topic Re: Does anyone know if there is a tool available to convert DPP3 recipes to the DPP4 format? in Camera Software

Does anyone know if there is a tool available to convert DPP3 recipes to the DPP4 format?

andre-7d — Sun, 11 Dec 2022 18:28:56 GMT

I have TBs worth of edits in DPP3 and cannot archive them in the way that DPP4 would apply those edits. For now I'm able to use DPP3, but it will likely fail to run at some point on whatever version of Windows makes it incompatible.

Does anyone know of any tool that can convert .VRD recipe files into .DR4?

Re: Does anyone know if there is a tool available to convert DPP3 recipes to the DPP4 format?

jrhoffman75 — Sun, 11 Dec 2022 22:34:25 GMT

Never seen such a tool.

How many of the terabytes of images will you need to re-edit? If you are concerned about being able to access them if/when DPP3 becomes un-runnable why not start the process of converting to JPEG or TIFF?

Re: Does anyone know if there is a tool available to convert DPP3 recipes to the DPP4 format?

andre-7d — Sun, 11 Dec 2022 23:45:54 GMT

@jrhoffman75 wrote:
why not start the process of converting to JPEG or TIFF?

Saving RAW images in JPEG is counterproductive and in any other format, like 16-bit TIFF leaves me with the finalized images that cannot be edited in as originals can (e.g. a crop in those images will be final).

I'm not trying to get away from .CR2/.CR3, but rather to preserve countless hours that went into producing images. It's hard to believe that Canon would just consider this work disposable and not provide a path for people to migrate from DPP3 to DPP4. If I did want to go that route, I would use Adobe's DNG converter to preserve as much image data as possible.

With DPP3, at least, Canon saves the recipe in EXIF, as CanonVRD descriptor, so at least it's visible what was done. DPP4 saves recipes in binary format, so without knowing this format, there's no way to translate recipes, which is what I'm after.

Re: Does anyone know if there is a tool available to convert DPP3 recipes to the DPP4 format?

jrhoffman75 — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 00:00:45 GMT

At this time there is no apparent move on Canon’s part to eliminate DPP3 from its catalog. If/when in the future Windows stops running the app buying a cheap used computer that runs Windows X-1 would allow continued use of DPP3.

Re: Does anyone know if there is a tool available to convert DPP3 recipes to the DPP4 format?

ebiggs1 — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 15:59:28 GMT

"With DPP3, at least, Canon saves the recipe in EXIF, as CanonVRD descriptor, so at least it's visible what was done. DPP4 saves recipes in binary format, so without knowing this format, there's no way to translate recipes, which is what I'm after."

I am not a DPP3 or 4 expert like John since I use the Adobe products.but I am not unfamiliar with it either. I do use it from time to time. My thought is, if you open your older TB's worth of photos in DPP4 and save it does it not save the recipe that was applied in DPP3 in DPP4 format? Perhaps a batch process?

Re: Does anyone know if there is a tool available to convert DPP3 recipes to the DPP4 format?

jrhoffman75 — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 16:03:30 GMT

@ebiggs1 wrote:
"With DPP3, at least, Canon saves the recipe in EXIF, as CanonVRD descriptor, so at least it's visible what was done. DPP4 saves recipes in binary format, so without knowing this format, there's no way to translate recipes, which is what I'm after."
I am not a DPP3 or 4 expert like John since I use the Adobe products.but I am not unfamiliar with it either. I do use it from time to time. My thought is, if you open your older TB's worth of photos in DPP4 and save it does it not save the recipe that was applied in DPP3 in DPP4 format? Perhaps a batch process?

My thought as well Ernie. I was going to try it but it wasn’t easy to download DPP3 since I no loner have a camera body that is compatible.

Re: Does anyone know if there is a tool available to convert DPP3 recipes to the DPP4 format?

Waddizzle — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 16:14:08 GMT

I am not certain if both DPP3 and DPP4 can co-exist on the same computer.

Re: Does anyone know if there is a tool available to convert DPP3 recipes to the DPP4 format?

ebiggs1 — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 16:14:26 GMT

John I no longer have DPP3 either. The newest DPP4 is way much better but even a while back I didn't see a need to keep DPP3 around. I kept CS3 and CS5 around for a while, too, but like DPP3 they just didn't get used as newer better versions came out.

Re: Does anyone know if there is a tool available to convert DPP3 recipes to the DPP4 format?

ebiggs1 — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 16:20:01 GMT

"I am not certain if both DPP3 and DPP4 can co-exist on the same computer."

I don't even remember that. It might be why I no longer have it. I can't remember which cameras it was for but I think it's all the way back to the XTi or XT and 1 D Mk II years.

Re: Does anyone know if there is a tool available to convert DPP3 recipes to the DPP4 format?

jrhoffman75 — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 16:21:49 GMT

@Waddizzle wrote:
I am not certain if both DPP3 and DPP4 can co-exist on the same computer.

They can. They are two distinct programs.

Re: Does anyone know if there is a tool available to convert DPP3 recipes to the DPP4 format?

andre-7d — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 16:51:16 GMT

Can we please keep this thread on topic? It's a very specific question about migrating DPP3 recipes to DPP4 and I'm still hoping somebody can share any insights on just that.

Re: Does anyone know if there is a tool available to convert DPP3 recipes to the DPP4 format?

johnrmoyer — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 17:36:09 GMT

One more off topic reply. This is how one may run an old version of Windows with DPP 3 forever. Even if the recipes could be converted, they would not produce identical results on a newer version of DPP.

