I never managed to egt a better (meaning, still natural looking) picture by stacking HDR and mapping the results than I got with just "normal" adjustments in exposure, highlight and shadows, maybe some added curve or a second layer for better highlight recovery. CaptureOne is all I need for that and if that is not sufficient, the light situation is already very complicated.
But what I can't do in C1 are focus-stackings. Here I have high expectations to this "Arsenal" device coming next year. And that device apparently merges the focus stacks into one RAW. I'm very curious about the results.
I only use HDR stacking for indeed getting better highlights and shadows adjustments, f.e. a landscape with a high sun peeking through the clouds, contralight, dark trees/branches without leaves and a very dark grassy foreground. In order to get detail in the trees/branches, and colour in the grass, the only option was to use a 4-stop HDR (0, +2, +4), without exaggerating the feel of a very early spring day. I did process the Raws manually for a natural looking result, however, no automated processing.
Focus stacking is something I have always done manually until recently, with a macro rail (2 actually, perpendicular to each other <ROFL>. With an Olympys body it is very easy to do, in-built, and works well (see f.e. the topic I started on the Romanian photographer in the MFT forum).
Kind regards, Wim
Gear: Canon EOS R with 3 primes and 2 zooms, 4 EF-R adapters, Canon EOS 5 (analog), 9 Canon EF primes, a lone Canon EF zoom, 2 extenders, 2 converters, tubes; Olympus OM-D 1 Mk II & Pen F with 12 primes, 6 zooms, and 3 Metabones EF-MFT adapters ....
We had a couple of discussions about DR of Sony (Nikon, Sony, Fuji) sensors vs. Canon sensors. Without being an expert in HDR or sensor-tech, I haven't had many situations I needed to do and HDR stack - or felt the need to do so. I'm more afraid of getting an artificial look than loosing some shadow details. It's different with Foveon sensors with their reduced DR and also comparatively poor nise performance above ISO 200.
Ideally focus stacking would be done by the camera in the way it sets the best resolving aperture, gets my input where to start and where to finish the sharp focus range (the real, maximal sharp DoF, not some DoF scale mumbo jumbo) and then calculates the steps needed to move the focus unit of the lens. Without saying is: set whitebalance and exposure manually. I'm not sure but I think it's better to change the focus of the lens instead move the camera, because that will change perspective and at worst would lead to overlapping highlights or dirty colours.
I guess I don't see the interface any worse than smart phones. I would actually say they're better. I have a Droid and an iPhone, It seems to find something in the settings takes a google search. Even then, sometimes that only gets you in the ballpark because an update had already changed it.
When I got the Oly Pen-F it took only a few minutes to figure out how to use P/A/S/M and adjust those setting with the wheels, adjust exposure comp with the wheel, change ISO, and change focus points. That covers about 90+% of its use.
I then started going to the menus. Most the settings I didn't touch. Of the ones I did, most those will never need to be touched again. Then there were a few I will probably change on occasion. Granted, it would be nice if I could push those to a user defined menu like on a Canon. However, I'm sure as I get better acquainted with the camera I'll figure out how to put those items into the custom functions.
Thinking about this, all cameras come with some proprietary software. As such, why don't they make a setup wizard you can run when the camera is tethered? On top of that, a way for "advanced" users to go directly to the items they want to change? The beauty here is each item could have a mouseover that offers more detail On top of that, there could be a help button for each item that goes into even more detail I can't remember how many times I was staring at a Canon menu item trying to figure out the difference between the listed options. I should patent this!
I've no overview about all tether-apps, but I know a few for which more or less money has to change possession... I would welcome to have an app to set up Fujis and save the settings, as well as some explanations next to it instead of crawl though manuals.
I remember the first iPad I got to have been quite simple and self explanatory, iOS 1 or 2. A couple of menu entries in cameras still are not for me and I realize that I always scroll three times over them until I notice here's the door to the deeper dungeons of this underground software. I also realize I don't need to set up the iPad very often differently - if at all.
Formatting the card hides in the user settings.
Setup for manual focus in the AF but the display arrangement for manual focus in the 2nd page display settings.
The filter setting for color separation is in exposure > drive (!) settings > advanced filter. And after that you need to turn a dial to activate.
The naming itself in English is not optimal, the German translation doesn't improve things. (which btw. in iOS is mostly good or better)
Quote:I've no overview about all tether-apps, but I know a few for which more or less money has to change possession... I would welcome to have an app to set up Fujis and save the settings, as well as some explanations next to it instead of crawl though manuals.
