Loading 50D RAWS into DSS....?

[Kokatha man]

Hi everyone, I've just joined up and actually "discovered" this forum whilst googling for info as to why DeepSkyStacker v3.2.2 (or v3.2.1 for that matter) won't accept my RAW files from the 50d....?

I don't use Registax for DSO's but if I attempt to load the 50d RAWS in Registax it tells me the files are too large.....and I'm presuming that this is the reason that they won't load into DSS:icon_scratch:

Never had a problem with my modded 20d.....and the funny thing is that DSS WILL accept the 50d's jpegs - even those these file sizes are 20.2+ Mb and the RAWS are only 5.0 Mb....!

I've been shooting in "Large jpeg + RAW" and if I look on page 61 of the User's Manual it tells me that switching to "Large jpeg + sRAW1" or "Large jpeg + sRAW2 I won't get any reduction in that RAW file size of 5.0Mb.....although the megapixel count for sRAW1 and sRAW2 are 7.1 and 3.8 megapixels respectively, down from the 15.1 megapixels of just plain "RAW" in "Large jpeg + RAW"

I'm foxed on this one.....obviously I'm missing something as people are posting some great DSO images using DSS and the 50d.....the only resort I can think of at the moment (for a particularly pc-challenged individual) is to open the RAWS in EOS utilities and "trim" them down.....but that seems patently ridiculous....!

Can anyone help me out on this one please....?

[Beyond_Vision]

It should accept them with version 3.22. There are no specific settings in DSS they should load from the files menu. Try uninstalling and re-installing.

Regards

Kevin

[Kokatha man]

Nope....! Uninstalled and re-installed and it just won't accept those RAWS.....trying one or several from folder: as I said, it'll open the 50d jpegs and it'll open RAWS from my modded 20d but not the 50d.....and the only clues I have are that the 50d files in RAW are considerably larger than the 20d ones.....

[jgs001]

Ok, it's not a 50d, but I've had not problem at all loading the 12.5Mb RAWs from the 450d. I just drag and drop. Regi4 is not able to open them. The max resolution in Regi4 is something like 4000px and the 450d is larger framed than that. The max file size in regi4 is also much smaller.

[Kokatha man]

Thanks for replying John (and I omitted to thank you for replying too Kevin, thanks!).....in googling I did come up with something about DSS accepting the large files from the 450d.....and in fact they're larger than the ones I'm trying to load from the 50d - which are 11.6mb....?

Srangely coincidental, it won't open those 50d RAW files in CS3 either.....but I CAN open the 20d RAW files which are 6.9mb.....Something doesn't add up here....!

[jgs001]

Hmmm. it may well be that the version of ACR for CS3 is unable to handle the 50d file format. It'll depend on when the 50d was released, pre or post CS4. If post CS4, then CS3 will not be able to open the RAW files, you can try updating ACR and see if that'll work. Adobe seem to stop supporting the previous release and therefore providing updates to things like ACR upon release of the next version. In which case you'll need to use the DNG converter or DPP instead.

I've checked on the DSS pages here and the RAW processor was updated to handle 50d files at version 3.2.2 so if you're using 3.2.1 you'll need to upgrade.

[Kokatha man]

Thanks once again John.....food for thought, though it seems I needed v3.2.2 of DSS to handle them.....we're just in the process of loading 3.2.2 onto my new pooter to check if it's an idiosyncrasy of this pc (moving to a lappy, still got 2Gb of RAM but is a duo processor and I'll be using a docking station so I can just take it out into the field.)

But 3.2.2 is loaded on the machine I've been trying it on - but when I "Open picture files....." and attempt to load however number of RAW image files nothing happens whatsoever - no error message or anything else.....

As for CS3 and the 50d RAW files.....when I attempt to open them in CS3 I get an error message about "unable to parse"

- will report back after some more trials!!!

[jgs001]

I don't know what DSS might be doing with those files, that's very odd. From memory the unable to parse error is caused by the need to update ACR. Good luck

[Kokatha man]

Thanks for taking the time to mull it over with me John.....but nooooope!!! I loaded DSS3.2.2 onto my new machine and copied the RAW subs from the cf card onto it and attempted to load them.....no difference, no action whatsoever, whether I used "Open picture files...." or dragged then into DSS and clicked on the little window that appeared - nix, nada, zip and zilch....!:)

I'll keep digging, hopefully something will turn up.....mebbe an email to the DSS person/people.....

[Ant]

I'm sorry to say that I cannot help with the DSS issue, but Registax5 has just been released and can handle much bigger files than before.

Myabe as a temp fix you could try Registax 5, while you're hunting for a DSS fix!

Welcome to SGL BTW

Cheers

Ant

[Kokatha man]

Thanks Ant.....I've fired off an email to the Yahoo DSS tech support group.....hopefully I'll crack it soon: should've chased this down late last year when I got the camera.....laziness of having the other one to resort too....!

[Kokatha man]

Still waiting for the DSS support mob to maybe help with an answer to my problem but at least I've discovered that the user's manual/instruction manual that came with the 50d has MIS-PRINTED the various file sizes on page 61 (English version, but the Australian version may be a different print run from the American version.)

I reported it to Canon Australia who acknowledged it was incorrect.....

"Large JPEG" file sizes are approx. 5.0mb

"RAW" file sizes are approx. 20.2+mb

"SRAW1" " " " " 12.6+mb

"SRAW2" " " " " 9.2+mb

I am starting to suspect that although DSS "Technical" says that it can handle the 50d it might be referring to either SRAW1 or SRAW2.....

