Epson RD-1 support [tutorial]

Hi,

I thought I’d share a tutorial to make DxO Photolab support the good old Epson RD-1 camera (.ERF files). Same process as I discovered with my (supposedly unsupported) Leica V-Lux typ 114 which I shared here.

You’ll need to install Adobe DNG Converter and ExifTool (I use ExifToolGUI more specifically).

First, convert your .ERF files into DNG using Adobe’s tool (default settings) (of note, the DNG end up being even smaller than the .ERF).

Then, using ExifTool(Gui), on the DNG files

  1. Remove Maker Notes data (Modify → Remove Metadata → tick "Exif:MakerNotes and execute)
  2. Rename “Make” and “Model” in the Workspace to “NIKON CORPORATION” and “NIKON D100”.

And voilà ! your DNG files will be recognized in DxO Photolab as compatible raw files, with Deepprime support etc.
Why the D100 ? Because it share the exact same sensor as the Epson RD-1, which I guess should be best. You can try other camera as well but I don’t see the advantages (if you want a specific camera color, DxO Color Rendering does the trick).

Of note, Optical corrections can be tricked as well, at least in part.
You can further modify the EXIF of the DNG files to simulate a compatible Nikon D100 lens, but overall I’d say it’s not very useful, since .ERF files don’t retain aperture to begin with…
The only “optical corrections” that I could make work are vignetting and lens distortion, but since you’d need to manually tweak every Exif with a specific aperture, it should be easier to correct them with the manual DxO settings.

I couldn’t make the more interesting “lens sharpening” part work, no matter the lens and settings I tried (if you know more, don’t hesitate!).
To add a bit of sharpening to my lenses, I decided to use the local adjustment on the whole pictures.

Happy editing !