Looks like I totally missed this "feature" before buying the product last week when I was amazed at how fast it can rendere RAW files:
Seems PM is using the embedded JPG files within RAW and can only give us a preview at 100% (1:1) of the embedded medium-sized JPG, not the RAW "L" file size.
So instead of seeing 100% (1:1) of the full sensor size image of 3888x2592 pixels from a Canon 1D Mark III, I see a preview about half that size when I hit the "Z" key to choose "100% Zoom".
I thought PM would be great for doing quick selections of RAW files but if I cannot zoom to 100% of the actual sensor size to accurately check focus quicker than tools I already own (PS and LR) my purchase was a mistake. Yes, I tested the demo and totally missed this limitation.
Suggestions?
Thank you,
-Bob
Canon 1D Mark III files, Windows 7 Ultimate, on Dell Latitude laptop, PM 4.6.7
Bob,
I think you might want to reconsider leaving PM. I agree with Hayo completely but here are a couple of other thoughts. PM is a
fast image browser that allows quick selections (plus first class ingesting, rating, metadata editing etc) of RAW and other image types. Fast is exactly what you said you wanted and that's certainly why I use PM. There is nothing faster or more powerful than PM at this job.
Canon cameras embed excellent, adequate size JPG previews in thier RAW files (my Canon cameras embed 1600x1200 previews in the CR2 files). These JPG previews are why PM can browse images so fast. And these previews are more than adequate, for me at least, to judge focus, keyword, rate and make my selections in almost all cases. For the rare image where I need to see a full size version, I simply open it in LR or PS which is easy to do from PM.
If PM did attempt to render the RAW images at full size it would probably be as slow as Lightroom for browsing. And boy am I glad that PM does not attempt to do that. I put up with LR and other programs slowly rendering RAW previews long enough which I why I switched to PM. And that's probably why you are looking at PM.
But another solution that would give you full size JPG previews for browsing in PM would be to convert your CR2s to DNG and choose to embed full size previews. DNG files are nice in that they eliminate the need to use sidecar files which are a major annoyance to me.
Regards
Bill Wood