The search continues....!:D

[Psychobilly]

Should be easy enough to check just take some daylight pics at the various settings and try loading them .. DSS isn't going to care about the content until you try registering or stacking them..

[Kokatha man]

SUCCESS!!!!! Luc from the Yahoo DSS support group sent me a link to the new DSS 3.2.3 Beta 10 version of DSS and "no worries" - it opened the Canon 50d RAW files and did its thing.....and I've now arranged to have the 50d modded in a couple of weeks to celebrate!

Now all I need to do is work out how to operate this new Registax v5 program I've just downloaded (I'm sure I'll find some prelim. tutes on it) so I can process the Titan transits I shot with the old 6" achro and Toucam last night.....they were big avi's (some 4500 frames!) and R/stax 4 wouldn't handle them (now where have I struck similar problems recently?!?:D)

R/stax5 didn't have any such hangups but I found it rather difficult to (a) get the image to show first up and ( to get the reference frame to function.....but I'm sure I'll nut this out.

ps: mebbe not the place to say it in this thread but the tutes here on S/gazers Lounge on P/shop stuff are simply "Wow" for a scratching around "chick-just-out-of-the-egg" recently-addicted imager like me....!

[dark knight]

I also have problems opening files in Registax. My camera is a Nikon D80 and Registax just doesn't like the Nikon format. It maybe as simple as changing the file name extension in the file properties menu to Raw instead of the NEF extension Nikon labels it with. Has anyone tried this.

[jgs001]

I've had problems with raw format files from the 450d with Regi5. For some reason, the raw files are really dark, and Regi5 can't lock onto any features. I converted the raw's to jpg, didn't resize, and the stack worked perfectly.

[Kokatha man]

Perhaps we're steering a bit off-topic here.....not sure how that's viewed, but I guess I did start it with my comments about Registax.....

I'm sure for all you out there that can run these programs standing on your heads and doing a half-dozen other tasks at the same time:icon_scratch: these things are simple, but for this pc-challenged fella all those extra adjustments are a bit daunting.....one thing I've found is that very large avi files (1 to 2.5Gb) like the 3 minute toucams from my Titan transit attempts last night are still problematical.....I sit there as the alignment throttles along just waiting for that "Doink!" and the window to come up saying "failed to compress" meaning, as I understand it, the files are too large.

And it doesn't seem to matter whether I click the bullet for files greater than 2Gb or not.....and another thing, smaller files (400 - 600Mb) open up easily when you hit "select" and open them from your relevant files.....but to me it seems it's a hit or miss thing with the bigger files, they either take their time or won't open, necessitating closing R/stax and starting over again, as if it's a bit temperamental....!

And the picking of a reference frame is also a bit disconcerting at first - once you choose your desired reference frame and then hit "Align" it jumps back to frame number 1.....untill I read that this is part of the setup I thought that this was why my attempts turned out woefull.....a transient opportunity to excuse my bad imaging...!!:D

Ah well, practise makes perfect as they say.....or perhaps practise may make me a little less imperfect!!!

It looks like bitmapping and ppm centre before Reistaxing them is going to have to be my method of trying to squeeze something out of last night's endeavours.....

[jgs001]

There's a couple of options for large AVI's. In the options on the first screen is a the option for use Extended AVI mode. Two radio buttons > 2Gb and > 1 Gb. There's also the Vista Large AVI select box on the main screen. Worth taking a look at those and seeing if that helps.

[Kokatha man]

.....should've said that window of death after the "Doink" says "Failed to decompress avi files" wherein I think it's because of their size: I tried the "Avi's>2Gb" but it still seems to be unable to handle even 1.5Gb files.....and I thought that the other suggestion about Vista is only if you encounter problems if you're running that system John.....I went back to XP being the old retro I am....!:)

To get the larger avi to open in the first place it also seems that radio button needs to be activated for the larger files.....as I said, I'm sure much of this is my unfamiliarity with the new setup etc.....but I still reckon I'll need to bitmap and ppm centre, mayhaps split the 2.5+Gb avi's in two and combine at the end if they look okay.....even the crud processing I've done shows Titan shadow, so there's some small hope I might be able to squeeze something.....not necessarily okay, but half-okay by my low standards...!!

[jgs001]

What codec was the AVI shot in ? Just a thought maybe it's something to do with that.

[Kokatha man]

.....IYUV 640x480 John, that's been a constant with me and the toucam 840K.....it works fine for sub-Gb avi's.....R/stax5 seems to run on "Align" for a little bit longer than R/stax4 before the:evil6: "Doink" and "Failed to decompress avi files" death-window appears....!

[jgs001]

ah ok... I'm out of ideas now... sorry. Good luck though... just one thought, how much memory does R5 report it's using, and how much physical memory do you have in the PC ?

[Beyond_Vision]

I havent had any issues opening files with ver 3.2.2 and I am using the maximum file size Raw+Jpeg mode on the camera. It's odd that you have tried it on 2 different PC's and got the same result. Did you install any other programs that handle Raw files at the same time. Maybe some shared files could have been overwritten if you installed it after DSS.

Regards

Kevin

[Kokatha man]

I can only repeat what's happened here Kevin.....I know the DSS3.2.2 says it supports 50d RAWS but it wouldn't, just as there can't have been any overwriting as DSS3.2.2 was the last installation before we tried for the umpteenth time.....you must remember that 50d RAWS are 20.2+Mb each, much larger than an others as far as I can see.

But the proof is in the pudding.....V3.2.3 beta10 loaded them without a blink....!:D