DPP4 display sharpness and performance

[woodsy]

When I load a raw photo it takes a long time for the throbber in the lower right corner to stop spinning and even then the preview is not as sharp as the jpegs I export. My computer is OK spec wise apart from the fact that I use the onboard Intel video card. Will adding an Nvidia video card to my computer help with performance and sharpness of the previews?

[jrhoffman75]

I think the reason is that the processor in that card isn’t a high speed unit. 

[6Dnewbie]

I'm having somewhat the opposite problem as the original poster.

When I first open up a raw file in DPP4, the picture on the screen looks great. Nice and sharp, etc..    But when the program has finished doing whatever it does to modify the picture (during which time the small wheel icon is spinning in lower right corner),  the picture ends up looking far worse than when I first opened it.  Significantly less sharp most noticably and often.  

This is happening with raw files taken on both my 6D and 5dmkIV.  

If I open the very same pictures from my 6D on DPP3, this does not happen.  The raw file looks as good, or better, once the program has finished "doing it's thing" when generating the picture ("generating high-quality image" I believe is what DPP3 says at the bottom while working on it versus spinning wheel on DPP4).  It is only when I open the raw files in DPP4 that they end up looking worse.  (DPP3 only applies to the pictures from the 6D, MarkIV won't work on it)

Anybody have any idea what the program is doing to make them look worse?  What settings is it applying and/or changing to cause this and can I turn them off/on/disable?

One example:  A picture that I took with my 6D, the waves created by the wake of a boat on a  lake with still water look great when viewed on DPP3.   When viewed in DPP4, the image ends up looking like someone took a paint brush with white paint on the tip and dabbed points of white on the tops of the wave crests with the frothing water glistening in the sun.  DPP3 looks as it should.

[RobertTheFat]

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@6Dnewbie wrote:

I'm having somewhat the opposite problem as the original poster.

When I first open up a raw file in DPP4, the picture on the screen looks great. Nice and sharp, etc..    But when the program has finished doing whatever it does to modify the picture (during which time the small wheel icon is spinning in lower right corner),  the picture ends up looking far worse than when I first opened it.  Significantly less sharp most noticably and often.  

This is happening with raw files taken on both my 6D and 5dmkIV.  

If I open the very same pictures from my 6D on DPP3, this does not happen.  The raw file looks as good, or better, once the program has finished "doing it's thing" when generating the picture ("generating high-quality image" I believe is what DPP3 says at the bottom while working on it versus spinning wheel on DPP4).  It is only when I open the raw files in DPP4 that they end up looking worse.  (DPP3 only applies to the pictures from the 6D, MarkIV won't work on it)

Anybody have any idea what the program is doing to make them look worse?  What settings is it applying and/or changing to cause this and can I turn them off/on/disable?

One example:  A picture that I took with my 6D, the waves created by the wake of a boat on a  lake with still water look great when viewed on DPP3.   When viewed in DPP4, the image ends up looking like someone took a paint brush with white paint on the tip and dabbed points of white on the tops of the wave crests with the frothing water glistening in the sun.  DPP3 looks as it should.

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Sounds as though you may have the highlight warning turned on, with the warning color set to white.

[6Dnewbie]

Checked, and highlight warning is off, and when I turned it on it was displaying in red.

I am guessing the white splotchiness on that particular picture is due to the terrible sharpness that shows up after the program chews on the picture.

Practically every picture I open looks good on the sharpness when first opened, but goes soft/loses detail after the spinning wheel is done doing it's thing.  

I am absolutely at a loss as to what is being applied to cause this.   The pictures look fine when opened, and they look fine in DPP3, even after the program does what it does to provide the "high quality image."   This is only happening in DPP4.   6D pictures, 5dmkIV, doesn't matter.

[Waddizzle]

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@6Dnewbie wrote:

Checked, and highlight warning is off, and when I turned it on it was displaying in red.

I am guessing the white splotchiness on that particular picture is due to the terrible sharpness that shows up after the program chews on the picture.

Practically every picture I open looks good on the sharpness when first opened, but goes soft/loses detail after the spinning wheel is done doing it's thing.  

I am absolutely at a loss as to what is being applied to cause this.   The pictures look fine when opened, and they look fine in DPP3, even after the program does what it does to provide the "high quality image."   This is only happening in DPP4.   6D pictures, 5dmkIV, doesn't matter.

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If you turned it on and it displayed as red, do you know what that means?  Your shot is over exposed.

[6Dnewbie]

If you turned it on and it displayed as red, do you know what that means?  Your shot is over exposed

Yes, I know what the highlight display means.  

The picture I referenced as an example had no overexposed areas.   I used a different picture to see what color was used to display overexposed areas.   The one I used had a small blinking red area.

And again, the picture referenced in my first post, as well as many others, look just fine using DPP3.   Which leads me to the assumption that it is something being applied/turned on/adjusted/etc. specific to DPP4. 

I just downloaded it in mid August and haven't even adjusted any settings from default/as downloaded.    But as I have looked through the settings, I can't come up with any smoking guns.  However,  I don't know what I don't know regarding all aspects of this program.

[jrhoffman75]

I’m guessing the initial view is the embedded JPEG.

I have not experienced what you are seeing.

Try switching DPP to Neutral Picture Style and check all tabs and switch off any check marks.

If that doesn’t help give Canon a call at 1-800-OK-CANON.

[6Dnewbie]

I’m guessing the initial view is the embedded JPEG.

I have not experienced what you are seeing.

Try switching DPP to Neutral Picture Style and check all tabs and switch off any check marks.

If that doesn’t help give Canon a call at 1-800-OK-CANON. 

Thanks.   I'll  switch and check all the tabs.   

Good point on the embedded jpeg.

The perplexing thing is the raw files all look fine when viewed on DPP3.  

 I hope I can get this figured out as DPP3 will not read 5dmkiv files.