it can be used tethered with my back.

I am pleased to see there are some similarities between Eyelike Capture Pro and eXposure, because I am a fan of Eyelike Capture Pro. It has some features other capture software doesn't have that I find really useful such as the sharpness control window to quickly check focus, individual RGB curves and RGB sliders instead of Kelvin and tint. Sadly, these seem to be missing from eXposure...

Things that needed improvement in Capture Pro like the overlay (twilight) feature look better in eXposure, but I really will miss some features of Capture pro, especially the individual RGB curves, which I use everyday. These are particularly useful when shooting with natural light in a studio, when the shadows may have a color cast you need to eliminate.

Could the following features possibly be included in future Process plug-ins:

- RGB curves
- RGB sliders for those of us who dislike K and tint
- Per channel saturation (sometimes I find just one channel needs less Sat, usually red)
- A small high res section of the picture to check focus, or at least a quick way to zoom to 100% in the navigation window rather than moving the slider

Otherwise it looks great. It runs a bit slow on my machine (Dual 2.5GHz G5 running 10.4.11 with 3.5GB RAM). I don't know why this is. Sometimes it takes a few seconds for drop down menus to show up.

Also, do trashed images go into the OS trash, so they can be recovered if necessary, or are they lost forever like in Capture Pro?

 

[Thierry Hagenauer]

Nicolas,

there is a little bug here: this happens when using the "Unsharp Masking" in eXposure and then exporting as a "TIFF".

In the meantime, do export the TIFFs WITHOUT sharpening, which makes anyway sense, when working on the files in applications like LR, ACR, Raw Developer, etc ...

Best regards,
Thierry

Some of the file exported (in 16 or 8 bit tif and jpeg as well) have a thin horizontal stripe.
This happen only when files are exported thru eXposure, the same DNG import can be opened in ACR or C1-4 and has not the line…
I will try on another computer (Macpro, later)

 

[Michael Guthmann]

I am pleased to see there are some similarities between Eyelike Capture Pro and eXposure, because I am a fan of Eyelike Capture Pro. It has some features other capture software doesn't have that I find really useful such as the sharpness control window to quickly check focus, individual RGB curves and RGB sliders instead of Kelvin and tint. Sadly, these seem to be missing from eXposure...

Things that needed improvement in Capture Pro like the overlay (twilight) feature look better in eXposure, but I really will miss some features of Capture pro, especially the individual RGB curves, which I use everyday. These are particularly useful when shooting with natural light in a studio, when the shadows may have a color cast you need to eliminate.

Could the following features possibly be included in future Process plug-ins:

- RGB curves
- RGB sliders for those of us who dislike K and tint
- Per channel saturation (sometimes I find just one channel needs less Sat, usually red)
- A small high res section of the picture to check focus, or at least a quick way to zoom to 100% in the navigation window rather than moving the slider

Otherwise it looks great. It runs a bit slow on my machine (Dual 2.5GHz G5 running 10.4.11 with 3.5GB RAM). I don't know why this is. Sometimes it takes a few seconds for drop down menus to show up.

Also, do trashed images go into the OS trash, so they can be recovered if necessary, or are they lost forever like in Capture Pro?

Dear Ben,
hard to say, but I think you didn't had a close look on eXposure so far. Two of you mentioned wishes a already built in eXposure. There is a possibility to change the curves in the RGB channels, please have a look on the additional possibilities with the little i in the corner. Also it is a way available to toom to 100%. In eXposure you have two mode. One is the Develop Mode. Here you have a big preview in the center section. The other is the Contact sheet mode. Here you only have the contact sheet and it ito organize your contact sheet. In that mode the navigator change to a details window. If you click in a Thumbnail here is the 100% zoom you are missing.

If you trashed images you can recover them, it is different to Eyelike capture pro. Only images which are on CF card are deleted directly an cannot be recovered.

Best regards
Michael

 

[Ben Dearnley]

Great! I suspected there would be more to the software that I haven't found out yet. Good news, thank you.

Per channel saturation would be good though.....

Also, when do you think I will be able to use my Precision M22 back with eXposure?

Will I be able to use the sensitivity slider with my Precision back, or is that only applicable to eMotion backs?

 

[nicolas claris]

True!
Made the test today, no more line…

But then, why having an "Unsharp Masking" in eXposure?

Nicolas,

there is a little bug here: this happens when using the "Unsharp Masking" in eXposure and then exporting as a "TIFF".

In the meantime, do export the TIFFs WITHOUT sharpening, which makes anyway sense, when working on the files in applications like LR, ACR, Raw Developer, etc ...

Best regards,
Thierry

 

[Thierry Hagenauer]

hi Nicolas,

An "Unsharp Masking" available in a capture software is there to check what sharpness could be. IMO it should NEVER be used when exporting the files for PP, for the simple reason that sharpening is one of the LAST step in post-production, when you KNOW exactly the output size: the sharpening amount depends mainly on output size, but also on contrast and details of the image, among other factors.

So in eXposure like in any other capture SW, this sharpening is a help to visually have an idea, for me.

