topic Re: Raw shooting with C5 ultra Dual E5533 in XPERIA archive

Raw shooting with C5 ultra Dual E5533

francoistoen — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 11:33:23 GMT

Using FreeDcamera it is now possible and easy to shoot in raw mode and save dng files. Look at xda search fro FreeDcam thread made by defcomg.:smileysmileythumbsup:

Well working (but read all the thread as the app working is a special made on the link being on post #57)

http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/camera-freedcam-4-0-3-t3115548/page6

Pictures can be edited by Lightroom, Photoshop rawtherapee and others.

All the best

François

Re: Raw shooting with C5 ultra Dual E5533

YoGem — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 15:16:51 GMT

Seems an interesting discovery although I'll need photoshop to verify the quality of photos. Seems genuine but I think I already found something that may be indication of a raw image saved from a jpg. I'll return on this later. If I am wrong then this is amazing.

Re: Raw shooting with C5 ultra Dual E5533

francoistoen — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 11:08:12 GMT

Do you have more informations about what you have said? (Jpeg to Raw???).

François

Re: Raw shooting with C5 ultra Dual E5533

YoGem — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 02:46:14 GMT

It's raw but it doesn't save dng, I tried to open the raw with photoshop but I cannot assign more than 2 channels. Really baffled on how to use the generated raw.

Re: Raw shooting with C5 ultra Dual E5533

francoistoen — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 10:37:04 GMT

It is raw and none of the software like photoshop (camera Raw), Rawtherapee etc.. is able to open the file. The only software that can be used to open these raw files is Imatest an image processing professional software really very expensive so i used a trial version(see below the setting to open the file).

But if you use the version linked in the post #57 of this web page :

http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/camera-freedcam-4-0-3-t3115548/page6

you will have no more raw file but instead a dng one that can be used with camera raw and RawTherapee.

(You have to uninstall the application prior installing the new one instead the installation cannot be made)

For the raw files already saved you can use the FreeDcamViewer and convert them....

The special version linked in post #57 above is made for Xperia C5 ultra E5533.

Please take time to read the thread and you will notice that I had the same problem as yours with the raw file and Defcomg (one of the developpers) made "adjustment"?? and released that special version that is ok for my C5 (nevertheless some bugs are still present in the application).

Hope that helps

All the best

François

Re: Raw shooting with C5 ultra Dual E5533

YoGem — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 16:48:11 GMT

François, I'll download that app and check the results.

Thank you!

Re: Raw shooting with C5 ultra Dual E5533

YoGem — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 17:36:26 GMT

François,

I downloaded that app, not only expensive in terms of money but also a huge one (1gb not installed geez). So I opened few raws and converted them to TIF to open them with Photoshop:

I don't see JPG artifacts, so this lead me thinking it's genuinely a RAW. However pictures are mostly without any kind of color, there is some strong interpolation and that wash a lot of details.

I do think that the app is genuine and it really read RAW data from the sensor, I am not sure if you get good quality picture though. My phone is different from your as your is the dual and mine is the single-sim one. Quality is not there yet and mind I am really good at photography and raw stuff. It's a big potential though, it just need improvement.

Note: I opened a raw file without using the app, directly with photoshop and I can see the reason of interpolation: It's a single channel, 16 bit raw file. Are missing the other channels to compose a color photo. Not sure why but you can see how a detail of the raw image (when zoomed to be 1:1) appears to be like this:

Re: Raw shooting with C5 ultra Dual E5533

Asuka_S — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 14:08:54 GMT

The FreeDcam Viewer itself is able to convert the .RAW into .DNG.
To make a usable .DNG file, you will need the help of 2 other apps such as raw2dng and ES File Explorer.

1. In the FreeDcam viewer, touch and hold the .RAW thumbnail
2. touch "RawtoDng" button on the top right hand corner
3. Input the correct settings eg:
Width : 4208
Height : 3140
Blacklevel : 64
Nexus6
RGGB
Plain16bit
4. touch "Convert to Dng" at the bottom after you are done with the settings. The dng file will appear in the viewer
(the dng file you have now is still not compatible with other apps at the moment)
5. open raw2dng app, this app will convert your current dng into a universal dng.
6. select your dng file and touch "convert" on the top right hand side
7. open ES file Explorer, move your converted dng file into the root of your internal storage and you will have a DNG file that is usable in Lightroom, Photoshop and Snapseed.

A Screenshot of the dng file that is taken from my C5 ultra. PS even recognises the SonyIMX data

Re: Raw shooting with C5 ultra Dual E5533

YoGem — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 14:59:11 GMT

Asuka_S I'll try also your solution and post results here, if all said in this thread is able to generate a standard dng file and quality is superior... The author of the app did a miracle!

Standby!!

Re: Raw shooting with C5 ultra Dual E5533

francoistoen — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 15:33:42 GMT

Hi all

You have to use the special release of FreeDcam as said in my post before :

Post #57 on page http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/camera-freedcam-4-0-3-t3115548/page6.

