Capture One 21: Only blurry low-res images from Canon CR2 and CR3 files - useless for editing and image processing
Since I purchased Capture One 21, I am super unhappy with it. After importing RAW data (Canon CR2 or CR3 files), Capture One 21 would reliably read (import) my image files and create low-resolution representations of them (for browsing the catalog). However, when selecting an image for editing, the preview images at higher resolution sometimes appears within a second - but most times not at all! In the latter case, only the low-res image is shown full screen (blurry appearance). This is totally useless for editing. Here are the specs of my machine: iMac: Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020; 16 GB RAM; AMD Radeon Pro 5300 4 GB; MacOS 11.6.1; Capture One 21 (14.4.1.16)
So far, I have not found any setting in Capture One 21 that would solve this issue. Does anybody out there have an idea? Many thanks in advance
-
You can probably force Capture One to generate proper previews by selecting the images in question and going to the Image menu and Regenerate Previews. But why it doesn't do it automatically I am not able to say.
Ian
0 -
Regenerating previews don't help. Sometimes (not always), pressing "Exp. Warning" triggers the generation of the preview. I feel the entire issue is centred around the fact that the creation of previews in not triggered properly.
0 -
Just for try, disable hardware acceleration for display in Preferences -> General.
0 -
Many thanks - but unfortunately, the problem persists. Furthermore, with hardware acceleration switched off, "Regenerate Previews" still does not solve the issue.
0 -
There's only one thing I am aware of that will trigger in many - but by far not all - cases the generation of a preview image: "Exp. Warning".
0 -
I just updated to macOS Monterey (12.0.1) as it was mentioned in the system requirements of Capture One 21. But the issue did not go away. I saw several comments elsewhere reporting similar issues. This seems to be a systematic problem of the software - at least with some hardware. However, a recent version of an iMac is not an exotic hardware at all. By the way, there was a comment on zooming into the blurry preview to trigger the creation of a proper preview. Indeed, in some cases I noticed an effect: A high-res area in the preview was created (but only of the zoomed area). This is really weird. Other people have also seen it. How did this manage to slip through quality control?
0 -
Permanently deleted user
How did this manage to slip through quality control?
You answered your own question:
This seems to be a systematic problem of the software - at least with some hardware.
Capture One cannot possibly test every possible hardware combination out there.
Bear in mind that it must have got past all the beta testers, too.
-1 -
It seems I hit a nerve. Being a product manager myself, I understand too well that reported issues need to be prioritised to address the most pressing ones with the highest priority. By using search terms such as "Capture One" and "blurry previews", the web revealed that several users came across similar issues. In all those cases, none of the well-intended suggestions that came from the community helped solving them. From this I conclude that we are most likely not talking about user errors but about an issue that Capture One should be aware of. As the issue presents itself in an early step of the workflow, the software is useless for me. All I can say is that my machine meets all system requirements stated by Capture One. The reply above sounds a bit like defence mode (handing the issue back to the customer). As a customer, I don't want to debate on what approach for software testing is best - I want my problem solved. Simple.
0 -
You are talking to fellow Users in this part of the forum.
To take this up on a one-to-one basis with Capture One support you need to create a Support Case using the "Submit a request" function of the Community. See the top right of this page.
I note that you have a 5k screen.
People reporting problems of the type that you describe also seem to have 5K screens, sometimes 4k.
I note that the Release Notes contain the following advice.
"4k / 5k monitors
Due to the significant additional calculation overhead, systems using 4k/5k monitors will require additional resources in addition to the above-recommended spec (both in GPU and CPU power). For professional experience, we recommend at least doubling the specification above for these configurations. "Given that the base recommendation is very much a base and there is an interim recommendation for working with high resolution files that indicate a significant step up from base specifications desirable even when running a less than 4k monitor it may be that there are some aspects of C1's operations that might require a higher specification than you have for reasonable performance at 5k.
If what you are working with includes high-resolution files it may be that you need to finely tune things to work well with the 5k screen. For example, the default size of Preview files becomes significant in most situations. They may need to be recalculated for every view (as they would be for viewing at 100% in most cases) and it is possible that such activity, for a 5K screen size, might overstretch the capabilities of the system.
It is possible that a Support Case approach would allow some analysis using C1 process log files and knowledge of your specific system configuration, compared to past experiences of other users and their systems, in order to produce a recommendation about how to discover an improved experience.
