Ricoh GR vs. Nikon Coolpix A - quick impressions

I would try Ricoh help and Lightroom help. You have paid for both of their products (well the Ricoh is on loan, but theoretically you're a customer). Either or both should help you get their product to work. Sometimes specific help from experts is better than crowdsourced help.

And I seriously want some of those tomatoes. We don't get anything that looks like that until September.
 
I don't think this works for Lightroom.
-Ray
There's something broken with your LR. Or you don't have installed ACR 8.1 beta. Or maybe it is that I have also installed LR5 beta.
As a matter of fact, my LR4 and also LR5 beta open correctly those files. I'm on Mac.

(edit: I mean I see "embedded", which shows the wrong colors, and "adobe standard", which works well).
My best guess is either ACR 8.1 intalls what is needed by LR or it is LR5 beta to have done it.
Sorry I can't be more precise because I have already installed both.

If you don't want to work with LR beta, you can safely install it and then forget or throw away the main app, because LR4 keeps working (with updated support files, I guess).
 
Apparently, you have just to install the ACR 8.1 update.
I found the "Pentax Ricoh GR Adobe Standard.dcp" file under:
"user/Library/Application support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles/Adobe Standard"
And once removed, LR4 won't find the correct profile.
Of course, I don't know if the ACR installer has put other files around. But that is the only one instance of that file on my HD.
 
I didn't see the profile showing up either. This is what I did to fix this.

copy

/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles/Adobe Standard/Pentax Ricoh GR Adobe Standard.dcp

to

~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles/

Now I can select "Adobe Standard" or "Embedded". The "Adobe Standard" from the GR profile looks a lot better.

-Thomas

[Edit] the ~ represents your user's home directory - mine is /Users/trisberg
 
Uh? How comes?
Sorry, I meant the ACR installation.
Also the different position of the profile file is strange, but I think it can depend on the choice to install an application for one or every user of the computer. Choosing "any" will use the root library.
 
Apparently, you have just to install the ACR 8.1 update.
I found the "Pentax Ricoh GR Adobe Standard.dcp" file under:
"user/Library/Application support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles/Adobe Standard"
And once removed, LR4 won't find the correct profile.
Of course, I don't know if the ACR installer has put other files around. But that is the only one instance of that file on my HD.

I can't seem to get ACR 8.1 update to install. But I can get to the "assets" folder, which has a bunch of DCP files, but that one isn't among them. Do you think you could post that file somewhere for download? I don't know if it will work, but I'd like to try dragging that file into my Adobe Standard folder and see if it will work. But I can't seem to get the file any other way...

Of if you can't post it anywhere for upload and its not too huge, maybe we could arrange for you to email it to me?

Thanks,

-Ray
 
Ray, I opened your DNG files in Iridient Developer and I'm basically seeing what you're seeing in Lightroom.

Took some quick snaps of our red/orange outdoor couch and the color was pretty good. There were a couple of pictures where moire was obvious, though! Other reds around the house looked pretty good too. The only thing I may say is, intense, bright reds/magentas/pinks may be a challenge right now for the GR. They seem to be amplified a bit.
 
My system has Adobe ACR 8.1 RC camera profiles installed in /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles. Looks like Lightroom is pulling them from my user's ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles/ directory. In that directory there is a file named Index.dat that contains links to all profiles (except for the new ones, since this file is older). By copying additional profiles into that directory Lightroom seems to be able to find them. This is just based on how it works on my install - don't know the exact implementation details of Lightroom or how it finds profiles on the system.

-Thomas
 
OK, sturm and drang over the color profiles aside, The Ricoh is a fine little camera. As is the Coolpix A. I'd be thrilled with either of them (once the color issue is cleared up). I shot a bunch in Philly yesterday. Here are a bunch of samples. Some of the Ricoh shots work well enough in color despite the problems, others I just converted to B&W because the color just looked off. These have all of my usual processing applied, so you won't see similar results straight out of the camera. And most of these are high ISO, with several 6400...

First, a few from the Nikon - I've posted a lot of Nikon shots already, but here are three more just for comparison purposes:

View attachment 69945
Nikon Philly-170-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

This woman always seems to be extremely animated. Every time I've been by her shop and she's talking to someone, I seem to be able to get a shot of her like this...
View attachment 69946
Nikon Philly-174-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

View attachment 69947
Nikon Philly-204-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

And the rest are from the Ricoh:

View attachment 69948
Ricoh Philly-337-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

View attachment 69949
Ricoh Philly-53-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

View attachment 69950
Ricoh Philly-555-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

View attachment 69951
Ricoh Philly-379-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

This guy was ROCKIN' the lunch counter yesterday - people were dancing!
8815842745_e7300c69fb_b.png

Ricoh Philly-445-Edit-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

Every time I pass this counter and this young woman is working, I wonder if its really too late for a nice balding and increasingly fat middle aged Jewish boy to become Amish.... I'm afraid it might be.
View attachment 69952
Ricoh Philly-433-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

Some were dark enough and rough enough that adding a bit of grain was the only way to make them passably useable. And its debatable.
View attachment 69953
Ricoh Philly-575-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

-Ray
 
Exactly, that's my finding too. Given you can't edit the "dat" file (better not to...), you can put the needed files just where the index.dat file is.
My system has Adobe ACR 8.1 RC camera profiles installed in /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles. Looks like Lightroom is pulling them from my user's ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles/ directory. In that directory there is a file named Index.dat that contains links to all profiles (except for the new ones, since this file is older). By copying additional profiles into that directory Lightroom seems to be able to find them. This is just based on how it works on my install - don't know the exact implementation details of Lightroom or how it finds profiles on the system.