I remember the first iPad I got to have been quite simple and self explanatory, iOS 1 or 2. A couple of menu entries in cameras still are not for me and I realize that I always scroll three times over them until I notice here's the door to the deeper dungeons of this underground software. I also realize I don't need to set up the iPad very often differently - if at all.
Formatting the card hides in the user settings.
Setup for manual focus in the AF but the display arrangement for manual focus in the 2nd page display settings.
The filter setting for color separation is in exposure > drive (!) settings > advanced filter. And after that you need to turn a dial to activate.
The naming itself in English is not optimal, the German translation doesn't improve things. (which btw. in iOS is mostly good or better)
My W10 tablet was pretty much turn it on and go. Nothing really to set. My phones area a little quirkier. Especially when they update the OS and change a setting. It could be a pita trying to find where the setting is. Sometimes the update moved it or buried it even further. I find both my droid and iPhone are guilty of this.
Being English is my native language, I can feel your pain! Often the Japanese translations to English aren't that good. I can only imagine taking this translation and translating it to German!
Quote:My W10 tablet was pretty much turn it on and go. Nothing really to set. My phones area a little quirkier. Especially when they update the OS and change a setting. It could be a pita trying to find where the setting is. Sometimes the update moved it or buried it even further.I find both my droid and iPhone are guilty of this.
Being English is my native language, I can feel your pain! Often the Japanese translations to English aren't that good. I can only imagine taking this translation and translating it to German!
Till now I can't understand why people are preferring IOS and Android over windows, I am a very happy user of windows mobile and despite the serious lack of applications I still prefer windows mobile over other systems and this is not gonna change anytime soon.
I had a tablet running on android as present, used it once found the interface too odd, didn't use it since.
Mike, a couple of days ago I wanted to see if Fuji now offers a manual for their latest firmware on X-T2. Some manuals got an addendum, others were compiled again and got their version exchanged.
"other languages" in the HTML version starts a Google translator. Awesome [/irony]. The PDFs - it pays not to turn the back, because the Google translator is not helping much - come in specific languages. Regarding the translation quality I'm not sure how professional the translation is. But as I don't deliver ePub and I have a tablet without 4G, I need an offline version.
Manuals very often keep silence on subjects which made me grab the manual 
Toni, I never found a hardware which could convince me to run a virus magnet like Windows on it. Needing most battery to defend the system - I do not see any benefit. Working on Mac OS, I don't think any user volunteers to use crappy Windows tiles. It is an advantage to use apps like on a PC. Theoretically. In reality apps for a tablet need a different usage concept than the ones for mouse and keyboard (shortcuts!) operations.
Quote:
"other languages" in the HTML version starts a Google translator. Awesome [/irony]. The PDFs - it pays not to turn the back, because the Google translator is not helping much - come in specific languages. Regarding the translation quality I'm not sure how professional the translation is. But as I don't deliver ePub and I have a tablet without 4G, I need an offline version.
Manuals very often keep silence on subjects which made me grab the manual
Toni, I never found a hardware which could convince me to run a virus magnet like Windows on it. Needing most battery to defend the system - I do not see any benefit. Working on Mac OS, I don't think any user volunteers to use crappy Windows tiles. It is an advantage to use apps like on a PC. Theoretically. In reality apps for a tablet need a different usage concept than the ones for mouse and keyboard (shortcuts!) operations.
LOL! That reminds me of my time in Japan. Did you know the Express train speeds you to the next stop! While the Almost Express train only stops at certain stations.
For computers I'm a windows guy. I like W10. I prefer it over OSx. Likewise, I like my droid better than my iphone. Not that either are that bad. Once you're actually running a program the differences are even less, bad programs lock up either system.
In today's world I would not choose one over the other for virus vulnerability. Security bugs are being found in released version of OSx and Windows on a regular basis. A key difference is Microsoft will disclose security flaws if they think the vulnerability is being exploited. Apple's policy is to not comment until after the fix is out.
Apple sure was good at promoting they were less vulnerable than Windows in the early 2000s when they generated virtually 0% server traffic. Security by obscurity? In the late 90's Windows still had ~90% of the traffic. Today it's still about 50% windows, 5% mac, and the rest between smartphones running iOS and Android.
I've never used a windows phone and only read good review of it. Unfortunately, some things don't quite catch on even when they are good or better.
And what's kind of ironic, around the late 90s to 2000 when I was using a mac at work, I had to bring up a windows emulator to do real work.
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