Please explain to me how this is "quirky" and how does this make the leadership of Nikon failing the engineering management of their product.
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From my point of view, and to be sure this is just my point of view, and nothing else!
I used to think that there was some kind of limitation as to what Picture Controls could or couldn't do whilst doing their internal things in the camera.
ie. I simply assumed that the cameras internal processing simply can't comprehend colour reversal, so using Picture Controls it can't be done.
If you've ever played with the Picture Control Utility(on computer) you'll understand.
It gives you the ability to create creative effects on some images on the computer, then save that Picture Control and upload it to the camera.
one of those creative control options is to play with the levels tool, so you can easily do luminance reversal(amongst other things).
So if you were to digitize black and white negatives, you could easily do this in camera and see the reversal outcome on screen(handy for exposure reasons).
The added bonus is that you maintain the raw(NEF) workflow too.
So if they can do colour reversal in camera, then there is no limitation as to what the camera CAN do in that sense .. so there is no reason why this same process can't be produced in camera simply via the Picture Control system.
Instead they clutter up the menu system with features that are not only regular items(ie. can't imagine users dong negative digitization on a regular basis) .. and that menu item could easily be used for any other purpose that could be more of a regular usage item.
So adding this item into the firmware takes up coding time(for the coding of the firmware) .. when they already have a system whereby this could be implemented(ie. the Picture Control system)
The user doesn't even need the Picture Control Utility to create a colour reversal Picture Control style .. all it requires is one person to do it, and then share the Picture Control freely amongst those that also want to use it.
So, not only does additional coding take time to implement into the firmware for the camera(ie. delayed camera announcement/release) it also complicates the firmware code too .. ie. more likely for bugs, and to ensure it doesn't create bugs, it has to be tested and debugged .. ie. added time delay.
That to me is a leadership issue!(ie. whoever the person in charge of the implementation of the firmware was)
That is, the leader of the software side of the device should have stepped up to the plate and announced that this 'feature' would have been best, and more simply, added as a simple Picture Control style.
Simplifying the firmware(or adding a more useful feature item into he firmware instead) could have resulted, or earlier introductory of the actual device.
The idea is great, and if implemented properly something I'd probably use, even tho not on a very regular basis. But, to not offer raw file capture is pure silly!
You can use a mobile phone to do the same, so as a feature for a $4-5K camera .. it's pretty miserable. In fact now that Android allows raw file capture, it's probably a better feature on a mobile phone!
Why is raw file important(for me) .. simply for the white balance alteration. Hard to achieve with a negative(even with calculated lighting, and I used a high CRI halogen as my light source), but choosing a grey point in PP gave me the best whitebalance outcome for my digitized negatives.
I had a job lot of a few hundred negs and colour slides to digitize a few years back, but it turns out they were all thrown out! So that job lot didn't eventuate. But I did get the PB-4 + PS-4 slide accessory to do that lot.
Setup took some time, but once that was done, I did about 30 test negs in about 30 mins with a lot of due care.
Then used CNX2 to do the conversion on the NEF files, using the levels and curves tool to do the reversal.
As for the hardware:
No D850 yet! (will in a few months once all bugs and issues have been found/sorted.
no ES-2, but as it's a simple dumb adapter(basically a tube) at a ridiculous price. Zero interest in it.
My PB-4+PS-4 setup is not only more flexible but more practical for other uses as well .. and it cost me less to acquire(granted that it was second hand, but in Ex++ condition)
Hope that makes sense.
