A while ago I tested pretty much all the raw converters available at the time with a Canon 5D Mark II: https://www.addicted2light.com/2012/05/28/review-raw-converters-mega-test-part-i/
But I advised in the review that the results were camera-dependant, meaning that each software gives the best possible results with a specific sensor / camera combination.
This does not mean that the results with other cameras are unusable, by any means; they will be simply average.
To “visually” understand what I’m saying just take a look at the following pictures.
It’s exactly the same file, with zero post-processing other than the a straight raw conversion, without any optimization or aesthetics considerations to have the output look pretty much the same between the two softwares – meaning that it sucks big time. 🙂 It has been shot with a Sony Nex 7, then developed once with Photoshop CS6 and the last iteration of its Camera Raw and once with RawPhotoProcessor (RPP for its friends and family!).
Obviously in both cases the sharpening has been set to zero, even if this is hard to accept given the vast difference visible – and yes I double checked!
RPP “corrected” also the magenta shift you can see in the borders of the image and the chromatic aberration present in high contrast transitions.
I’ve wrote “corrected” in quotes because there is no specific command in RPP for doing so, it’s a matter of demosaicing algorithm used. Especially the CA can actually be often a product of the algorithm used and not of the lens.
Keep in mind that I’m showing here one result only, but I tried different files, shot ad different ISO values, and different raw converters. And the ones that worked best with the Canon 5D Mark II files performed rather poorly with the Sony Nex 7 ones.
So it definitely pays testing your own equipment. It takes a few hours, but then you will be sure to extract each ounce of quality from your gear.
Happy Holidays!
