DPP4 EOS-M Image Processing

TheGrew

TheGrew

Suspended / Banned
Messages
126
Edit My Images
Yes
NEWS JUST IN 15/12/14:

Changes for Digital Photo Professional 4.1.50 for Windows : - Supports EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM. - Newly supported EOS-1D Mark IV, EOS 70D, EOS 7D, EOS 5D Mark II, EOS Kiss X7i / EOS Rebel T5i / EOS 700D, and EOS Kiss X7 / EOS Rebel SL1 / EOS 100D.

Hi All
Hopefully this is the right section to put this in, I am relatively new to the community and still trying to find my way around.

I recently had a demo of Canon's DPP4 in place of Lightroom and was impressed with the results offered with things such as retaining picture style information. However I discovered on coming home that Canon only officially support the current full frame bodies (plus the recently released 7Dmkii). Anyone else is stuck with the DPP3 which looks like a throwback to the mid-nineties in terms of interface. Fortunately I stumbled across this article on canonwatch.com which details how you can get the following cameras to work in DPP4:
  • EOS M
Effectively you can trick DPP4 into believing the RAW files it is processing from the cameras are from one of the supported cameras (eg 5Dmk3).

To do this one Windows you simply have to download the brilliant ExifTool from here as described by the article. Unfortunately though this process slows down the workflow as it has to be done one image at a time. So I thought I would put my CompSi Degree to good use by scripting the process for a given folder.

The result is this process:

DISCLAIMER: I accept no responsibility for the below process, I supply it encase it is of use to anyone else.

Firstly download the ExifTool from the website, then follow steps 1-4 from the Stand-Alone Executable installation page.

Once that is installed it is simply a one line script to apply the EXIF modification recursively within a given folder.

for %%v in (*.cr2) do exiftool -CanonModelID="EOS 5D Mark III" %%v

The above simply searches for any CR2 files and altered the CanonModelID property to state it is from a 5Dmk3. If you wish you may just copy and paste the above into notepad and save as a .bat file (batch file). Alternatively you can grab it from my Dropbox.

To run the file simply call it from the Windows Command Line as per the attached screenshot (CMDOutput.png).

After the script has finished running you can then load and edit images in DPP4 (as per Finished.PNG).

If anyone has any questions, suggestions, thoughts or the comments please put post them below. I hope this is of use to someone else.
 
Last edited:
Try converting your CR2 files to TIF. This works for me on files from my 7D and EOS-M.
 
That sounds like a neat trick.

Just wondering how you are finding DDP-4 to use and how your results compare to DDP-3?

I'm a long time user of DDP-3 and, in spite of the rather basic interface, really like it (maybe just because I'm so familiar with it, lol). Now that it allows rotating pictures while cropping its often all I need to edit photos. Although of course for some I use photoshop for further editing, but if I'm in a hurry then the output jpg from DDP-3 is generally just fine.

When DPP-4 first came out last summer I was excited and expected an improvement over DPP-3. However after downloading and trying it I have to say I was disappointed with the new version. Perhaps its my computer, but it seemed slow and clunky compared to DPP-3. So much so I deleted and went back to 3. I think there's been a couple of updates since and am wondering if things have improved?


Maybe I should add that I don't use Lightroom mainly because I don't like the database system, much preferring the way DPP writes the edits into the original CR2. This allows me to easily move files between computers and keep the edits without having to mess with the LR database (and the huge amount of disk space it needs)
 
Last edited:
killwilly said:
Try converting your CR2 files to TIF. This works for me on files from my 7D and EOS-M.
Click to expand...
That defeats the whole point of having a RAW file in the first place!!
A complete waste of time and hard drive space.
 
An update of DPP 3.14 will be released for the other cameras not supported.
 
Wavy C said:
That sounds like a neat trick.

Just wondering how you are finding DDP-4 to use and how your results compare to DDP-3?

I'm a long time user of DDP-3 and, in spite of the rather basic interface, really like it (maybe just because I'm so familiar with it, lol). Now that it allows rotating pictures while cropping its often all I need to edit photos. Although of course for some I use photoshop for further editing, but if I'm in a hurry then the output jpg from DDP-3 is generally just fine.

When DPP-4 first came out last summer I was excited and expected an improvement over DPP-3. However after downloading and trying it I have to say I was disappointed with the new version. Perhaps its my computer, but it seemed slow and clunky compared to DPP-3. So much so I deleted and went back to 3. I think there's been a couple of updates since and am wondering if things have improved?


