CVS processing beats FF2 Twain!
My first impression is that CVS processing creates more realistic color and does a better job at noise reduction. I have no proof that they are using camcalib file - they may just use more complex software. I was surprised to see 1800 x 1200 image sizes - indicating interpolation. To me every CVS picture looks better except for my debayered imager with pink tint. Noise reduction was done even on black images I loaded from another camera so again with img_0012 it probably is better software not use of camcalib. I recommend downloading complete folder instead of clicking and waiting for each image separately. http://www.demanufacturing.com/pv2/www/brite_eye/CVS_FF2_Compare

I discovered a while back that the FF2 TWAIN drivers aren't that great - in fact, they are pretty bad given what the camera can actually do. However, your CVS pictures were also better than what I could get from RawGL and about 20 minutes in Photoshop as well. I wonder what they are using to clean up the raw data - or are we interpreting the raw's wrong? Also, I've noticed that all of the pictures I've taken, including the raws from your -*test*-('"), were tinted towards the yellow. That's kind of odd.

Wow thats quite a difference.. didnt expect that. It looks like the CVS makes things a lot brighter. Probably higher in contrast also as I see that the FF12 vs CVS12 includes some random blips of color that the CVS doesnt show.

Yep, CVS seems to have better image processing mojo... I opened one file in a binary editor and looked for the "UP API" (Ultra-Pocket API?) which usually starts the JPEG text section - not there... So it appears that they have developed their own image processing solution and aren't just repackaging the SMaL software. JPEG tag info in the camera shows: Tag Name Value 010f Make Pure Digital Technologies 0110 Model legends | DB6052202387 0131 Software CVS_3_3_1_RC3 (server #151) | ip=03/05 - Brighten 2.2/1.5/0.5 8769 ExifOffset 186 9003 DateTimeOriginal 2005:07:09 16:22:55 9209 Flash 0 9286 UserComment GretagD4M.CDOnly 882b 0 Maybe the brighten values are a clue as to how they process things? Also, I notice that the background of FF2_17.jpg looks grey, but the same picture processed at CVS has a bright, vibrant blue sky color. Do they, perhaps, have some algorithm which identifies known "blue sky" background color pixels in the image and maps them to a fixed blue sky color? Also, does anyone have access to a standard Macbeth color chart (made by Gretag) which they could shoot in sunlight @ noon and post the .RAW file? That seems to be the standard approach taken to calibrating color for digital cameras...

I added processing for same flash image with new camcalib to photos posted yesterday (prefixed with cv2 instead of cvs). I also uploaded number 19 because it had the grea-*test*-('") jpg size difference. There are 2 calibs, calib1 was used yesterday (cvs prefix), calib2 was used today (cv2 prefix). Note that shot number 19 for both processing jpgs and raw (a single shot) was taken from a different camera - so that neither calib would have matched true characteristics of image. http://www.demanufacturing.com/pv2/www/brite_eye/CVS_FF2_Compare

You actually took one of these cameras back to CVS?! :)

Yes if you read all of the above you will understand why. I actually took the same images back twice - once with original factory calibration file and then with a calibration file from another camera. Note that the actual camera was one of my debayer failures (before I succeeded) and of little use. I used PV2tool to upload flash.img and camcalib.bin. The first time they gave it back, the second time they refused to give it back. Currently we cannot produce as good of quality as CVS because we do not make use of the camcalib.bin which is on every camera. Also the current release 2.13 of PV2tool deletes that file when doing a reformat.

Also a very good reason to make a full flash image before doing ANYTHING else to a PV2. Trust me, it compresses to just over 256KB :)

There's a section of bad flash memory that's stopping the flash image download. Bad sectors are flagged during the format operation, so they shouldn't affect normal operations. (just the flash download/upload) Instead of a flash image, just download all of the system files one by one and zip them up for safe keeping.

Will do, thanks.

brite_eye I had to ask ... is the fence wood really gray like that, or is that what CVS did to it? (cv2_05.jpg) I played with the FF2 version of this pix (ff2_05.jpg) with Corel Photo-Paint 11 and was able to get it looking close to the CVS pix, except for the fence wood color. The CVS photo also looks like it has a bit more of BLUE in the plants flowers. Maybe this is why the sky looks a bit bluer too, but when i did the FF2 one in Corel, the blue sky looked more realistic.

Yes the fence is kind of gray - the "cvs" (not cv2) using matching factory camcalib is the best match.