EM1x Angst Solved By Capture 1 Bliss?
So I have an EM1x. Lovely camera, so far poor files.
Lightroom (updated as far as it will go on my 7yr old Mac) will not open the RAW files and the JPEG’s so far have left me with mixed feelings. ACR will open them, but that adds a another level of annoyance to the process.
When choosing where to put my money recently, I made a lot of choices based on blind processing assumptions, although I did question that occasionally, I failed to follow through until my hand is now forced, well after the choice was made. Fuji and FF Canon both had a look in, but I stuck with Olympus/M43, placing faith in the system that got me here in the first place. The major issue was noise, which I felt confident the EM1x would reduce slightly, even if jpegs had to be used. I spent too much time ignoring my little voice that was saying “the camera system is not the only factor here”.
For a while I have been feeling that maybe Adobe alone is not the best fit for my Olympus system. Too much noise at even base ISO, and sometimes just flat-mushy higher ISO files. This is a good thing though, as processing is a modifiable step, not a technical foundation such as a poor sensor or format choice.
Time to look at the options.
The two that floated to the top (as usual) are DXO Lab 4 (winner for best noise reduction) and Capture One 21 (better base RAW conversions, but similar workflow to a Photoshop/Lightroom love child (looks like a built in layers option to a Lightroom work flow).
I am trialling C1 first, with a likely option of DXO for higher ISO noise (or not) and NIK suite for options.
Elusive little bugger, the EM1x at it’s best.
Basic import with a layer (brush) of some more clarity and some global shadow work. This is beyond print sharpening needs and over-done (trying to find the file again to re-work it :) ), but it’s a finer rendering regardless. From a slightly underexposed ISO 400 RAW file, no noise at all with no noise reduction used. Wow.
Ok. I am just getting the feel for it (used it for 10 mins and I am a computer dummy), but already I feel like I have upgraded my whole kit, even my perspective on quality.
Is my 300mm sharp?
You betcha, I can finally breathe easily there.
Is the EM1x or any Olympus camera capable of sharp, noiseless files at regular ISO’s?
You betcha, up to 800 as standard.
How about sharp and clean files at ISO 3200+?
Looks like!
The natural looking noise is closer to bigger sensor camera rendering in Lightroom (almost identical to some ISO 6400 test files I made in Lightroom with a D610 Nikon). The noise is there, but smoothed and natural looking. The odd colouring in the in focus portion of the image below is my poor processing.
Quick observations. It seems to be a “sharper knife” than Lightroom, with more and more refined tools to use. I could not find Noise reduction, so I right clicked on the tool bar and 30+ more options appeared, including the Library organiser!
Some tools are the same, some better (halo suppression in sharpening that I noticed too late to fix the above!) and some exist where they did not in Lightroom. I am looking for something I will miss, but so far….
A cleaner and more natural version than the Lightroom one.
Now all I need to be truly happy, is a similar work flow, which it looks like they have when I can work the catalogue out. The free 766 page manual is….helpful!?