Test your camera with Redlamp
LibRaw can read the raw files of 1,258 cameras, but Redlamp's own decode tests cover 25 of them, using CC0 sample photos. For every other camera, Redlamp relies on the people who own one. The camera bench, built into Redlamp, opens your raw files on your Mac and compares each one with the JPEG your camera saved inside it. Only the measurements are sent. Combined with everyone else's, they let the cameras page show which cameras work and what needs fixing.
It takes a few minutes and works with photos you already have. The camera bench comes with Redlamp's next release; if you build Redlamp from source, it's in your build now.
Step 1
Open the Camera Bench
In Redlamp, choose Help › Test Your Camera…, or press ⌘K and type “camera”. The bench opens in its own window and leaves the photo you're editing as it is.
The start page, with the photos that help most. Step 2
Choose photos from your camera
Choose a folder of raw files from your camera, or just a few files. You don't need to say which camera or lens took them: the bench reads that from the files. It also reads each file's raw mode, such as compressed or uncompressed, because one camera's raw modes can behave differently. It tests up to eight photos in each mode.
Photos you already have will do. These help most:
- One at base ISO (200 or lower) and one at ISO 3200 or higher.
- One taken in portrait orientation.
- One with clipped highlights, such as a bright sky, the sun or a lamp.
- One taken indoors under warm light.
- One in each raw mode your camera offers, such as compressed, lossless, uncompressed or a crop mode.
Step 3
Read what it found
On the left, the bench lists each camera and raw mode it found. For the one you select, it shows the checks it ran. Some check how the files decode: the black and white levels, the colour matrix and the edges of the frame. Others compare Redlamp's rendering with the JPEG your camera saved inside each file: orientation, framing, detail, exposure, neutral greys and highlights. Below the checks, Redlamp's rendering of each photo sits beside your camera's.
Then answer the question beneath them: “Apart from your camera's picture style, do these look like the same photos?”
Each camera and raw mode it found is on the left, with the checks, the photos and the question on the right. Step 4
Review the report and send it
What's Sent shows the report exactly as it will be sent. It holds only what the bench read and measured: the camera, lens and capture settings, the black and white levels and colour matrix, the result of each check, your answers and Redlamp's version. It never contains your photos or any of their pixels, file names, folders, GPS locations, serial numbers, owner or copyright details, or capture times.
A random ID stored on your Mac lets the results count how many different people tested each camera; Reset Contributor ID replaces it whenever you like. You can add a name to be credited. Then choose Send Results.
What's Sent, before anything leaves your Mac. Step 5
If something looks wrong
Report This Problem opens Redlamp's feedback form with what the bench found already filled in, so you only need to describe what you saw. You can add screenshots if they help.
What happens to your results
Your results are stored privately and combined with everyone else's for the same camera and raw mode, and the cameras page shows where each stands. A mode is reported working once one photo opens with no check failing. It counts as tested by photographers when three people have sent ten photos between them that cover base and high ISO, portrait orientation, clipped highlights and warm light. No more than one photo in ten may fail a check, and two people must answer that the photos look the same. A failure seen by two people, or an answer that the photos differ, marks it as a problem.
Get your camera verified
A camera counts as verified once a CC0 sample photo from it is part of Redlamp's decode tests, which run on every change. If you're happy to release one photo into the public domain, upload it to raw.pixls.us and open an issue with a link to it.
From the command line
If you build Redlamp from source, redlamp camera-bench runs the same checks on files or folders. Add -o to save the report and --pairs to save the side-by-side images.
The first results come from running the bench on the CC0 files at raw.pixls.us: 729 cameras, with a problem found in 66 of them. The screenshots show the Camera Bench on Redlamp's own CC0 test photos.