How to edit the RAW images of the SONY RX1 …

Click the link to see plenty of HIGH ISO RX1 RAW (without flash) and RX100 (with flash) RAW images, all converted with Adobe Lightroom (click the images to open the individual pages and then click them again, to see them in 1200 pixel):

http://rx-1.tumblr.com/archive

Click here to see a DIRECT COMPARISON of a SONY RX1 RAW IMAGE with a SONY RX1 JPG (you can also DOWNLOAD there the original RX1 RAW DNG file to edit it yourself!):

http://rx-1.tumblr.com/RX1-RAW-JPG-COMPARISON


»> UPDATE:

Adobe Lightroom supports now with the latest update of last night, also the RX1 RAW images!

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/12/13/Adobe-Photoshop-Lightroom-4-3-Adobe-Camera-Raw-7-3

The following informations are history for Adobe Lightroom and Capture One users, but can be useful for photographers who dont want to use one of these RAW converters or who dont want to use the limited SONY converter, which also supports SONY RX1 files in its newest version:

SONY IMAGE DATA CONVERTER 4.2.02:

http://www.sony.de/support/de/product/DSC-RX1/updates

Please be aware of the fact that the SONY converter cannot save DNG files and the editing possibilites are compared to lightroom only a few. I recommend to use the above described hacking with the Exiftool or use the Adobe RAW converter or Capture One.

There are also not so famous but very intersting RAW converters which open the SONY RX1 RAW files without any problems. These applications are very interesting, because they show the real RAW data without any AUTOMATIC PRE EDITING which you cannot influence in converters like lightroom. These alternatives might be for RAW NERDS, but are definitely worth a look:

RAW THERAPEE

http://rawtherapee.com/

RAW PHOTO PROCESSOR (RPP):

http://www.raw-photo-processor.com/RPP/Overview.html

You won´t find many RAW sample images made with the SONY RX1 in the world wide web. This is probably due to the circumstance, that the RAW images of the RX1 were long time not editable in Adobe Lightroom or Adobe Camera RAW. 

The SONY RX1 RAW images offer a superior quality. The SONY RX1 JPGs are also very fine images. But the RAW images are simply stunning. All the images you see in this RX1 Photo Blog which are displayed as “shot with a RX1” were shot in the RAW modus of the RX1:

http://rx-1.tumblr.com/archive

No Sharpening applied in Lightroom and also no NOISE REDUCTION, even in the RAW images which were made with higher ISO settings. Only a slight sharpening for the screenuse was applied while exporting the images from Lightroom to JPGs.

If you dont have the mentioned converters or dont want to use them you will need to transform the SONY RX1 RAW images to DNGs first to work with them. To do this you have to use a workaround. You need to “hack” the EXIF-data of the RX1 RAW Files. Here are the instructions how to change the EXIF data of the RX1 RAW images to convert them to readable RAW files or DNGs… 

Changing the Exif data of the SONY RX1 RAW Files:

You need the Exiftool of Phil Harvey, download the stand alone version here: 

http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/

With this tool you can read, write or edit metadata. It has no userinterface. You need to use a terminal window!

After you have copied all your RX1 ARW files into the main user directory (which should also be shown right beside the blinking cursor in the terminal window) all you have to do is to copy/paste the following command line into the terminal window and confirm it with ENTER/RETURN.

Command line:

exiftool -ifd0:model=SLT-A99V -ifd1:model=SLT-A99V -sonymodelid=SLT-A99V *.ARW

This transforms the caption entry of your RX1-files to SLT-A99V, a SONY DSLR of which the RAW converters can read the RAW data. This process does not change the quality or other metadata of your RAW images! If you use the newest Adobe Camera RAW or Lightroom versions you are done, just by using the files showing the ending .ARW (without original). 

After that download the Adobe RAW/DNG Converter and transform the ARW files in a batch process to globally readable DNG files!

Adobe DNG  Converter for Mac:

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/thankyou.jsp?ftpID=5485&fileID=5507

Adobe DNG  Converter for Windows:

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/thankyou.jsp?ftpID=5486&fileID=5506

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