Panasonic RW2 wic codec

[jarraun]

Hi Imatch - Panasonic users,

I´ve recently purchased a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX100 camera that produces RW2 files which are indexed in IMatch where I can see thumbnails correctly. RW2 files real dimensions are 4128 x 3104 as you can see in the thubmnails layout but when zooming 100 % them in the viewer I only get a 1920 x 1440 view which are dimensions reported by exif (see red lines in attached file). In ACR the files can be seen at their full dimensions.
When I run Wic Diagnostics it says:

Testing file 'C:\Users\JAVIER\Desktop\Pruebas_IM5\_1000025.RW2'
   Thumbnail: Codec 'Leica Raw Decoder (FastPictureViewer Codec Pack)'
      (GetThumbnail failed (88982F44 Unknown error 0x88982F44).) 0x0 pixel in 0 ms.
   Preview: Codec 'Leica Raw Decoder (FastPictureViewer Codec Pack)'
      () 1920x1440 pixel in 15 ms.
   Full resolution: Codec 'Leica Raw Decoder (FastPictureViewer Codec Pack)'
      () 4128x3104 pixel in 0 ms.

I can´t understand why 'Leica Raw Decoder (FastPictureViewer Codec Pack)' is choosen instead 'Panasonic Raw Decoder (FastPictureViewer Codec Pack)' that is also avalible from FastPictureViewer Codec Pack.

Any ideas will be very welcome, thanks.

Salud

Javier

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Mario]

Go to Windows Control and open the FastPictureViewer applet. Make sure you disable the option to only extract the previews ("Force use of embedded preview").

Also, if your files don't contain 100% preview images, and you configure IMatch to use the embedded preview, you get what you asked for.

See this knowledge base article for details:

http://www.photools.com/3695/ignoring-small-embedded-previews-raw-images/

[jarraun]

Mario,

Thanks for your incredible fast answer. I did as you sugested (see attacdhed file) and now correct codecs are loaded:

Testing file 'C:\Users\JAVIER\Desktop\Pruebas_IM5\_1000025.RW2'
   Thumbnail: Codec 'Panasonic Raw Decoder (FastPictureViewer Codec Pack)'
      (GetThumbnail failed (88982F44 Unknown error 0x88982F44).) 0x0 pixel in 0 ms.
   Preview: Codec 'Panasonic Raw Decoder (FastPictureViewer Codec Pack)'
      () 1920x1440 pixel in 172 ms.
   Full resolution: Codec 'Panasonic Raw Decoder (FastPictureViewer Codec Pack)'
      () 4128x3104 pixel in 0 ms.

Unfortunatly I can´t yet see my pictures at their full resolution in the viewer only what seems to be the 1920x1440 preview.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Mario]

If the cache files have already been generated using your old settings, you won't see a change until you re-create the cache files.

Select some files for testing, Shift+Ctrl+F5, Recreate Cache files using the current settings...

See the corresponding help topic in the IMatch help for details ("Cache").

[jarraun]

Sorry Mario no luck, can´t imagine how to solve it. 

[Mario]

Recap:

You have installed a working codec?
You changed the FPV codec settings so that they can return the full-size image and don't only return the embedded preview?
To be safe, you followed the KB article I linked above and set the minimum cache preview size to 2000 pixels?
You re-created the cache images in IMatch so the new settings are applied.
The WIC codec still returns 1920 pixel files and IMatch also ignores the minimum cache size you have set?

I would need to see a log file in DEBUG mode (Help > Support > Debug logging) from an IMatch session where you re-created some cache files.

[jarraun]

Sorry again Mario, I awkwardly skipped to set the minimum cache preview size to 2000 pixels. Solved.

Tank you for your kind support

[Mario]

OK. When you enable the "use embedded preview option" for cache files, IMatch will do what you want it to do - it uses the embedded preview.

Either disable the use of the embedded preview if you consider the embedded previews in your RAW files as too small - or set the minimum size to be bigger as the embedded preview - which forces IMatch to load the full size RAW.

If all your RAW files have only small previews, you should disable the preview usage completely. Because when you enable the preview but set a minimum size, IMatch will have to load each of your images twice! First it loads the preview because this is configured I then compares the size of the preview with your minimum size, throws it away and loads the full RAW file again.

It's probably best to configure your camera  / RAW processor software to embed 100% previews. Does not cost a lot of extra disk space but makes everything work much smoother.

[Ferdinand]

As a general comment, the problem you (the OP) experienced is quite common among mirrorless / compact cameras.  Not only does it make checking for focus hard on the computer, but on most of the cameras that I've owned, it's hard on the camera as well, since you can't get 100% view there either. 

