More Testing/Good News

Thought I'd share my recent experiences working with Capture One 4.5 Pro that after many many years was finally released earlier this week. Here's a techie warning - this entry will/might bore a lot of you...

Our main studio computer is a 64 bit machine running 8GB of RAM (we'll be upgrading the RAM shortly to 16). Why so much memory? Short answer is that our digital files have been huge with many of our panoramas running in excess of one (1) GB. I can see the file sizes growing once we start shooting with the new Cambo RS1000 and Phase One P45+ digital back which produces 39 megapixels with an average RAW size of 45MB (compare that to Sandy's Canon 1Ds III 21.1 megapixels with an average file size of 30MB). So, that's the reason for all the horsepower.

I started running the machine on Windows XP Pro 64bit and moved over to Vista Ultimate 64 bit about 10 months ago.

While I love shooting digital medium format, first with the P30+ and now soon with the P45+ I nevertheless was less than thrilled with the software (C1 3.x) as it did not support 64 bit computers. I have been using Adobe Photoshop for many years in fact am eagerly awaiting my copy of CS4 (which now is 64 bit compatible). The folks at Phase and Capture One also got it right. The new version (4.5) is 64 bit compatible; I know this as a fact as I just finished downloading it on our studio computer. C1 Pro has advanced so much that I now see using it as a daily part of my workflow prior to opening the image in Photoshop. I now have the proper tools that Phase/Capture One includes that works specifically on their digital backs. I can do lens correction for specific lens and specific digital back, LLC, CA, as well as color cast. I know all that as I just opened the program and worked on an image that was taken during my testing period of the Cambo RS. I'm very pleased indeed.

The following image won't win any awards - I'm not trying to anyway. This image represents the first image that was opened in C1 4.5, processed, then sent to CS3 for finial processing. All on a 64bit machine. This may not mean much to some, however anyone who has been working on a similar machine knows that this is a near historical event.

At the risk of repeating myself, I'm very pleased.

Thank you for allowing me to share this....

don