Digital Photo Professional not as sharp as it used to be

[RichieRich]

I've just purchased a 650D and as such I upgraded my old version of Canon's digital photo professional to version 3.11 from whatever it was when I got my 50D.

However, I immediately noticed that the new version is vastly inferior to the old one when it comes to generating resized JPEGs - with the result generally being rather soft.

I used to love the previous version when it came to producing small JPEGs (e.g, 800px wide) from RAW images for website work, but the new version doesn't even come close.

Interestingly, with version 3.11 I've noticed that any sharpening applied to the image has very little effect on the resultant JPEG. For example, try generating two resized JPEGs - one with a 'Sharpness' of zero, and the other with a sharpness of 10. The resultant images are almost the same, despite the fact that the previews in DPP differ dramatically.

This wasn't the case when working with the old software, where the resized JPEGs bore a close resemblence to the image in the preview after shapening.

Has anybody else noticed this? I'd love to go back to version 3.5 (or whatever version I was using before), but unfortunately it can't read my 650D's RAW files.

By the way, this isn't a 650D issue, as I've also confirmed the problem with old photos which I took with my 50D.

Has anybody else noticed this?

 

[RichieRich]

I just reverted DPP back to version 3.5.0 on my PC and the difference in terms of sharpness when producing JPEG reductions from RAW files is quite staggering when compared to 3.11. Unfortunately 3.11 is vastly inferior, which is a real pain.

 

[whiteflyer]

It works just fine for me on Version 3.11.31 (3.11.31.0).

What I think it does do differently is that in the RAW tab it will only add either sharpness OR Unsharp Mask, I think in previous version these were cumulative . The effect of adding sharpness in the RAW and JPEG tab is still cumulative.

All Sharpening set to zero

RAW tab Unsharp Mask 10 - 10 - 0 and Jpeg Sharpening 10

100% Crop witn no sharpening

100% with Full Sharpening

 

[acetone]

When you convert to jpg and resize the image you will always lose some sharpness.

 

[RichieRich]

Thanks for the replies.

I've done some tests and I've noticed that while the shapening is applied if the image is saved full size, almost all sharpening applied is lost if any resizing is performed.

Even a reduction of as little as 1% will result in the vast majority of the sharpening being lost, whether it is set with the 'Sharpening' or Unsharpen Mask' settings.

I did some 100% and 99% crop tests and the results were really surprising. It basically means that there's little point sharpening in the current version of DPP if you plan to save a resized JPEG.

Very disappointing, and version 3.5 didn't suffer from this.

I'll post some crop examples later.

 

[RichieRich]

It works just fine for me on Version 3.11.31 (3.11.31.0).

Interesting results there, and definitely not what I'm seeing. Just to confirm, you're making the sharpening adjustments that you've stated, and then immediately saving a resized JPEG to generate the images (no-cropped) which you've uploaded.

I get the same result with 100% crops, but I lose the sharpening with anything less.

 

[Werecow]

Check the noise reduction settings. Canon in their infinite wisdom set a default level of noise reduction (which softens pictures greatly) on a certain release of DPP.

It can be turned off (defaults set at 0) in the preferences.