m8raw2dng Raw Processing App

date: sat 31 jan 15
tags: taunton

There is a handy app for the Leica M8 I have been trying out recently which "unlocks" the ability to shoot in 14 bit raw instead of 8 bit DNG. A link to the app is here: http://m8raw2dng.de/ In order to "capture" the 14 bit raw image the camera needs to be put into "service menu" mode as follows: Press right arrow button 4 times Press left arrow button 3 times Press right arrow button 1 time Press "set" button as select "RAW + jpeg fine" People call it the "button dance" lol! I tend to disable auto power off and I stick a small bit of electrical tape on the power switch as it tends to easily be accidentally switched off. The RAW files are about 20mb instead of the usual 10mb DNG files. The m8raw2dng app takes the RAW file and turns it into a 14bit DNG file using the exif data from the jpeg image as RAW files have no exif info stored. iso1250 sculpture in taunton museum L1000489 iso320 dellers wharf L1000496 iso160 viridor building firepool L1000502 The m8raw2dng app (*.exe file) is quite small and can be placed anywhere you choose (eg in "my documents") there is a small text only *.bat file which can be copied into the folder with the RAW+jpeg pairs and double clicking this will start the conversion to DNG which seems to convert about 6 files per second so pretty quick. The *.bat file hold the parameters like location of the *.exe file.