I have an old portable windows license not tied to any particular hardware. Since it is not tied to particular hardware, it will run in a virtual machine. This means that a disk image of that windows machine can be run on another newer machine with no need to ever upgrade that version of windows. I use qemu on Debian Linux for that purpose. There is also a free to download version of VMware Player for windows or VMware Fusion for macOS.

I suggest creating such a disk image either by copying a running windows machine that has a full price license for some version of Windows, or else installing Windows to a virtual machine. I no longer run Windows since I have retired, but still have a Windows virtual machine on my Debian Linux desktop and I have VMware Fusion on my iMac.

Since this old version of Windows will stop getting security updates, it will be necessary to keep the the virtual machine from accessing the internet by configuring it for local network only.

The Wine program worked for running a very old version of DPP on Linux before qemu existed, but I no longer use Wine and and no longer remember which version of DPP. But, that still might be made to work and would not need so much disk space or RAM or backup storage or network configuration.

https://cam.start.canon/en/S002/manual/html/UG-04_EditImage_0190.html

Recipes are not compatible between Digital Photo Professional 4 and earlier versions.
In Digital Photo Professional 4, images with recipe files from earlier versions are displayed using the settings at the time of shooting.
In earlier versions, images with recipe files from Digital Photo Professional 4 are also displayed using the settings at the time of shooting.

Re: Does anyone know if there is a tool available to convert DPP3 recipes to the DPP4 format?

jrhoffman75 — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 20:07:33 GMT

This is great information John. Not everyone saves and applies recipes; many are one each edits. If they have a concern about DPP3 not being available in the future come up with a solution to run working Windows or start re-editing DPP3 images in DPP4.

Re: Does anyone know if there is a tool available to convert DPP3 recipes to the DPP4 format?

johnrmoyer — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 03:43:42 GMT

My qemu command line for when I needed to run DPP under Linux:

qemu-system-x86_64 --enable-kvm -cpu host -smp cores=2,threads=4 -vga std -m 8G -boot once=d -rtc base=localtime -drive file=/home/jrm/warehouse_dd/warehouse_2012dec30_win7.bin,format=raw -name old_warehouse -enable-kvm -net user -net nic -cdrom /dev/cdrom

I used dd to create an image of the disk on an old Windows machine.

Re: Does anyone know if there is a tool available to convert DPP3 recipes to the DPP4 format?

ebiggs1 — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 19:12:04 GMT

"Can we please keep this thread on topic?"

This is "on topic", you may not like the answers but this is what we can come up with to accomplish your request.

Re: Does anyone know if there is a tool available to convert DPP3 recipes to the DPP4 format?

andre-7d — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 00:50:20 GMT

@ebiggs1

It's like in that joke where a guy was looking for their lost keys under a light pole. A passer by asked the guy if he lost the keys there and the guy said: "No, but there's more light here".

I'm looking for specific information and if it's not too much to ask, I would like this thread to focus DPP3/DPP4 recipes. I mean no disrespect for all who contributed, but I'd rather receive no replies than to hear about another way to run DPP3 forever.

Re: Does anyone know if there is a tool available to convert DPP3 recipes to the DPP4 format?

FloridaDrafter — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 02:47:43 GMT

I guess what my friends are trying to say is, no, there is no way that we know of that will translate/convert DPP 3 recipes into something DPP 4 will read, be it a saved recipe or one that's imbedded. I went to DPP 4 early on and knew that it wasn't compatible in reading of recipes from 3. I saw this the first time I brought in a DPP 3 edited Raw file into 4. I have always saved my edits (recipe) when I exit DPP by selecting "Yes to all" when I exit or change folders when prompted. I spent the better part of a year trying to solve this issue, and eventually gave up, but that was years ago (I am X IT and systems admin, so I have access to resources). Since reading your post, I have done more research, and once again came up with no options. Although I do have DPP 3 on an old XP laptop, I seldom open it up. However, I also have TB's of images edited in DPP 3, I seldom have to re-edit more than 5 or 6 at a time, so I just edit one in DPP 4, copy the recipe, not a DR4, just a copy and batch paste to the others. That's my solution. TBH, DPP 4 handles the older Canon Raw files better than DPP 3 ever did, so I don't mind. I sometimes re-edit files from my XSi, XTi, and T4i in DPP 4 and see a vast improvement in noise reduction, lens correction, and color correction, especially with the older lenses that I used with those cameras.

On a side note, the DPP 3 imbedded recipes are still there, even in a file that's been saved in DPP 4. DPP 4 just ignores them. I've looked at the files in a hex editor, but you can open one in a text editor, like note pad, and see the ver. 3 code.

Newton

Re: Does anyone know if there is a tool available to convert DPP3 recipes to the DPP4 format?

johnrmoyer — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 02:58:16 GMT

I think you have your answers.

I never worked in IT, but wrote PC bios, various firmware, graphics card drivers, computer models of physical processes, wind shear algorithms, and subscribed to ACM SigGraph and IEEE Computer Graphics for years.

If you decode the format of file.dr4 I would be be interested in learning about it. Thanks.

John

Re: Does anyone know if there is a tool available to convert DPP3 recipes to the DPP4 format?

andre-7d — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 03:01:04 GMT

Thanks. With regards to seeing the DPP3 recipe, you don't have to look at those DPP3 settings in hex. Run this to see the values.

exiftool -s -G -CanonVRD:all _MG_2280.CR2

Re: Does anyone know if there is a tool available to convert DPP3 recipes to the DPP4 format?

andre-7d — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 03:07:40 GMT

I'm still researching and will post an update here if I find anything.