-Thomas
 
Some clarification on the various folders that contain camera profiles, LR 4 no longer uses the shared ProgramData(Windows) / Application Support(Mac) folders for default Camera Profiles, which is where ACR installs. LR4 instead uses C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.3\Resources\CameraProfiles (windows) or /Applications/Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.app/Contents/Resources/CameraProfiles/ (Mac), I can't confirm the Mac location since I don't have a Mac to verify with as it's default location ;)

When you create custom camera profile, they should go in
Vista/Win7 —C:\Users\[your username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles\
Mac—Macintosh HD/ Users/[your username] /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles/

Currently, I have LR 4.3 installed and as long as I place my custom profile in the directory mentioned above it works.
 
Thank you.
Fact is, Adobe scatters files everywhere. Good news it has got a new, easier placement I forgot to look for.
Of course, it works also in the old manner, my files are in the library/application support, till I'll decide to clean everything and perhaps start using different software... :dash2: :D
 
I can't seem to get ACR 8.1 update to install. But I can get to the "assets" folder, which has a bunch of DCP files, but that one isn't among them. Do you think you could post that file somewhere for download? I don't know if it will work, but I'd like to try dragging that file into my Adobe Standard folder and see if it will work. But I can't seem to get the file any other way...

Of if you can't post it anywhere for upload and its not too huge, maybe we could arrange for you to email it to me?

Thanks,

-Ray

Ray, here's a link to download the Ricoh GR from ACR 8.1 beta Box Hope this helps out.
 
I'm way past thoroughly confused now. I have the "Pentax Ricoh GR Adobe Standard.dcp" file (thanks Alessandro!) on my computer. I've tried putting it in the first folder with all of the other dcp files, closed and restarted Lightroom, and no go - still only "embedded" as an option. Then I tried moving it out to the level where the "index.dat" file is, closed and restarted Lightroom, and no go - embedded is the only option. There is no "Library" folder, with all of the sub-folders under my "User" area, so no place to try it there.

And to make matters still MORE confusing, I'm also running Lightroom 4.4 on a second computer - a MacBook Pro. This doesn't have any "Adobe" folder inside the "Applications Support" folder - none, nada, zilch. Nothing similar under my "user" profile there. And when I do a search, the computer can't find any of the DCP files ANYWHERE on the hard disk. And yet when I run Lightroom, it still finds the Nikon color profiles, both Adobe Standard and all of the custom Nikon ones. And nothing but "embedded" for the Ricoh shots. I have no idea where this copy of Lightroom is finding ANY of this stuff, but its finding the same profiles and NOT finding the same profiles as the version on my desktop machine.

I'm gonna take a break from this - I don't seem to be doing either myself any good and I'm definitely not solving the problem...

Maybe LR5 beta will do it, but if others are getting it to work with LR4.4 and I can't, I'm not sure why I'd be able to with LR5...

-Ray
 
And to make matters still MORE confusing, I'm also running Lightroom 4.4 on a second computer - a MacBook Pro. This doesn't have any "Adobe" folder inside the "Applications Support" folder - none, nada, zilch. Nothing similar under my "user" profile there. And when I do a search, the computer can't find any of the DCP files ANYWHERE on the hard disk. And yet when I run Lightroom, it still finds the Nikon color profiles, both Adobe Standard and all of the custom Nikon ones. And nothing but "embedded" for the Ricoh shots. I have no idea where this copy of Lightroom is finding ANY of this stuff, but its finding the same profiles and NOT finding the same profiles as the version on my desktop machine.

Ray, is ACR is installed on your 2nd computer? I think ACR creates the Adobe folder under "Applications Support".

Try this, with finder window browse to MAC HD/Applications/, right click or ctrl+click on "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4", select "Show Package Contents"
From here, you should be able to browse to "/Contents/Resources/CameraProfiles/Adobe Standard/" and see a list of .dcp files including the coolpix A that is installed by default with LR 4.4.

Unless there is some specific program or security settings, it's weird that it didn't create a "CameraProfiles" folder under your [users] folder, but I think this will work,
Shutdown Lightroom, go ahead and create a "CameraProfiles" folder under MAC HD/Users/[Username]/Library/Application Support/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles/" and copy the ACR 8.1 Ricoh GR folder under there. Start Lightroom again and it should see it.

I managed to get access to a Mac system and just installed LR 4.4 and can verify the above works.

Update: Apparently, I don't think I can install ACR 8.1 beta without having photoshop/photoshop elements installed. It gives me an error saying the patch is not applicable. If I try to install ACR 7.4, it only installs the DNG Converter.

Also, I tried to install the Ricoh GR profile under "MAC HD/Applications/Contents/Resources/CameraProfiles/Adobe Standard/" location and LR did not detect the profile, meaning only "embedded" was available.
 
I couldn't get ACR 8.1 to install either - got the same "patch not applicable" thing. I do have the right DCP file, but Lightroom won't seem to read it no matter where I put it. I'm not willing to buy Photoshop just to get Lightroom to run this! I may try the LR 5 beta and see if that works, but if the beta has any issues, I really don't want to get into all that because we're leaving for a long trip in a few weeks and I want to have something tried and true on the laptop for the trip. Which may mean shooting raw+jpegs, using the jpegs for now, and then processing the raws when the program is properly upgraded. Or I may still buy the Nikon anyway. Not because of this reason - there are things I like more about it (and others I like more about the Ricoh - its an extremely close call), but if I'm leaning that way, not having to think about this during our trip would be an added consideration...

But I may try LR 5 beta on my desktop machine and if it works well enough, then install it on the laptop too.

Thanks so much for all of your help. Or attempted help! ;)

-Ray
 
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