[Leica] Up-resolution with PS Enhance and with Gigapixel

[Ken Carney]

Howard,

What I am seeing (on the images I've been playing with) is that 
Gigapixel adds quite a bit of definition to the raw file.  For example, 
a 2x Gigapixel image is sharper (in a good way) than the 2x Enhance 
file, which seems very close to the original cropped raw file..  A 4x 
Gigapixel viewed at 50% appears identical to the 2X Gigapixel image.  
Applying Topaz Sharpen AI to the Enhance file results in "crunchy" 
sharpness compared to Gigapixel.  Gigapixel seems to be a better way to 
go, considering that you could go larger than 2x if needed.  Technology 
is great.  I used to lug 4x5 and 8x10 film cameras, now have a Fuji kit 
that fits in a small bag with four lenses, and you have taken it steps 
further.

Ken

On 6/28/2021 10:30 AM, Howard L Ritter Jr via LUG wrote:
> I have two reasons for wanting to post just now. One is my recent trip to Iceland, a maiden voyage for my new Q2. The other is the recent availability of PS Enhance and Topaz Gigapixel AI. The two themes fit together nicely because up-res’ing could be a key to making the single-FL, high-Mpx Q2 even more versatile, by increasing the effective FL that can be realized from cropping and enlarging. I speculated that state-of-the-art up-res’ing by a factor of 2 might allow for decent prints (or viewing on a monitor) in the 25”-wide range of down to 25% crops (equivalent to FL 112mm). This is well past the Q’s ‘digital zoom’ limit of 75mm, which of course isn’t anything but a built-in crop since it (properly) doesn’t involve any image manipulation.
>
> I’ll be posting an album of images from Iceland soon, as well as my impressions of the Q2. Here’s a first one, with a 117mm-equiv. 24% crop presented natively, after PS Enhance, and after Gigapixel. (I was aiming for a 25% crop, but this is where I landed.)
>
> I’d welcome comments on the results themselves as well as your takes on the comparison of the two methods of up-res’ing.
>
>
> http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/hlritter/Up-res+test/?g2_fromNavId=x2d271756 <http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/hlritter/Up-res+test/?g2_fromNavId=x2d271756>
>
>
> —howard
>
>
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