Panasonic RAW files (.rw2)

[mcmoore]

Hi

A new user evaluating iMatch.  I am sure this has come up before, but I could not find it.

My main camera is a Panasonic G9.  RAW files from this camera do not seem to be supported in iMatch.  iMatch appears to display the embedded jpg file and not the RAW file.  Panasonic is a pretty popular camera brand, is there any way to display the .rw2 files or is support for them planned in the future. 

Mike

[ubacher]

But the jpg embedded in the raw file IS what the raw file looks like as it comes out of the camera.
What else could be shown?

[mcmoore]

My understanding is that the embedded jpg is lower resolution than the RAW file.  It displays at a smaller size.

[Mario]

1. Most cameras record a 100% preview image these days.
This is usually the best way to present a rendition of the image in a DAM like IMatch, which is why IMatch prefers the embedded preview.  See The Cache for more info.

2.  If you have set your camera to embed a preview image smaller than 100%, but the preview image is larger than the minimum size configured for the IMatch cache (see the Cache help topic above), IMatch will use it.

3.  The solution is to set the minimum cache size larger than the small previews embedded by your camera to force IMatch to develop the full RAW.

Note: Changing the cache size does not invalidate all existing cache images. To force IMatch to re-generate the cache for images, select the images in a file window, press Shift+Ctrl+F5 and choose "Update Cache only".

4. If the embedded preview cannot be used, IMatch needs to develop the full RAW. This is done via the WIC codec installed on your system for your proprietary RAW format.
See: WIC (Windows Interface Components) for details.

Do you have a matching WIC codec installed? Does Panasonic ship WIC codecs? If not, the standard WIC codec for your file format will be used, which can work, or not.
You can test with the WIC Diagnostics built into IMatch.

5. If no WIC codec is installed, IMatch falls back automatically to develop the full RAW using the LibRaw library. This library is pretty much up-to-date and supports hundreds of different RAW formats. If it supports the RAW format produced by your camera and firmware depends on many factors. Most camera vendors don't publish specifications of their RAW formats and change them frequently...

[mcmoore]

I set the minimum size to 3000 and regenerated the cache using the command shift-ctrl-F5.  Nothing changed.  I still get a smaller preview with RAW files than with JPGs.  The embedded files appear to be 1920 wide.  There does not appear to be any setting on my camera to increase the size of embedded jpg's when I shoot RAW only. 

When I run the WIC Diagnotics two lines mention .rw2 files:

Codec 'Microsoft Camera Raw Decoder' for extensions .ARW,.CR2,.CRW,.ERF,.KDC,.MRW,.NEF,.NRW,.ORF,.PEF,.RAF,.RAW,.RW2,.RWL,.SR2,.SRW,.DNG
Codec 'Panasonic Raw Decoder (FastPictureViewer Codec Pack)' for extensions .rw2

I can also shoot in RAW + JPG mode on my Panasonic G9.  Other programs I use will display the RAW and JPG as one file but iMatch displays them separately.  I assume this is what the buddy function is for but I can't buddy .rw2 files because they are not listed.

iMatch displays my .cr2 RAW files from my Canon without difficulty. 

Mike

[Mario]

Please attach the WIC diagnosis log file.
You did not mention the most important info, e.g. if the installed WIC codec can actually handle your files...

Your problem sounds to me as no WIC codec installed on your system can handle the RAW portion of your proprietary Panasonic RAW file.
But can extract at least the small embedded preview. So IMatch is will to use that.
IMatch only falls back to internal RAW processing when no WIC codec returns anything useful.

Did you ask Panasonic for an up-to-date WIC codec? They are supposed to provide one for their proprietary RAW formats.
They know their RAW formats best, after all, and can surely provide a superior WIC codec which allows all WIC-compliant Windows applications to process your files.
If Panasonic does not support the WIC standard for RAW processing, well...bust.

I suggest you switch to IMatch's internal RAW processing instead. That is a global option, switching WIC usage off in favor of using LibRAW routines.
See photools.com RAW Processing You need to force a re-creation of cache files afterwards.

Other programs I use will display the RAW and JPG as one file but iMatch displays them separately.

Why should IMatch display separate files combined? The JPEG may look totally different than the RAW (and usually does!).
If you want this, I recommend you setup file versioning (File Relations: Versioning) and to make the JPEG a visual proxy version for your RAW.

This way you can make your RAW look like the JPEG, stack the files neatly into one file etc. propagate metadata from the RAW to the JPEG and much more.
Or keep the RAW on the top and just tuck away the JPEG.

This works in IMatch usually much better than in "other" applications you might use. Please always be precise, because then we can help you better. "Other" applications is not helpful.
And, IMatch can do this trick even when your JPEG is named differently than the RAW, if it is in a different folder, if you have multiple versions to choose from etc.

[nordkapp]

the jpg file embedded in the RW2 file has the dimension 1920x1440. All my Panasonic cameras (incl. G9) did not embedd a full size jpg. Before I had the olympus EM-1, the size of the embedded jpg is 3200x2400 that are also not the full 16 MPix.

[mcmoore]

Thanks that is what I found too for the size of the embedded jpg.

[Mario]

Please attach the WIC diagnosis log file, because only then we will know which codes are installed and how they handle your file.

The trick to ignore the embedded preview or to demand a minimum size larger than the embedded preview works only if a WIC codec is installed that understands how to process the RAW data or you use IMatch's internal RAW processing.

I have no idea why Panasonic or Olympus do not embed a full-size preview. Maybe they want to save some Kilobytes in the RAW or their in-camera processor is not fast enough to produce a full-size RAW. Or they only intent the embedded preview to be used for the in-camera monitor.

No problem for IMatch, unless there is neither a WIC codec installed or a codec can handle the file but not the full RAW (only the embedded preview).

[ColinIM]

(....)
iMatch appears to display the embedded jpg file and not the RAW file. (....)

Also recall that the FastPictureViewer Control Panel gives us the option of forcing the use of a RAW file's embedded JPEG preview (for a speed benefit) instead of processing each RAW file to create new (but slower) JPEG 'results' each time.

It might be worth checking on your computer whether this option is ticked - for .RW2 files - in your FastPictureViewer Control Panel?



(Then ... if you change that option, you would want to force IMatch to re-generate the cache images for your (selected) .RW2 images, as Mario describes in his reply above.)

(My attached snapshot was taken from my FastPictureViewer Control Panel version 3.8.0.96. The latest version of the FastPictureViewer codec pack (today) is 3.8.0.97, but its most recent patch relates to a Windows 10 issue - and I'm still running Windows 7 - so I haven't rushed to update my codec-pack version.)

[Mario]

Good Point. I had forgotten about this option.

The WIC diagnosis log file would have helped.