The maximum size of Browser thumbnails might make the regular display on a 5k screen very small - making them larger will not help resolution. However, thumbnails not routinely reprocessed for size and resolution as are Preview files so in that case the size and resolution are what they are and performance should not be impacted greatly.
0 -
Permanently deleted user
It seems I hit a nerve.
Not at all. Pointing out the obvious is something that seems to be required on a regular basis on this forum, and you're just one of many in that regard.
-1 -
Keith,
I read the comment that elicited your last reply as the OP thought you must be C1 Staff.
I could be wrong.
It would be extremely useful if "Official" and "User" sections here were clearly identified and, in some small number of cases where it is not already very clear, the same for individual staff responses. Most of those are clear, especially where requests are being dealt with, but some situations may be less clear.
I suspect some "drop in" (non-regular) users might be misunderstanding the source of some replies rather too often for comfort.
0 -
I will follow the advice and turn it into a support case. Thanks to everyone for sharing your thoughts.
0 -
Permanently deleted user
I read the comment that elicited your last reply as the OP thought you must be C1 Staff.
An error that could easily have been avoided if the old school "Netiquette" advice of getting a feel for a forum before posting, had been followed.
Several of us post every day that this is a user-to-user forum and that we aren't staff; that there are dedicated sub-forums for camera and lens profile requests; that many of the answers to repeated questions that come up are in the Capture One FAQ, User Guide and Supported Cameras pages; and so on.
Explaining why images change from "how they looked in camera" to "not what I'd expected" because Capture One starts with the preview jpeg embedded in the Raw before swapping it for its own default rendering, is not that much less common.
And yes, we've touched on "software companies can't test EVERYTHING..." on a regular basis, too.
But it's like a Real World Groundhog Day on here - the one thing that can be guaranteed is that people will continue to burst through the door metaphorically speaking and post whatever's on their mind, in whichever forum they land in, without taking any time to see what's gone before.
0 -
I have some surprising news on this subjects! If you like, try the following on your Mac:
Create a catalog and name it e.g. "Europe | Black Forest" and then try the same using "Europe - Black Forest" instead. Once created, import a bunch of RAW images (in my case Canon CR2 or CR3 files) and watch out for emerging previews. I observed that in the first case, the catalog is created, and low-res thumbnails are shown - but no proper previews! Instead of showing decent preview images just the enlarged thumbnails are presented when working with the catalog (in many cases it was possible to force the computation of a preview through pressing "Exp.Warning"). When I tried the very same procedure with the second catalog, everything worked smoothly (preview computation upon importing). It would be nice to get some independent confirmation that this might be the clue to my problem. As the MacOS accepts characters like "|" in file names, I did not expect this to cause any trouble - but maybe it does. Problem solved? If so, all speculations on HW compatibility were pointing into a misleading direction.
0 -
Well, that's an obscure problem.
The challenge of try to assist without being able to see the issue first-hand is that one never has all of the information to hand, although in this case it may have made no difference anyway.
What led you to check the creation of a new catalogue with a different naming structure? That is such a random problem if it is found to be a common issue.
I have to say that with the "|" character having a specific purpose in Unix based operating systems and other software tools I think I would probably avoid it in a name no matter whether I felt it should work or not. O a cross-platform basis there is always potential for some sort of failure.
I think your best options would be to report this to Capture One using the "Submit a request" community feature and let the support team sort it out based on your log files and some internal testing. Or they may recognise it as a possible problem straight away.
I am getting the impression that your description of low-res blurry appearance may be somewhat more obvious when viewed than may have been reported in the past when, so far as I am aware, there has been no reference to problems connected to haw a catalog has been named. Quite why you would get extremely low-resolution preview files generated in the first place is not clear unless the default file size value is very low or for some reason, the "|" diverts the creation process away from the correct default size value.
There is probably little point in my attempting to check as Windows may do something different and I'm not especially familiar with the internal details of catalogs being a Sessions preferrer.
0 -
Very true! Sometimes, there's a totally unexpected root cause and we keep looking in the wrong direction. As mentioned before, a painful experience I once had with PowerPoint led me to check the path in the directory and the file name this aspect. I already submitted the request (following your advice) to share this with the developers. Since I know have a clue what caused my problem, I can avoid this character when naming catalogs. No problem. Many thanks to everyone in this forum for trying to help.
0
Post is closed for comments.
Comments
16 comments