phocus preview softness

agsurf5 · November 23, 2008, 12:10:13 PM

hi,

when shooting tethered, i have the layout with the big preview and thumbnails at the bottom.
the preview is really soft. i cannot understand if i am in sharp focus on the image, unless i zoom 100% in it.

i tried to change the preview size from small to large, but it does not change much. does anybody else have the same problem?

H3DII-39 on a macbookpro with phocus.

thanks,
alberto

agsurf5 · November 28, 2008, 05:04:27 PM

i guess no one has a similar problem nor an answer to this...
any suggestions?

OMRA · November 28, 2008, 11:46:48 PM

Hi there,

yestarday appen's the same thing to me in a imac, the strange is that dont appen on the macbookpro 17'.
I only can assume this is by the use of the DAC, try to see if it's so by turn on/off .
this soft do not afect image quality.

my 2c

regards
Octavio

agsurf5 · November 29, 2008, 10:50:48 AM

just tried. it doesn't really change much.
the files are supersharp, in focus. person's face/eyes and everything at 100% is perfect.
non zoomed preview it is soft. you cannot even understand if it is sharp or not. and it is just the preview.

jeff.grant@pobox.com · November 29, 2008, 11:49:52 AM

If I remember correctly, below 25% Phocus uses the preview JPG, and above the real image. I just tried it and the initial image at 13% is soft but as soon as I zoom to 25% it's good.

agsurf5 · November 29, 2008, 12:10:42 PM

25% is sharp. that's already a step ahead. thanks a lot.
but it does not fit the screen with the full photo. and i am on a 17" hi-def or the 23".
it looks like in capture everytime i have to zoom in to 25% for each image...

how come the preview jpg is so soft? something wrong in my settings?

agsurf5 · January 11, 2009, 04:04:53 PM

i am still struggling with this.
preview below 25% is soft, and makes it very difficult to work with it.
capture defaults (macbookpro 17" with hi-def display...) is less than 25%

any ideas?

thanks,
alberto

robertpoll · January 12, 2009, 05:47:52 AM

I think this has come up before and there's no solution unfortunately. One suggestion for a change to Phocus that would help is that the zoom setting/position remains constant when switching between images - this would certainly help. Sharpening up the smaller would also be nice, but it's really best to judsge focus at 100% so the first suggestion might be a better option (not that they have to be mutually exclusive of course).

..rob

MQ · January 12, 2009, 01:50:01 PM

I'm in same trouble.

both of PC and G5 soft in lower 25%.

It is too soft!!

It needs to be improved.

Regards,

JK

stewhem · January 12, 2009, 10:46:36 PM

Totally agree that the soft preview is a major fault of Phocus. I like the results that P gives but this soft preview really slows the workflow when you have more than a handful of images. In fact, as a sort of work round, when I have to process many images (100+) I export them as dng (doesn't take too long) and view in Raw Developer or Bridge just to check the base sharpness, or lack of, in order to make the first selects. But this is a PITA and how difficult is it to get a sharp preview, as in every raw converter I've tried - probably all of them?

agsurf5 · January 13, 2009, 02:20:35 AM

the preview is soft in the viewer at sizes below 25%.
i know that focus is better checked at 100%, and that is what i do for some images. but shooting tethered i need to have an idea of the frame and the focus at the same time.
i shoot people and not objects on a tripod, so i move and need to be able to glance once in a while and have a clear idea of things.

i had another shoot yesterday, and i have to tell you phocus was a nightmare.
apart from the softness, which i gave up on it yesterday, it crashed on me few times. i have corrupted files (the ones that makes phocus crash and cannot be exported) and also plain black frames for about 5% of the images.

i love the camera, but capture1 and LR are much better and more reliable.
am i the only one with this problems, or someone else is having the same issues?

robertpoll · January 13, 2009, 10:14:05 PM

I've found Phocus to be rock solid on both PC and Mac - MUCH better than Flex, which I ran 90% on PC and was awful. I guess there's something system specific going on.

...rob

Dustbak · January 18, 2009, 08:17:51 AM

I have the same thing but it only started when I moved to the latest version of Phocus. Really annoying (MBP 15 BTW).

BTW, I feel Phocus can't even stand in the shadow of Flexcolor. I find Flexcolor still so much more stable and reliable it isn't even funny anymore. Phocus is next to unusable in real work situations where you combine single with multishot.