Weak demosaic on RAW images (blurring)

[Jowday]

Photo Beta 1.7.0.178, Windows build on Windows 10 Pro

Affected: RAW develop module

Observed: Imported image from Panasonic micro four thirds camera does not benefit much from detail refinement. At full strength with a proper radius the image is only a wee bit more sharp than a RAW image imported in Adobe Camera RAW 11 with NO sharpening applied. Third example below shows same image in Adobe Camera RAW with just the default sharpening applied - and even a bit of masking.

Note: The demosaic code in use in Affinity Photo (I assume you are using the open source UFRaw, results are similar) render images slightly blurred and does not enhance details much. Perhaps as a result of this

Below: Same image developed in Photo with no detail refinement in RAW - now tried with 1px radius unsharp mask applied, factor 2.4 (a lot). 0.8px is probably a bettter setting but still - image suffered from a poor demosaic technology. The unsharp mask had less to work with. "CITY" is not affected much by any radius.

Below: Last example:

Left totally unsharpened Nikon RAW image (from expensive, SHARP macro lens) from Camera RAW 11. 
Right same totally unsharpened Nikon RAW image i Affinity Photo

 ... and from the Nikon OOC JPG with just a little sharpening for comparison..

 ... DxO Photolab 1 with no sharpening (but with lens modules (standard)) for comparison

Capture One vs Affinity Photo

Top: Unsharpened and sharpened a bit. Nice micro contrast and well defined edges. There is even noise reduction included. (Capture One Pro)

Bottom: Unsharpened, sharpened a bit and massively sharpened. Radius is the same but I have to push the factor slider far too much. This causes artifacts on the rest of the image. (Affinity Photo)

Disclaimer: To be honest - normally pixel peeping is for amateurs.  What matters is the image as a whole on paper or screen. Sometimes you need the details though - and heavily cropped images (sometimes you have to) will look worse than images from other RAW converters. A little smartphonish. And a more effective demosaic would give sharpening tools a little more to work with - images will be sharpened more naturally. Especially minor details.

I am not after the sharpest demosaic method on the market - I am concerned about the rendering of the image, thats why I use Capture One Pro myself, but in Affinity Photo RAW images are undercooked by... UFRaw?

[Saijin_Naib]

I have similar observations. I support your request.

[Chris B]

Hey Wafer,

I have had to escalate this to the developers. I believe we are doing it better than we used to however there is still potential to improve. It could be because we don't do any pre-sharpening like some other apps do but I'll wait until I hear back from the developers until I say more.