Canon 7D RAW + Lightroom

[Darchangel]

Hi guys, not sure if this has already been asked (apparently RAW and 7D are too short for the search algorithm)...Does Lightroom 2 (with the update to 2.6) handle Canon 7D raw's? If so, does it do it well?

I've googled and read anything that looked relavent. What I found was numerous complaints that it didn't support it at all, then when LR 2.5 was released, that it did support the 7D RAWs but was garbage (high noise at ISO100, etc.). Wondering if 2.6 is a viable alternative to Canon's packaged processing software.

Any experience you'd care to share would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Darvidanoar]

I did play around with LR for a while when I first got my 7D and it was able to read the RAW files fine. I don't recall any problem with the comversion.

Have you tried downloading the free 30 day trial from Adobe?

[Darchangel]

I've got LR1 right now and it doesn't read the files at all. Since I've got a 7D, wondering if there value in the upgrade (which would be questionable if I still needed to convert via Canon software then import into LR).


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[kiwi]

If you keep up to date with LR updates then there will be no issue

[Darchangel]

Ok, so they fixed the noise issues from 2.5 to 2.6. Thanks guys, appreciate the info :)


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[wideangle]

I am not sure about Lightroom, but tried out Phase One and the noise from the images even at base ISO from the 7D was a lot worse than with Canon DPP. I have always found any 3rd party RAW converter to deal with noise less well then using Canon DPP, just my personal findings and preferences.

[Darchangel]

Thanks guys. I'll download the trial for LR2 and try to update to 2.6 and compare the results from the canon s/w. Appreciate the responses.


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[Darchangel]

Ok, so comparing DPP with LR2.6, I'm going to have to do some reading to find out how I can reduce noise with LR.

Took me 10secs to get an acceptable image out of DPP, 10mins so far for no gains in LR.

Back to the drawing board ;)


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[Darchangel]

Never mind, have gotten some better results now. I must say that comparing a 300D to a 7D, I can see more noise from the new cam (even at ISO100), but I assume that's related to the massive difference in resolution (so a 100% crop is very different in terms of how much image is covered).

Here's an ISO640 100% crop from the 7d, using 24-70mm f/2.8L @ ISO640 70mm f/6.3 1/125sec:

[Darvidanoar]

I've got LR1 right now and it doesn't read the files at all. Since I've got a 7D, wondering if there value in the upgrade (which would be questionable if I still needed to convert via Canon software then import into LR).

I hear ya. I use PSPX2 and found it's abilty to read my 400D RAW files brilliant and the conversion was fine. Now that I have the 7D, PSPX2 doesn't support the 7D RAW format and I've has to start doing RAW coversion using the Canon DPP software.

I downloaded the demo of LightRoom earlier this year and it happily read the raw files and seemed like a nice product, byt at $299, I just could justify the spend.

I also tried the demo of PSPX3 which was able to read the 7D RAW files, but the conversion was (to paraphrase Tony Abbot) absolute cr*p.

So .. at this stage, I'm still using the Canon DPP software to do RAW conversions and it's a big pain :)

[Darchangel]

After messing around for an hour, I ended up with better results in LR. Ironically it looked better inside DPP but exporting both to JPG and re-examining in Photoshop, LR2 was better by a country mile.

Meh, I'm a noob still learning my new camera, all part of the game :)


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[wideangle]

Never mind, have gotten some better results now. I must say that comparing a 300D to a 7D, I can see more noise from the new cam (even at ISO100), but I assume that's related to the massive difference in resolution (so a 100% crop is very different in terms of how much image is covered).

Here's an ISO640 100% crop from the 7d, using 24-70mm f/2.8L @ ISO640 70mm f/6.3 1/125sec:

I hear what you are saying about going from a relatively smaller MP camera to a large one. I think by the very nature of the 7D having 18MP resolution maybe you are seeing more detail such as noise etc. The other factor that you may take into account (and which I have been trying to understand) is that entry level screens can also produce noise/banding etc. I have had shots at 100ISO and when processing them I would sometimes get shadow noise/banding, especially in the shadow areas. I checked out the gradients of my screen on a site such as this (http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/gradient.php).

[dowden photography]

download the bata of LR 3, its free until version 1.x comes out