Please fix this Nikon/Sony/Fujifilm: Pixel Shift Assembly Should Generate Finished Images, not Make-Work for Us
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re: pixel shift
re: please fix this Nikon
re: please fix this Sony
re: please fix this Fujifilm
re: please fix this camera
re: Nikon Z8 Delivers Best Pixel Shift Out There... and botches the win by not doing the obvious
This commentary applies to Sony and Fujifilm and Nikon pixel shift.
Why did Nikon do so much right and then botch it?
Reader Michael Erlewine writes:
When I pixel-shifted 32, the Z8 went through the process like pixel-shift, one at a time, but what was produced were NEFs and not the pixel-shift extension. I wonder why that happened.
DIGLLOYD: this is not the first comment I’ve received with this type of confusion about what the camera does for pixel shift. I guess it’s time for a screencast.
Nikon and Sony and Canon all do the bare minimum: capture and save ordinary RAW files in the pixel shift sequence, then save them. That’s it.
Gratuitously forcing users to use computer software to merge captures into a usable pixel shift file is unacceptable.
In the age of computational photography, it’s ridiculous. It is botched design, unjustified by technical reasons. It is trivial by comparison to JPEG or TIF processing (except perhaps for Sony’s motion-correction computer software stuff).
I’m not even asking (yet) for sophisticated multi-shot high-res mode as on Leica SL2 and Panasonic S1R, which generated finished-ready-to-go RAW files from 8 shots and taking motion correction into account very competently—vastly more useful and usable.
Who does it right?
The Leica SL2 and Panasonic S1R offer a multi-shot high-res mode that takes motion into account and produces a finished ready-to-process image It can also be used with focus stacking mode. Pentax K1 provides a finished image also, but not with motion correction. Strictly speaking, the approach is not simple pixel shift, but computational photography applied to 8 captures. Which is why I use the term multi-shot high-res mode to distinguish it. My only beef is perhaps allowing 16 or 32 frames, to further reduce possible artifacting.
Basic pixel shift competence
Cameras should not create gratuitous work for the photographer.
At a minimum, a pixel shift camera should do all of the following. The firmware code to do so is orders of magnitude simpler JPEG or TIF processing.
- Shoot as fast as possible, to minimize artifacting eg Sony shoots quite slowly, for unknown reasons.
- 4/8/16/32 shot options should be available, as per Nikon.
- Captures MUST be lossless compressed, not space-wasting uncompressed.
- All output options should be possible! Options to save: (1) all original frames, (2) first frame only, (3) 4-shot/8-shot/16-shot/32-shot combined shot, all sub-variants thereof also eg 8 X 4-shot from 32 shots. The user can record some or all and just throw away what is not wanted.
- Don’t do Stupid Shit that makes taking images harder eg (1) Sony has no delay option, which forces manually engaging self timer, (2) Nikon won’t allow pixel shift if self timer is engaged.
- Automatic prompt for pixel mapping for bad pixels if this has not been done in a reasonable time.
Advanced:
- Deliver multi-shot high-res mode as on Leica SL2 and Panasonic S1R. In my experience, these modes are far more useful than standard pixel shift.
- Possible “smart mode” that detects motion artifacts and re-takes up to N times in an attempt for the maximum quality result.
- Auto-detect areas pixel shift frames with motion, and flag in EXIF as possibly troubled.
