[UncleVanya]

I purchased a K-3 (Original) converted to Monochrome. Now I'm lost.

I have Monochrome2DNG (Free Trial). But the resulting DNG file is not readable in DXO (which I should have researched ahead of time...).
I don't use lightroom.
I downloaded both Darktable and RawTherapee and I can't make heads or tails of them. I understand they should be able to directly process the files with demosaicing turned off - but I can't figure it out. What I really want I can't have (DXO working with the output files from Monochrome2DNG)

Can someone talk me through how to find the right sections in RawTherapee or Darkable? Or tell me an editor that reads Monochrome2DNG files that isn't Adobe owned?

[rpjallan]

Can DXO read the RAW file straight out of the camera?

[tduell]

Can someone talk me through how to find the right sections in RawTherapee or Darkable? Or tell me an editor that reads Monochrome2DNG files that isn't Adobe owned?

I'll try, using darktable...I'm running 4.3, the development source, so hopefully what I see is what you'll see.
In darkroom mode, on the RHS near the top you should see 'search modules by name', enter 'demosaic' which will provide the demosaic module.
Right click on 'method' which should allow you to choose 'passthrough (monochrome)'

Give that a try and see if it helps.
Good luck.

Cheers,
Terry

[biz-engineer]

Rawtherapee => demosaicing tab => mono. Done.

[UncleVanya]

I'll try, using darktable...I'm running 4.3, the development source, so hopefully what I see is what you'll see.
In darkroom mode, on the RHS near the top you should see 'search modules by name', enter 'demosaic' which will provide the demosaic module.
Right click on 'method' which should allow you to choose 'passthrough (monochrome)'

Give that a try and see if it helps.
Good luck.

Cheers,
Terry

First, thank you. I tried the program and I was lost. I’ll look again. How do I change the interface to not be a washed out gray color. It’s really hard to read.

---------- Post added 05-06-23 at 08:24 AM ----------

Rawtherapee => demosaicing tab => mono. Done.

If I knew where that tab was it would help. Lol. I’m completely lost in the interface.

[biz-engineer]

If I knew where that tab was it would help. Lol. I’m completely lost in the interface.

To right tab, it looks like a small checkerboad. Below that tab are all demosaic options, including pixel shift. monochrome, and no-demosaic (bare pixel data unprocessed).

[UncleVanya]

To right tab, it looks like a small checkerboad. Below that tab are all demosaic options, including pixel shift. monochrome, and no-demosaic (bare pixel data unprocessed).

I think I understand. I'll tinker a bit and see what I can do with yesterday's shot.

---------- Post added 05-06-23 at 01:55 PM ----------

My first attempt using Rawtherapee...
I'm not skilled with it by any means.

Mono conversion:

[tduell]

First, thank you. I tried the program and I was lost. I’ll look again. How do I change the interface to not be a washed out gray color. It’s really hard to read.[COLOR="Silver"]

OK, you can get to the 'Preferences' by clicking on the cog wheel icon when in Lightable mode.
'General' in the preferences allows you to select the theme.
There is a quite extensive manual on line.

[Edit] A late thought, you should be able to convert to a mono tiff using dcraw, I think the command 'dcraw -D -T -4' should give you a 16 bit tiff that you can use anywhere

[Edit #2] Apologies...'dcraw -d -T -4 fred.DNG' is more appropriate I think...fred.DNG being your input image, and the resulting image should be fred.TIFF.
To get help on dcraw commands, just enter 'dcraw' on the command line in a console or terminal.

Cheers,
Terry

[UncleVanya]

Thanks all! I’ve also talked to the person who did the conversion. He says often he doesn’t bother with true mono and you still get improved output. I’m going to try several options.

[HoundFrog]

I think if you open the original file with Raw Therapee (and use "Mono" demosaic), you'll get the functional equiavalent of Monochrome2DNG.

[bofh]

In my experience with the K-5IIm and post processing the DNG files from the camera with darktable, there are two other things to keep in mind:

• turn off the white balance module, otherwise darktable assumes that there is still a CFA and calculates the luminance of the pixels according to the wrong information in the EXIF data (the camera doesn't know that the CFA is gone)
• the hot pixels module isn't available for monochrome images yet - but kindly the developer I talked to kindly added the necessary code into the development branch and it is planned for the release 4.6, which we will probably see on christmas.

E.

[UncleVanya]

I think if you open the original file with Raw Therapee (and use "Mono" demosaic), you'll get the functional equiavalent of Monochrome2DNG.

Kind of. You don’t get a DNG that can then be used in whatever workflow you want. You get a different tool that you can create output jpg or tiff from. I’m really bad at raw therapee so far so it hasn’t been my best option.

[HoundFrog]

Out of curiosity I tried DXO Photo Lab. What a picky piece of software! I don't have a monochrome camera so I converted an ordinary k-01 file with Monochrome2DNG, but DXO opened it as a color file (despite of PhotometricInterpretation tag being set to Linear Raw). When I tried to strip the Makernotes tags and forced the Model tag to smth like "Pentax-Monochrome", it simply refused to operate, saying that the model/vendor is unknown and, hence, unsupported. Can't say that I like the attitude.

Are you on Mac, by any chance? Good old RPP(Raw Photo Processor) opens the converted dngs just fine and does not treat them as Bayer kind. Still an extra tool in the workflow, but it's much simpler than Raw Therapee. But it gives you tiff at the end, same as RT or Monochrome2DNG piped to dcraw.

[UncleVanya]

Out of curiosity I tried DXO Photo Lab. What a picky piece of software! I don't have a monochrome camera so I converted an ordinary k-01 file with Monochrome2DNG, but DXO opened it as a color file (despite of PhotometricInterpretation tag being set to Linear Raw). When I tried to strip the Makernotes tags and forced the Model tag to smth like "Pentax-Monochrome", it simply refused to operate, saying that the model/vendor is unknown and, hence, unsupported. Can't say that I like the attitude.

Are you on Mac, by any chance? Good old RPP(Raw Photo Processor) opens the converted dngs just fine and does not treat them as Bayer kind. Still an extra tool in the workflow, but it's much simpler than Raw Therapee. But it gives you tiff at the end, same as RT or Monochrome2DNG piped to dcraw.

When I converted using monochrome 2dng my actual monochrome k-3 files it simply refused to open the file. Note this is a k-3 that was converted to monochrome not a k3iii monochrome. DXO leverages color information in their noise reduction process and simply refuses to work with these files.

Did the test k-01 file show as monochrome on another raw processor?

[gatorguy]

It took a few weeks until I got it thru my head that there's no need to use Monochrome2Dng if I'm not intending to print a large detailed image, or heavily cropping one. The added apparent resolution goes unappreciated for posting, sharing, or general printing. While it looks more detailed and nicer on my 4K monitor, the extra step isn't beneficial most of the time The monochrome sensor will still offer a much cleaner image compared to the same in color, particularly at ISO's higher than 1600 or so.

I still use Monochrome2DNG, but now it's much rarer. Open in Lightroom or other, and export as a TIFF to use in your favorite PP program.