I’m thinking of getting a second body to go with my A1. Another forum member mentioned that professionals should ideally use two of the same bodies because it makes post-processing easier. He cited some issues with Adobe and Lightroom presets and I was wondering if these issues would be present in DxO.
Does having different images from different cameras affect post-processing in DxO and does it affect the exporting? Are RAW files are converted individually based on camera corrections even if they are part of the same gallery?
I couldn’t speak to how PhotoLab handles exporting Raws from different cameras in the same export run, but different bodies will have different colour sciences so you might find some variation between - say - using a Sony A1 and an A7 IV. Perhaps the red tones in one will look slightly different to the other.
It could be something you could fix in post with a finely tuned preset but that might mean duplicating presets across both bodies.
@lethimcook PL will process each RAW according to the settings selected during editing. Thus if ‘Color/B&W Rendering’ ‘Type’ is set to ‘Camera Body’ that means the RAWs from different cameras will each have the relevant DxO camera body profile applied to them.
What PL can’t do is automatically apply different default presets depending on the camera used for each shot.
Let’s say you use a custom preset for your “signature style”.
while doing this (and exporting) does not change, results might be different.
If you plan do shoot the same session with more than one body, you’d probably want to calibrate each series based on the body and lighting used. Even though using the same camera model might reduce the risk of creating different colours and tonality, there might be just enough sample variation to show differences.
If you plan to shoot different sessions with different bodies, differences should not matter.
In both cases, extra care needs to be taken to align settings for similar output looks.
I use different cameras, all Canon, but they differ from generation to generation. But as I only use one cam per shoot, it does not matter to me. For repro work, I usually stick to a carefully set up and calibrated workflow and, again, one camera.
I think most “Pros” use two same type of bodies (e.g. with 24-70 and 70-200 lens), similarly configured, mostly because they’ve learned the body timing and quirks well and don’t have to think about the gear since it’s already “in their fingers”. I don’t think editing is a decisive factor here. Note that some “Pros” use different camera bodies because of many other reasons, both technical and economical. Some use four bodies, just to make them look more “Pro”, but the real reason for using multiple bodies is most often to spare time for the lens change (plus having an emergency backup).
Interesting. Could you elaborate on that?
Maybe it’s about Adobe DCP profiles, which had obvious flaws (“jumpy” entries) for some camera bodies, resulting e.g. in blotchy images in certain specific cases? I had this experience with LR Nikon D700 profiles, and less so, but still present with D4. DxO camera profiles look much better to me in this particular case, but that’s a personal thing. For portraits sometimes I have a hard choice between PhotoLab, NX Studio, and Capture One colors, although overall image “cleanness” (yet again personal thing) is usually best in PhotoLab.
I don’t want to dig here into sensor CFA spectral response curves, CFA color stability, SMI index, color separation by different cameras, some modern paints “spiky” spectral response (seen e.g. in city or fashion photos), etc. It’s just a tip of an iceberg.
For elaborating on the Adobe profiles, I wouldn’t know anything because I’ve used DXO9 from day 1. You can visit the forum Fred Miranda in the Sony section where I have a question about a second body to pair with my A1 (if anyone is inclined they can respond here or there about my question!). For context, the user, old-gregg said this when post-processing with two bodies:
“When it came to post-processing, I had a bunch of Lightroom/ACR presets for the A7RV, which I had acquired first. The presets were built on top of Adobe Color base profile, and yet they didn’t produce the same result when applied to the images taken with the A1 II. The delta was quite small for images exposed under sunlight, but artifically lit scenes looked very different despite WB normalization. And finally, Sony’s own camera profiles for their RAW converter (and their Adobe’s camera-matching counterparts) didn’t look the same either.”