Maybe, when it was still Bibble and had few rivals, that might have been more or less true.
Now? It's an utter joke. It's only "potential" is as an underperforming, inadequate, frustrating money-pit for the few people left out there who are masochistic enough to continue to use it.
I started using Aftershot (v2) when it was bundled with a PSP update a few years ago to process Nikon's NEF/NRW files. Standard version 3 came along as another bundle and I liked it enough to buy a very cheap upgrade to Pro. At the time it was better than the Nikon View-NX etc.
Recently I looked at the Nikon (free) software and it has improved, even having side-car files but overall, ASP3 is a touch better.
Over the last few days I have been exploring a Sony camera and the local shop let me have one for half an hour to try out - and use my memory card so I could take the pictures away and examine them in detail. The camera is not supported in ASP3 but is a small update on an earlier model that is listed.
I downloaded and tried Capture One Express for Sony (free). In my opinion it is very light-weight and I don't want to learn yet another piece of software - especially as it is so limited.
I got ASP to recognise one of the ARW files by (using a HEX editor) changing the model name by 1 character to that of the older version. The image in ASP3 was very close, if not identical, to that in Capture One. A bit of a search suggested EXIFtool.exe as an easier way to change the camera model name in a batch of file. Using the command line is a bit of a throwback, though!
Adding new camera profiles is probably a labour-intensive operation, especially as so many manufacturers are producing new models and lenses on a regular basis. However, the lack of support for a major new range such as the Nikon z6 & z7 is very poor and leads me to think Corel is not going to put much effort into ASP. It is still being actively marketed - e.g. when opening a raw file in PSP (where Nikon z6, z7 and the Sony are supported). I have had the paid version for several years now so I have had value for money but it is a tad unfair to sell an effectively unsupported product.
If Corel is taking a step back on ASP, why not provide some information to users on how to create and register camera profiles, even if it means building on previous profiles. There is already a piece in the "Corel Discovery Center" on how to create lens profiles.
"unfair to sell an effectively unsupported product" - yes its a pity - but I still like to work with ASP - I have older Camera Models ...
And yes - would be nice if Corel would provide some information to users on how to create and register camera profiles ...
regards Hannes
austria
Nikon D7000 + D70, Nikon P6000, Nikon P330 (use P7800) PanasonicTZ100, Vuescan
bibble 4, bibble 5, ASP mostly on Ubuntu 14.04 ( sometimes Suse Linux 11.4 or WIN10)
With a bit of luck and inspiration I have managed to get ASP3 to recognise a new camera and apply lens corrections without having to edit the model name in the EXIF file. Getting the camera recognised was the more straight-forward bit. I have now got a Sony RX10M4 - principally for travel. ASP3 listed the RX10M3 as an available so I downloaded that which put a folder in the default location \Aftershot 3\Cameras (64-bit) as "sony_cyber_shot_dsc_rx10m3.afcamera". I copied the entire folder and renamed the copy "sony_cyber_shot_dsc_rx10m4.afcamera".
The next step was to edit the Info.afpxml file in the new folder. (With Windows, Notepad++ is very useful. Linux has loads of editors.) I set modelName="DSC-RX10M4" and lensMenuModel="DSC-RX10M4" but left the cameraProfiles="64,sony_rx10m3_100.icc" unchanged.
Getting the lens data to load was more tricky and involved changing the lens database and lens-camera database xml files in C:\Program Files\Corel\Corel AfterShot Pro 3\supportfiles\Profiles\LensProfiles - this is a protected area in Windows so admin permissions are needed. Unless you know what you are up to, altering things in Program Files could cause problems. I always back up beforehand. Anyone who makes such changes does so at their own risk!!!
An entry in the lens-camera database defines the camera and points to a mount in the lens database. As the RX10M4 is a fixed lens, I used that as a mount name. <Camera skip="false">
<Maker>SONY</Maker>
<Model>DSC-RX10M4</Model>
<CropMultiplier>2.7</CropMultiplier>
<Mount>SonyRX10M4</Mount>
</Camera>
It looks like ASP gets the camera name from the Exif data then looks in the lens-camera database for the approriate mount(s). (One camera has one or more mount types to allow for different lens makers- a specific one such as NikonSLR and another such as genericSLR for Sigma and other lenses.) The lens database can have lots of entries for a mount. There is a great deal of complexity for interchangeable lenses with ASP looking at the Exif data for a code that is the ID for a particular lens (e.g. with Nikon as the 'provider', the code 00 54 44 44 0C 0C 00 00 = Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 AiS)
Of course, with a fixed lens everything is a lot easier.