Best regards,
Thierry

True!
Made the test today, no more line…

But then, why having an "Unsharp Masking" in eXposure?

 

[nicolas claris]

I understand quite well and do agree, except that my experience has brung me to go back to the raw file each time I do need a different scale… (except for those files that need huge work in PS, as changing sails shape, making the lawn green and the sky pink;-)

 

[Thierry Hagenauer]

Yes, certainly, that is not in contradiction, IMO. Just keep the DNGs: there name says it = Digital Negative, and they are your base/starting point for any new change(s), among them a different scaling, in PP softwares like ACR, LR, Aperture, Raw Developer, etc ...

Or do I miss your point?

Kind regards,
Thierry

..., except that my experience has brung me to go back to the raw file each time I do need a different scale…

 

[nicolas claris]

Or do I miss your point?

Not at all! right in!
But then I do prefer to do a presharpening before converting to TIF.
At least this was my worklow with DSLRs files. I have to admit that, partly because of the difference Bayer filter/not bayer filter (may be also because of the difference of lens quality?), the Sinars files need less sharpening than DSLR's…

 

[Thierry Hagenauer]

It can be dangerous, to sharpen and then sharpen again over the first USM.

But then I do prefer to do a presharpening before converting to TIF.

Anti-aliasing filter, resolution/lenses, sensor size, etc .... all have an influence on perceived sharpness and the resulting needed USM (not speaking about the output size).

I have to admit that, partly because of the difference Bayer filter/not bayer filter (may be also because of the difference of lens quality?), the Sinars files need less sharpening than DSLR's…

Thierry

 

[nicolas claris]

It can be dangerous, to sharpen and then sharpen again over the first USM.

As always a question of balance…

Prior USM was mostly needed with the files made with Canon 1Ds, still but less with 1Ds2, still a little with 1Ds3.

Uneeded with Sinarback Emotion 75…

 

[Ben Dearnley]

Live image and Schneider digitar lenses

Hi Michael/Thierry,

I have a question regarding eXposure and my Schneider digital lenses. Currently, when using these lenses with Eyelike Capture Pro in live image mode the shutter continually opens and closes so that the chip can readout when the shutter is closed to improve the quality of the live image. Does eXposure also employ this strategy, or will I need to buy an LC shutter?

Also, when will the Precision backs be able to be used with eXposure?

Thanks,
Ben

 

[Thierry Hagenauer]

Dear Ben,

What camera platform are you using? What shutter are you using?

there are 2 things to consider:

- With the Sinar Hy6 it is possible to use the lenses' shutter to achieve a high-quality live image, as with a LC shutter in front of the lens, even better.
- eXposure does support the "Schneider Lens control" (as well as the "Rollei Lens Control", thus this should be possible.

Precision backs are planed to be supported with version 6.2 which will be released at Photokina.

Best regards,
Thierry

Hi Michael/Thierry,

I have a question regarding eXposure and my Schneider digital lenses. Currently, when using these lenses with Eyelike Capture Pro in live image mode the shutter continually opens and closes so that the chip can readout when the shutter is closed so improve the quality of the live image. Does eXposure also employ this strategy, or will I need to buy an LC shutter?

Also, when will the Precision backs be able to be used with eXposure?

Thanks,
Ben

 

[Ben Dearnley]

Hi Thierry,

This is the Schneider digitar lenses with their shutter on my P2. I have a sliding back for composition but I like to use the live image to fine tune my focus.

Ben

 

[Thierry Hagenauer]

Ben,

so you mean Schneider with in-between shutter?

Give me a bit time: I will check with my product manager, but I think this should be possible as it is with CapturePro.

Best regards,
Thierry

Hi Thierry,

This is the Schneider digitar lenses with their shutter on my P2. I have a sliding back for composition but I like to use the live image to fine tune my focus.

Ben

 

[Ben Dearnley]

Yes, it's their integrated electronic shutter, which can be controlled directly from the Eyelike Capture Pro software. As far as I know no other MF digital back brand can operate these shutters directly from their capture software. But it is a clever way to achieve HQ live image, because it doesn't require the purchase of the expensive LC shutter, but maybe wears out the built in lens shutter!

Bummer about waiting for Photokina before I can use eXposure.... I was hoping to get the hang of it before I buy an e75LV!

Ben

 

[Thierry Hagenauer]

Ben,

I just got the confirmation that the Schneider Control Lens will be supported by exposure the same way as in CapturePro: it was planed initially to have it in eXposure 6.1 (released end of June), as well as the support ot Precision backs, but it is been postponed to the next version at Photokina.

Hope this helps.
Thanks and kind regards,
Thierry

Yes, it's their integrated electronic shutter, which can be controlled directly from the Eyelike Capture Pro software. As far as I know no other MF digital back brand can operate these shutters directly from their capture software. But it is a clever way to achieve HQ live image, because it doesn't require the purchase of the expensive LC shutter, but maybe wears out the built in lens shutter!

Bummer about waiting for Photokina before I can use eXposure.... I was hoping to get the hang of it before I buy an e75LV!

Ben

 

[Ben Dearnley]

Thanks for the quick response Thierry, much appreciated.

Ben