[Leica] Q2 question

[hlritter at bex.net (Howard L Ritter Jr)]

A question for Q2 users: Can I get the computer thumbnail images of DNG 
files taken in B&W mode to display in color? (The DNG file itself is the 
native color image, despite being taken in B&W mode.)

The Q2 manual is remarkably uninformative in respects that I?m discovering 
almost every time I look to it for guidance. For example, it refers to 
saving images in B&W when that mode and the JPEG file format are chosen, but 
doesn?t seem to address what happens when the DNG file format is chosen. 
When I experimentally set my Q2 to take monochrome images, I found that even 
though it displays in mono on the LCD screen and viewfinder, as well as in 
mono in the thumbnails in the image folder on the computer, the DNG file it 
saves is in color, because it opens that way in Photoshop. Obviously, the 
file carries the instruction that it is to be thumbnailed in mono ? by a 
computer as well as by the Q2?s monitor.

I didn?t realize this would happen, so for several hundred pictures, I left 
the camera in B&W mode, not doing any pixel-peeping that required seeing the 
image in color. Now after transferring the files to a computer I have a 
folder full of color images with monochrome thumbnails. To get color 
thumbnails, I have to open the image file in Preview or PS and save a copy 
as something other than DNG. Now I have two thumbnails for the image, a mono 
of the DNG file and a color one of the corresponding JPEG.

I just got finished automating PS to produce a color JPEG for each of the 
hundreds of color images whose thumbnails are in mono, and save the 
thumbnail alongside its DNG original. This makes for a lot of clutter and 
waste of storage space for images that are no more than indexes and not to 
be used for display or printing.

Does anyone know how to get a DNG file that is in color, but was shot by the 
Q2 in B&W mode, to thumbnail in color so I can trash all those duplicate 
JPEG color files?


And while we?re complaining about the instruction manual, what the #3!! is 
up with the Keyword Index in the back of the book? Large chunks are 
alphabetized, or sort of, and interspersed with seemingly random words, or 
alphabetized groups, that have escaped from elsewhere in the alphabet. If 
you can?t find your topic alphabetically, you have to scan the whole index 
to find it. 

And I still can?t find the ?GPS? entry that the index tells me is on page 
50. What is the relevance of GPS to the Q2, anyway?


?howard