Maybe I should add that I don't use Lightroom mainly because I don't like the database system, much preferring the way DPP writes the edits into the original CR2. This allows me to easily move files between computers and keep the edits without having to mess with the LR database (and the huge amount of disk space it needs)
Click to expand...
I have to admit I didn't really use DPP3 enough to form much of an opinion of it. My preference for the DPP4 interface probably stems from my use of Lightroom prior to moving over (I still use Lightroom for image cataloging).
From a few quick searches and that article I originally posted it does seem as though DPP4 does a better job processing the RAW files (shadows and highlights are supposed to be better) though this comes at the cost of speed.

DPP4 runs fine on my machine though I do have lots of RAM and a quick i5 Processor.

I guess ultimately DPP3 vs DPP4 is more a matter of taste than anything else. The biggest thing for me is the picture style retention that Lightroom simply doesn't have.
 
Fantastic to see it is now supported natively on the 70D.
 
I have updated my main post to state the native support though I will leave my work around for those with an EOS-M
 
TheGrew said:
DPP4 runs fine on my machine though I do have lots of RAM and a quick i5 Processor.

I guess ultimately DPP3 vs DPP4 is more a matter of taste than anything else. The biggest thing for me is the picture style retention that Lightroom simply doesn't have.
Click to expand...

The camera's picture styles also work the same in DDP3 and I agree its a nice feature. The really big plus over lightroom, for me anyway, is the way DPP writes any edits you make directly into the raw file. Makes it very easy to move files around without having to worry about lightroom's catalogue system. Sometimes I'll just edit a file still on the memory card to get a jpg for use quickly. If I later go back and want to do a better editing job later, I can save the file over to my hard drive and all the previous edits are still in place.

When I tried DPP 4 it had just come out, the first version available from Canon. The differences in speed between it and DPP3 were very noticeable. DPP3 was way faster in nearly every area, and I was getting annoying lags while doing basic things like cropping pictures in DPP4. After a couple of days I'd had enough and reverted to DPP3.

Now that it supports 5D2 files, and has had a couple of updates that I'm hoping might have ironed out some of the initial slowness, I'm tempted to try it again. DPP3 works great for me but there might be times that some of the extra features in 4 might be useful, even if only for occasional use.

Thanks for taking time to reply...
 
With a bit of free time over Christmas, I downloaded the latest version of DPP 4 (ver 4.1.50). Before updating the original version of the program I downloaded back in the summer when it first came out, I converted a few raw files using the original version. Then I updated and converted the same files using the new version.

Some thoughts...

Canon have definitely made some improvements to the program's speed. The original version was so slow on my computer it was more or less unusable. The new version is still slow but not quite as bad as the original release. It remains much slower in every way to DDP 3. Reading in a folder of raw files, cropping, making adjustments to exposure and colour, doing the actual conversion to a jpg - all much slower than DPP 3.

Speed apart, for me at least, DPP 3 is a much easier program to use. DPP 4's default layout includes more in the way of toolbars and such, although these can be turned off. I also find the usual workflow (selecting pictures for editing using 'quick check', cropping the selected photos and finally making the exposure and colour adjustments) just isn't as straightforward as in DPP 3. Naturally that might change with regular use and becoming more familiar with the layout. DPP 4 gives some extra options but I'm not sure if these are helpful or just adding complications. For example, in DPP 3 copying a 'recipe' from one picture and pasting it to another is a very simple thing to do. I DPP 4 there are lots of options about which adjustments are copied and pasted. While perhaps useful to have at times, I'd prefer the DPP 3 approach. A very welcome change is that DPP 4 can now handle 5D2 raw files - the original version could not.

One of the main things I looked at was the quality of conversion. I'd say the results are very close. DPP might be slightly better at dealing with overexposed photos but in most other ways I found it difficult to choose between them in terms of quality of their output. For average fairly well exposed photos I really couldn't see any great difference in the quality of output.

So I guess I'll be sticking with DPP 3 for now. Hopefully DPP 4 will continue to improve as Canon releases new versions but at the moment I feel I could edit a batch of photos in DPP 3 and convert them in approximately half the time as doing same thing in DPP 4.

Naturally your mileage might vary.... especially if you have a fast computer. But then again if DPP 3 can do essentially the same thing on a slower computer I guess it is still the better choice.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top