Luminar 2018 Works With Sony a7RIII RAW Files

It’s time for the Miami Street Photography Festival again this year and I am shoot most of it with the Sony a7RIII, but I have my Fujifilm GXF50S handy for wide shots. I haven’t processed many files because I want to do some comparisons in Lightroom since I am more familiar with it, but Luminar 2018 is really growing on me and when the digital asset manager is released it will likely become my go-to application for editing. I got really fed up with waiting for Sony a7RIII support so I started browsing files on my a7RIII and then opening the corresponding file on my computer with Luminar 2018, which isn’t convenient, but it’s better than JPG in my opinion.

So far the Sony a7RIII is working great and autofocuses quickly in low light… most of the time… Sometimes the Sony a7RIII will hunt and hunt for no reason, but the problem is very rare. This is different than the Sony a9, which never hunted for me and always locked onto what I wanted to shoot and never once would let go of the subject. There is definitely a slight difference between the two cameras, but the Sony a7RIII image quality absolutely dominates the Sony a9. I will prepare higher quality photos to share in the future, but for right now I am covering the events down in Miami via my Instagram along with DepotMSA for a change. (Now on 500px)

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Iridient Developer 3.2.1 Supports Sony a7RIII And On Sale December 14-28


The Iridient Developer 3.2.1 update is now available for download! This new version adds support for recent new RAW camera models, bug fixes and other improvements. The Lightroom plug-in is now able to process DNG format images that were converted on import by Lightroom. This update also fixes a crash on load bug with Mac OS X 10.6.8 systems introduced in the previous 3.2 update.

I also wanted to give you early notice that I will be having an anniversary sale on Iridient Developer this year from December 14-28 with a 25% discount ($75 US + taxes). The upgrade discount can be used on top of the sale price giving an upgrade price of just $45 US + taxes during the sale.

If you have purchased a new or upgraded license after March 10, 2016 the Iridient Developer 3.2.1 update is free. However, this release is a paid upgrade for users who originally purchased a license prior to this date. You get at least 18 months of free upgrades, regardless of version designation, when purchasing Iridient software and the license is perpetual. You are never required to pay for an upgrade to keep using your software. Upgrades are available to all previously registered users for the discounted price of just $59.40 US (40% off the full price of $99 US) plus any applicable VAT, sales or use taxes depending on your location by requesting a discount code from [email protected]. Please include your current registration information and email when requesting an upgrade code.

Iridient Developer 3.2.1 can be downloaded here:
http://www.iridientdigital.com/products/iridientdeveloper_download.html

The new RAW models added with this release of Iridient Developer include:
Sony: A7R III (ILCE-7RM3)
Panasonic: DC-G9 (pixel shift mode not supported yet)
Leica: CL
Apple: iPhone X
Huawei: Mate 10 Pro

The full Iridient Developer version history including detailed release notes for version 3.2.1 can be viewed at my website here:
http://www.iridientdigital.com/products/rawdeveloper_history.html

The complete list of supported RAW cameras can be viewed here:
http://www.iridientdigital.com/products/rawdeveloper_cameras.html

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Sony a7RIII: Some Impressions and Videos

The Sony a7RIII has improved a lot over the previous generation of cameras and I find myself hating it less than any Sony before. I can set and forget a lot up with the camera and the extra programmable buttons make life a lot easier, but the new range of shutters along with its ability to track make the camera useful in new ways that I am still exploring.

But then there are the touch controls, which are completely unintuitive. Trying to use touch controls to review images in a way that would be intuitive to anyone in 2017 is impossible at this point and there is no excuse for this. Sony probably should have just left the touch screen off this camera if they were only going to have very limited touch capabilities. I simply do not see the point of it’s inclusion if you have to keep going between buttons and the screen to use it for reviewing images or taking them.

Also related to this reviewing images with buttons can be oddly laggy at times. The touch interface can feel more responsive, but if you are shooting at 8fps or 10fps reviewing images in camera can be very important. Hopefully, Sony fixes these issues via firmware update sooner rather than later, because issues like this can make the camera feel slower than it’s peers.

Last but not least you can see some video below, which I haven’t shot much of but looks pretty good from the footage I have seen. I hope to do more video in the near future and I might create some videos like these, but I find editing video tedious and I am waiting for Lightroom support for the Sony a7RIII to start seriously sharing photos from the camera. I would rather process them in an application that I am intimately familiar with first before giving any impressions. I simply can’t understand Photographers judging the a7RIII from JPEG’s or editors they haven’t used daily. For the first time in a long time, I am enjoying a Sony camera, but I won’t be certain about how I feel about the purchase until I can open my photos in Lightroom, because Capture One really isn’t doing it for me.

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Sony F2.8 70-200mm Zoom GM SEL70200GM Firmware V05


This update (version 05) improves the accuracy of the contrast AF at distant shooting, making it easier to focus when the aperture is narrowed down to F11 or higher. You can download it here.

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What Happens When You Receive Two Cameras, But Are Only Paying For One?


When I picked my camera up my camera from B&H Photo at UPS Monday morning, I was surprised at how it was packed because it was a box inside a box. This never happens so imagine my surprised when I opened this rather large second box to find two cameras inside. Knowing the law for a split second I knew that I could keep what was inside, but I immediately reached out to my contact at B&H Photo during my drive home to find out what happened. Considering others received and unboxed cameras from B&H Photo on Youtube I hoped it was a one-off error so I worked with them to figure out how this happened and they figured out that any 7lb box being shipped must be a double pack, which was where our conversation stopped.

Now I have discovered that I was not the only one to receive two cameras and there were likely more, which you can see here. I am not sure why this person wanted to be on the news for returning something they didn’t pay for (UPDATE: Alex Workman contacted me via twitter and it was because of a Facebook post), but I highly encourage my readers to do the same thing. Depending on the size of this error someone will likely lose their job around the holidays. There are also your fellow photographers out there that are being deprived of stock by this error of unknown size, but I have done some digging and I know its greater than 20 people now, so that is a fairly significant loss on everyone behalf. Roughly $66,000 is not a bad salary and it could be much larger error than that, so if the cameras aren’t returned you can bet jobs will be lost.

I don’t believe in a lot in this world and karma certainly hasn’t worked in my favor, but it still doesn’t change things. People should try to do the right thing. So if you receive a second camera in error contact B&H Photo or if they take the time to reach out to you because you received one just send it back and be happy with the camera you paid for. Happy Holidays and thanks for reading.

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Sony a7RIII Disassembled


The Sony a7RIII has been disassembled by kolarivision and there are quite a few improvements to improve thermals. Unfortunately, the a7RIII still has thick sensor glass so you will need to have the sensor modified if you want to use wide adapted glass on the camera. You can read the full step by step teardown here.

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Sony a7RIII: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
Sony 24-105mm: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama

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