With that release you can directly save in dng format (a jpg format is also saved at the same time and no more raw file). That Dng format can be read by CameraRaw (photoshop) and RawTherapee (I have tested both on windows 10 computer).

Here is the application sent by Defcomg at the post highlighted before : http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3643926&d=1455313841.

To install that release you first need to uninstall the actual FreeDcam.

If you are interested by the software itself there is GitHub at that link : https://github.com/troop/FreeDcam.

The freeDcam software is not really finished and some bugs are always present. But the "raw" part of it is now working. The picture quality is not what I was waiting for but it seems to me that the camera in the C5 Ultra is not so good and that the focus is really "out of focus".

Waiting to hear from your experiences:smileysmileythumbsup:

François

Re: Raw shooting with C5 ultra Dual E5533

YoGem — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 15:58:04 GMT

Hello Everybody...

... following the previous comment on this very thread I've been able to shot some indoor and outdoor photos in RAW, converted them in DNG and then in Standard DNG that photoshop opened without complaining.

The verdict is: GENUINELY RAW - No sign at all of jpeg artifacts/noise, the picture is clear however there are some catches for who is not used to shot raw photos:

Indoor photos without flash will produce photos with a lot of grain, as there is NO POST-PROCESSING in place. If you don't want it to happen, change the ISO to 100 or lower (my E5506 apparently cannot shot at less than 100) and use a flash. - Notice that indoor, ISO 100, FreeDcam will slow down a lot the refresh rate of the picture on screen. Not sure if it's a bug or not.

Color reproduction may be not accurate, in the case of my C5 (E5506) there is too much yellow but it can be easily retouched.

For who is not used to RAW/DNG pictures: are big files. Shooting RAW to then converting in JPG with compression is worthelss. If you have lot of space in your computer, save pictures in TIF.

Here a 1:1 detail of a photo showing 100% of details:

To recap: I wish the author of FreeDCam the best in developing this app, it has really LOT of potential to become a popular camera app for Xperia users as seems that Sony is not going to allow Xperia's cameras to use Camera2 APIs.

Thumbs up!

Re: Raw shooting with C5 ultra Dual E5533

Asuka_S — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 03:26:33 GMT

My E5553 can't go below ISO 100 too,

I tried capturing a photo at ISO100 during night time (approx 8.00 PM), apparently the shutter took few seconds to complete and light trails can be seen. The slow down seems to happen only at poorly lit or night conditions, does freedcam automatically adjusts the shutterspeed /exposure in conjunction with the ISO values?

Re: Raw shooting with C5 ultra Dual E5533

troopii — Sun, 28 Feb 2016 09:33:25 GMT

hi im the main dev from freedcam. e5553 does not support full manual mode as it looks. only isopriority what i have seen.

in low light conditions, the ae triggers the nightmode. that means is use lower shutter speed to avoid noise.

that part is not direct controled by freedcam. it comes from the native camera side.

you can indirect control it with moving the exposure slider to negative values.

that tells the ae to use faster shutter speed and higher iso. when increasing it ae use slower shutter.

about the color calibration in dngs: we are using the nexus6 matrixes for most devices because it match best.

to have true calibrated colors we need a pic from a "Colorcheckerpassport".

Whitebalance itself is not a problem, it can get changed due postprocessing.

about sony not adding camera2 support. thats not 100% true sony z5 use camera 2 and it is ported to z1-3. but that are qcom based socs. for mtk based socs i did not yet see camera2

Re: Raw shooting with C5 ultra Dual E5533

YoGem — Sun, 28 Feb 2016 15:47:13 GMT

Hey troopii it's nice to see you here. If camera2 API is not present in the mtk soc how do you manage to get raw data? Just curious

Re: Raw shooting with C5 ultra Dual E5533

troopii — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 05:21:14 GMT

Its a hacky way.

On mtk socs is a engineer mode. Its added for testing the device functions.

with activating it you can dump a raw(16bit plain) from the hal. that gets then saved to sd.

that raw gets then put in an dng container from freedcam.

i think rawcapture is theoretical possible since android has camera support.

(defcomg was able to dump raws on good old o3d)

but it gets disabled from manfacturs after drivers are written and camera is calibrated.

about the time where the z1 and g2 came out qcom added the ability to output bayer-raws.

on z1-z3 sony disabled the raw stream. but freexperia working on it and on roms based on it, have it already working.

Re: Raw shooting with C5 ultra Dual E5533

YoGem — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 05:26:29 GMT

Wow, Good Job! Kudos for you, and let's hope that Sony won't spoil such great job!!!

Re: Raw shooting with C5 ultra Dual E5533

francoistoen — Wed, 02 Mar 2016 12:45:37 GMT

Hi troopii

I tested your last revision this morning (3.3.131) and all is broken (black screen).

I reinstall the last revision (3.3.130) special design made by defcomg and linked to a post in xda forum.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/camera-freedcam-4-0-3-t3115548/page6 on post #57

and things are good now.

You mentionned the mtk engineering mode in your post, do you know a way to enter that mode with the last mediatek mt6752?

Thanks for your job

François