[Digikam-devel] [Bug 205776] "Embedded preview loads full image size" does not only do what it says, confusing users

[Matti Rintala]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=205776





--- Comment #55 from Matti Rintala <bitti cs tut fi>  2011-12-28 20:50:04 ---
Marcel,

I totally agree that Digikam should work with most (if not all) raw formats,
not just NEFs, unedited or not. If I have given the impression that I just want
to change Digikam to suit my personal tastes, I'm sorry.

In my opinion, the two raw preview approaches have the following pros and cons:

1) Using embedded jpeg preview produced by the camera (or a raw editing
software)
- Its resolution depends on the raw format, some have full resolution previews,
other formats only offer reduced resolution
- If the embedded preview is a low resolution image, it may be too small to
evaluate sharpness of the photo
- Its appearance is equal to what the user saw at the camera's LCD, i.e. all
camera's settings have been applied to the preview
- If the user has used camera settings to get close to what he wants, this is
what he wants to see (he can then later try to recreate the look in raw
editing, if the raw editor does not understand all camera settings)

2) Using Digikam's raw decoding to render a prevew
- It is always a full resolution preview, regardless of the raw format, so it's
better for sharpness evaluation than a small resolution embedded preview
- Its appearance depends on the parameters of Digikam's raw decoding algorithm,
which (to my knowledge) means that many/most camera settings are ignored.
- This in turn is ok if the user does not care about camera settings and wants
the preview to represent the "starting point" for later raw editing.

My point is that regardless of the raw format, there are good and bad sides
with both approaches. Only the user can know which he likes better. And that's
why I think the user should be able to make the ultimate choice without being
overridden by a hard-coded heuristics based on embedded preview size. And
that's why I think the user preference UI text should clearly say which
approach is chosen.

Of course, if the raw image containes no embedded preview, then raw-decoded
previews could be used no matter what the user preference says.

Matti

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