WIC and LibRAW

[Arthur]

Btw here is a current topic in the DxO forums, where people do not know how to integrate DxO into LR, because LR is so limitted as DAM:

http://forum.dxo.com/index.php?topic=13633.msg69943#msg69943

Here I advertise your tool as a response to "JoachimStrobel" at the end, even though I did not buy IMatch yet.

[Jingo]

Thanks, will look into these.

I have mentioned a farewell feature, because there are quite a view consumer/prosumer people which are stuck on LR6 now, because they never want to rent software. You can read it everywhere. So Lightroom Classic CC is not an option. As first step I have replaced my Develop module in LR by DxO, so that this important part is not done by the old LR6 anymore. What remains in Lightroom is the Import and the Library module with its Dam features. You can use this, but as far as I know, if a new/adapted raw format is out in the future, you will need to go on the DNG format to be able to further use LR as DAM. On the other hand IMatch uses external codecs/sources to display previews, so it never gets outdated here as long as for example FPV updates its codecs. Please tell me if I understood this wrong.

So, If you are not happy with Adobes licensing model but want to stay on software which is developed further, you have two possibilities to replace LR currently:

1) IMatch + DxO
2) Capture One

I would not underestimate this. But yes this is why I wrote ADVANCED :-)

For #2 - it should be Capture One + IMatch.   

[Mario]

On the other hand IMatch uses external codecs/sources to display previews, so it never gets outdated here as long as for example FPV updates its codecs. Please tell me if I understood this wrong.

IMatch by default uses the installed WIC codec for whatever RAW format you are working with.
WIC is the standard for RAW processing under Windows. At least it should be. As so often, support by camera vendors is lacking.
Canon stopped to provide their users with a WIC codec altogether, for example. Probably cost-cutting or just not sufficient respect for their customer base.

Microsoft includes a set or WIC RAW codecs in Windows, but these do not support all format variants. For example, Canon has produced about 50 different RAW variants, many of them incompatible. All share the .CR2 file extension...

Apparently Microsoft is unable/unwilling or does not get sufficient info from the camera vendors to maintain all codecs properly. I definitely see this as an obligation of the camera vendors - users (buyers!) Microsoft should put a lot more pressure on them to a) either provide a top-quality WIC codec for each of their models or b) provide Microsoft with sufficient information so they can keep Windows 10 up-to-date.

I don't think mainly about developing RAW files today - but about the billions of RAW files in archives, which users may be unable to open in 5 years time - unless they enter a subscription with Adobe or similar...

To overcome that. IMatch (2017.11.2+) now also supports RAW processing (preview / cache generation, no editing) via the library provided by LibRAW (see IMatch 2017.4.11 release notes for details. This allows IMatch to support over 900 additional camera models. At least for extracting previews or producing a 'viewable' rendition of the RAW data.

1) IMatch + DxO
2) Capture One

There are quite a number of C1 users in the IMatch user base 

[Arthur]

To overcome that. IMatch (2017.11.2+) now also supports RAW processing (preview / cache generation, no editing) via the library provided by LibRAW (see IMatch 2017.4.11 release notes for details. This allows IMatch to support over 900 additional camera models. At least for extracting previews or producing a 'viewable' rendition of the RAW data.

What are your impressions on LibRaw performance compared to WIC codecs? I am asking, because when I search through the internet, there seems really to be a problem with WIC codec availability:

- Microsoft releases some codecs for Windows 10 but with much delay. So you cannot buy a fresh body for a longer period.
- The Fast Picture Viewer Codec which I thought could be a solution looks a little bit like abandonware, when you look in their forums and on facebook.
- FastRawViewer seems to be up to date, but does not seem to provide WIC codecs. As up to date criteria I set the availability of EOS 200D and EOS 77D support.

- LibRaw seems to be up to date also. They have added support for these two bodies in august. Can I force IMatch to use LibRaw just to check how IMatch feels with LibRaw running?

EDIT: Found the thread where it is explained: https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=7360.msg51169#msg51169

[Mario]

Extracting previews with LibRaw is very fast.
If IMatch needs to fall back to processing the full RAW to produce a basic rendition of the RAW file, it can take several seconds per file.
But the Canon official WIC codec was not that fast either. Preview in 0.2s, RAW between 2 and 12 seconds, depending on the camera.

The general idea of WIC was that camera vendors (!) provide a optimal WIC codec all other software then can use via the WIC subsystem in Windows.
The camera vendors should know their RAW files best and thus should be able to produce very good results. And they have the code already, for creating in-camera JPEG files or for embedding previews in the RAW.

But the camera vendors don't seem to bother or are just cutting cost to make some extra bucks.

[Arthur]

I have written to the FastRawViewer guys, asking them to to provide a WIC interface. I did not know that they were the developers of LibRaw, and that is what they responded:

Dear Sir:

We know that photographers are asking for raw support through codecs, and we have such thing in mind for some future.

LibRaw is our development, by the way


> Hi,
> are there any plans to provide a WIC interface to the raw decoding
> functionality? There is currently a market gap:
>
> 1) The microsoft codec pack is very limited and not up-to-date on Windows 10
> 2) There seemed to be a viewer and codec provider called "Fast Picture
> Viewer", but this seems to be abandonware now
> 3) Manufacturers like canon do not provide WIC codecs anymore
>
> This causes previewing problems in windows and other applications. There is a
> great library called LibRaw, which is probably also used by you, but there is
> no WIC interface so that the images cannot be viewed in the Windows Explorer.
> I think, there is really some money to earn on this topic.
>
> Arthur