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Author Topic: Sony Arw files not recognised  (Read 10513 times)

mks_gis

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Sony Arw files not recognised
« on: September 29, 2015, 07:27:04 PM »
Hi,

 We're only just starting out on PhotoScan and are trying different things. PS reads my Canon RAW beautifully, but the Sony RAW format ARW from our A6000 isn't recognised. Can PS somehow read ARW or do I need to convert to tif if I don't want to use jpg?

Cheers
M.

Wishgranter

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Re: Sony Arw files not recognised
« Reply #1 on: September 30, 2015, 12:21:49 AM »
wha t windows are you using ? you need  the Camera codec pack from Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/search.aspx?q=microsoft+camera+codec+pack

or install the Driver for you cam by installing  SONY software....

system need the drivers because very RAW format have some specific coding that need be added to system so any sw can read correctly the RAWs
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mks_gis

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Re: Sony Arw files not recognised
« Reply #2 on: September 30, 2015, 01:37:36 PM »
Hi,

 Windows recognises the ARW files, I can see them in the Windows Explorer preview. I have installed both the windows raw pack and the Sony RAW drivers. Still PScan won't open the ARW RAW files.

 Any Ideas?

Cheers
Martin

James

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Re: Sony Arw files not recognised
« Reply #3 on: September 30, 2015, 02:34:14 PM »
I don't have a Canon, but do have both Nikon and Sony cameras.

Photoscan will 'happily' open the Nikon NEF files, but only a low resolution thumbnail, which is presumably stored within the raw file somehow in JPG or similar format.

Photoscan won't open my Sony ARW files at all either, although I can open them fine in windows explorer (win 8.1).

I didn't think Agisoft had any plans to support raw files, and didn't notice any update saying otherwise, but i might have missed something.

RAW files will suffer from things like chromatic aberration and vignetting which you can process out in lightroom before converting to TIF which is what i generally do.

mks_gis

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Re: Sony Arw files not recognised
« Reply #4 on: September 30, 2015, 07:18:40 PM »
Hi,

 Thanks, we are still trying to learn and that info helps. I'll try the TIFF conversion for the ARW.

 Canon RAW work directly, not just as thumbnails as you've found with your Nikon. My images don't show much CA or vignetting, so the model works just fine. But I might try the same model with converted tif.

 How much processing do you do with RAW in Lightroom? Lens correction, I guess? Do you change exposure or white/black points? Lighten shadows?

Cheers
Martin

James

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Re: Sony Arw files not recognised
« Reply #5 on: October 01, 2015, 11:54:48 AM »
Generally as a minimum i'll correct the CA and Vignette, and set the white balance, but generally leave distortion alone and let photoscan sort that out.

Often I have to deal with photos taken by other people who have left the camera on auto or aperture priority so have to apply a 'match total exposures' to deal with the varying exposures.

Then it depends on how i feel and how much disk space i have available, as to whether i leave it like that and export as TIF, or play with shadows, highlights and black/white points only if i need to export as JPG.


mks_gis

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Re: Sony Arw files not recognised
« Reply #6 on: October 01, 2015, 06:09:12 PM »
Thanks James, that's useful.

tgregory

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Re: Sony Arw files not recognised
« Reply #7 on: October 01, 2015, 09:41:39 PM »
Using a Nikon for drone mapping, should I be using RAW format or continue using JPG Fine?  What is the difference?  Thx

James

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Re: Sony Arw files not recognised
« Reply #8 on: October 02, 2015, 12:48:52 AM »
Jpg stores each pixel as a set of three values (red, green, blue) between 0 and 255 (8 bit), whereas raw files store values between either 0 and 4095 (12 bit) or even 0 and 16383 (14 bit). 0 = black, and 255, 4095 or 16383 = white, so raw files are able to store information over a much greater dynamic range - even areas that look black in a raw file can contain many more shades than in the entire range of a jpg.

Raw files store exactly what the camera sensor saw when the exposure was made, which can include chromatic aberration (when different wavelengths of light are refracted different amounts so a single ray of light may land on multiple pixels) and vignetting (when pixels at the edge of the sensor get more or less light than those in the middle) and other issues to do with the fact that each pixel in the sensor is only sensitive to red, green or blue, but not all three.

The camera takes all these things into account when it converts the raw data into a jpg (therefore throwing a lot of data away in the process). If you want to work with raw files you have to correct for these things in software. Software like lightroom will do all these corrections as well as letting you boost dark colours and reduce light colours all into a range that could be saved in a jpg (although data will still be lost). Alternatively you can make the corrections and save as tif which allows 16 bits so no data is lost and these can be read by photoscan.

According to Martin, photoscan can work with canon raw files without any such processing or conversion, which is great, but it doesn't work for me with Nikon or sony raw files :(

I don't know if you would get much improvement in results by using raw files or not. It can be useful if you have more dynamic range in your scene than can be encoded in a jpg file, I.e. areas in shadow and direct sun. It's worth a try though to see if it's worth it for you, and its definitely good knowledge to have in case you do need it one day!

tgregory

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Re: Sony Arw files not recognised
« Reply #9 on: October 02, 2015, 03:14:32 PM »
Wow, thanks James.  I will try it next time out in both formats and provide comment.   

mks_gis

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Re: Sony Arw files not recognised
« Reply #10 on: October 02, 2015, 06:30:12 PM »
Hi,

 A massive advantage of reading the Canon RAW files directly is that RAW files are smaller than 16-bit or even 8-bit tif, by quite a margin. Converting the Sony ARW to tif is annoyingly time consuming. As I can't hang my DSLR from our octocopter I think I might only set the Sony to RAW  for special projects, as I'm getting some good results with JPG.

M.

Alexey Pasumansky

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Re: Sony Arw files not recognised
« Reply #11 on: October 05, 2015, 07:27:56 PM »
Hello Martin,

Usually RAW data formats are proprietary and may vary depending on the camera model. So at the moment we are not planning to implement RAW formats support for different camera manufacturers.
Best regards,
Alexey Pasumansky,
Agisoft LLC