To get values for the distortion, I made up a jpeg image in PSP of white horizontal and vertical lines on a grey background. I displayed that on a large flat-screen TV and took pictures in RAW from different distances and with varying focal lengths: 8.8, 40, 75, 100 & 220 mm for a crop factor of 2.7 so 35mm equivalent of 24 to 600mm.
I used ASP3 lens correction to adjust the image to reduce the distortion in each, making a note of the a, b, c values. The biggest correction was at the widest angle, 8.8mm (= 24mm for 35mm equivalent). The next stage was to build the entry in the lens database with one line for each focal length tested. I am guessing that ASP3 interpolates intermediate values. A typical entry is: <Lens raw="true" skip="false">
<Model>Standard</Model>
<Mount>SonyRX10M4</Mount>
<FocalLength max="220" min="8.8"/>
<Aperture>4</Aperture>
<CropMultiplier>2.7</CropMultiplier>
<Converter factor="1" detected="false"/>
<CorrectionCoefficients>
<RadialDistortion a="-0.0014000" b="-0.0150000" c="-0.007100" focal="8.8"/>
<RadialDistortion a="0.0090000" b="0.000000" c="0.000000" focal="40"/>
<RadialDistortion a="0.0090000" b="0.000000" c="0.000000" focal="75"/>
<RadialDistortion a="0.0090000" b="0.000000" c="0.000000" focal="100"/>
<RadialDistortion a="0.0090000" b="0.000000" c="0.000000" focal="220"/>
</CorrectionCoefficients>
</Lens>
I need to spend a bit of time fine-tuning the coefficients and add chromatic and vignetting adjustments but it is progress!
Regards,
Andy
Nikon D7000 (plus some heavy glass), P7100, Sony RX10M4
A small update to my previous post: it is not essential to edit the lens and camera-lens database xml files in the Program File folder. The same information can be placed in the default user folder structure (see ASP3 File/Preferences/General) under LensProfiles. The camera definition are named Camera_Sony_DSC_RX10M4.xml and the lens definition Lens_Standard_sonyrx10m4_Crop_2_7.xml in this instance.
It is necessary to make a backup of the initial lens profile file as if that lens profile is in use and manual changes are made in the User Interface and then saved, the stored values will be changed. The lens definitions profiles in the "Program Files" area are the defaults but, of course, none exists for a new camera - unless you put one there!
It is worth noting that the Sony RX10M4 has a zoom operation that changes direction mid way - from (all in 35mm equivalent) 24mm wide to 100mm the lens gets shorter. From 100mm to 600mm it gets longer. Thus it is important to have measurements of distortion throughout the zoom range, especially at the focal length where the mechanism alters direction.
Also, when fine-tuning the distortion parameters, I found it helpful to view the RAW and JPEG pairs. The camera appears to correct distortion in the JPEGs so flipping between the images of JPEG (no correction enabled) to RAW (correction enabled) to see how much movement there is provides a useful guide as to when a satisfactory result has been reached.
Knowledge is recognising that a tomato is a fruit: experience is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Before I uninstall, just thought I would confirm that AfterShot is pretty much a dead product. The RAW files from my Samsung S9 open in Corel Paintshop, Adobe Elements, Adobe Photoshop, windows preview, just about everything EXCEPT AfterShot. So then I look at the supported cameras and mainly see old crap in its very short list of supported cameras. I even tried Adobe's RAW file converter that creates a "universal" RAW file. But still nada. I mean, it looks like it could have been a useful product if the developers of PaintShop would just share their RAW file code.
Right now, my Panasonic G9 is supported. But if I decide to go to a more "modern" camera (S series, Nikon Z series, etc..) going to the website to look at supported cameras, they aren't on the list.
Unless there is some really drastic changes, the software is dead in the water as far as cameras that are out today.