The solution to this problem is to shoot RAW+JPG.  If you do this, then the camera will use the matching JPG for viewing and zooming.  Quite a lot of software will also do this (FPV, Breezebrowser Pro).  In Imatch you can configure a visual proxy for the RAW to do this. 

It's true that forcing the WIC codec to load the full RAW is another workaround in IMatch, but I didn't find this very satisfactory, as often the RAW conversion provided by the codec was of poor quality.

Shooting RAW+JPG just to be able to check focus seems wasteful, and in one sense it is, but so is not nailing focus and not realising at the time that you haven't.  Generally I delete the JPGs once they've served their purpose, i.e. once I've short-listed, culled, rated and processed.

[jarraun]

Mario and Ferdinand,

Very useful sugestions. I have both Nikon NEF files and Panasonic RW2 files, NEF have full size embeded previews and RW2 files just 1920x1440 previews too small for checking focus, so I consider right for me Mario´s sugestion of using embedded preview option for cache only when it is larger than 2000 pixels. I think i´ll take Ferdinand´s idea of shooting RW2+JPEG for checking focus. As for Wic codecs I´ll use propietary Nikon codec for NEF files and FPV codec for Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX100 RW2 files, as at this moment propietary Panasonic codecs don´t support Raw files for this camera.

[Mario]

Using JPEG files or forcing embedded previews may not be required - from a performance perspective.
At least from the WIC diagnosis it looks as there is no time difference between extracting the RAW and the preview. Of course it depends on whether the quality you get from the RAW codec is sufficient  - the JPEG files or embedded previews produced by the camera are usually already optimized, while the RAW is, well, a RAW and needs a capable codec or a RAW processor to produce good looking files.

If your camera is unable to embed 100% previews (most cameras now have a switch I think) using external JPEG files and making them the visual proxy for your RAW files via a simple file relation rule is probably the best way.

[Ferdinand]

If your camera is unable to embed 100% previews (most cameras now have a switch I think)

As I think you observed, Nikons can, at least all the ones that I own.  But nothing else that I've bought in recent years (Sony & Fuji) can.  I get the impression that it's the norm now.   I don't like it either.  Although in the case of Fuji, the uncompressed RAF files are ridiculously large, and a 100% preview would make them even larger.  At least I can delete the JPGs.

[Mario]

Camera vendors may tend to produce embedded previews which match the resolution on the back-side monitor of the camera. This requires less processing power and allows them to integrate cheaper chips in the camera. A preview created for a 1280, 1600 or 1920 pixel in-camera display is of course not worth much when you look at your files on 4K monitors. And it does not even reflect the true pixels in the RAW, which means that in addition to all the processing the camera already does to create the JPEG, it also has to reduce the pixel count by whatever algorithm. Sufficient for an in-camera review, but for very little else.

Maybe a DNG-based workflow with full-size embedded previews is an alternative in such cases.
The disk space requirements for a full-site embedded JPEG preview are a few hundred KB, maybe 1 MB. Compared to the size of the RAW, or the size of the metadata some vendors include, this is negligible.

If camera vendors do their job, they create superior WIC codecs. Using the same algorithms in their WIC codec which they use in-camera. Or even better onces, because a PC has a lot more processing power than the hardware in a camera. The result would be 'true' renditions of the RAW (as defined by the camera vendor), available for all WIC-enabled applications.

An alternative is always a DNG-based workflow with ACR or a similar software at the head of the chain. This also produces 100% previews embedded in the DNG file.

[Ferdinand]

Well, when I extract the full-sized previews embedded in my NEFs, using s/w that can do this, they're about 1Mb.  And those cameras are only 12mpx.  So I assume that it would add close to that to an already large RAF.  The X-T1 is only 16mpx but a RAF is typically around 34Mb!

I think you're right about processing power.  The initial Fuji X cameras were notoriously slow, and I suspect that Fuji made some design decisions based around the limitations of that processor.  It's a lot faster now.  I really wish that they had included some lossless compression in the RAF format, like the Nikon lossless compression.  It's certainly possible, as a RAF can zip to about 19Mb.  But that and the larger preview both take processing power, which was in short supply in the X-E1 and the X-Pro 1.  And now the RAF format seems locked in stone.  You can tell that this is a sore point for me, because it's a weak point in an otherwise very good camera.

DNG is not for me.  But it is one solution.

[Mario]

Lossless compression is always good, but can be a real drag on the camera resources.
And nothing is worse than the camera memory buffer running full because the camera unable to write files to the card as fast as you shoot. And while you have to wait or swap cameras, you miss the money shot... 

I'd rather go for larger and faster cards. A Nikon aimed with two 64 or 128 GB cards can store away a lot of files before you need to swap...