Import dialog unrepsonsive (Lumix G1 raw files)

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Hi

At least starting with Lightroom 2.2 I have difficulties importing images from a SDHC card reader (Calumet model). Currently I import mostly images from my Panasonic Lumix G1.

The issue is that the whole import dialog acts painstakingly slow. After opening it, it takes around 3' seconds that the previews of the images in the SDHC card are displayed. But afterwards each operation in the import dialog (change of image selection, change of folder option, etc.) become very slow. Lightroom stops reacting for several minutes and the whole computer becomes sometimes unresponsive or appears extremely busy.

In the Adobe User Forum, a member suggested a while ago to delete the preference files, which I did. That improved the situation a bit, because at that time, I couldn't even manage to et the thumbnials to display. This works now, but the whole import dialog remains unresponsive.

Dies anybody else have similar experiences? Could this be related to the Panasonic Lumix G1 raw files?

Here my environment conditions:

Lightroom 2.3
Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit
2 GB RAM
Intel Core Duo E66''
nVidia Geforce 88'' GTS, 64' MB
Avira Antivirus running

Kind regards

Thomas
 
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Thomas,

1) What happens if you use Windows to copy the files onto your harddrive, and then import to Lr from there?
2) Verify that your anti-virus stuff is not actively scanning file writes on the Flash card, or in any of the Lr/image directories. There's usually an 'exclusion' option.
3) You say Lr 2.2 in one place, and Lr2.3 in your sig. I'm not positive, but I think you meant that the problem started with Lr2.2 and continues with 2.3? Anyway, if you're not running 2.3 already, you should upgrade.
 
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Brad

I use Lightroom 2.3. I only wanted to say that the problem occured in LR 2.2 already.

Meanwhile, I imported some new images from my Canon EOS 4'D and there was no problem. The import dialog is as responsive as in previous Lightroom versions. The unresponsiveness occurs only with Lumix G1 RW2 files. Importing them from a card reader is slightly worse than from the hard drive.

I believe there is a serious memory leak in the dialog with RW2 files as the problem is worse when other applications, such as LightZone, are open.

Kind regards

Thomas
 
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I guess, the thing to do is file a bug report then. The link is on the Tool bar at the very top of the thread. Those of us that visit other forums will listen for similar problems with those files, haven't seen any reported yet though.
 
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Lumix G1 import problems still unresolved

Today, I had a chance trying to import Lumix G1 raw files (32 files) on another machine with totoally different specs: a Dell Latitude Notbeook with Windows XP, 2GB RAM and a fast CPU.

Guess what?

The same happened. The import dialog stopped responding for a long time, the system was partly bogged down, and it took more than 15 minutes until I could finish all my import configurations and finally could import the images into my catalog.

As I said before, the very same issue existed already in version 2.2, I find it not very acceptable that such a showstopper isn't already fixed in the next the release (i.e. Lightroom 2.3). Obviously, quality department did not do the job.

So, to make it clear: there are serious issues with the import dialog, when importing Panasonic Lumix G1 raw files. The dialog becomes unreponsive to an extend, that makes Lightroom unusable during import. It happens from card reader as well as during import from hard disk. It seems not OS related (happened on my Vista-machine as well as a Windows XP notebook) and it occurs only with G1 raw files not with my Canon 4'D files.

I filed a bug report at Adobe already, but haven't got any response on it. The acknowledging mail in fact states that they won't respond on bug reports, which I find a little strange and quite unacceptable. I want to know, when this problem will be fixed. Ultimately, I bought this camera because it was supported by Lightroom already (if not, I would have waited).

Is there anybody else with a Lumix G1 who could report about his / here experience of importing those G1 files into Lightroom?


I am afraid that nobody at Adobe takes care (they didn't in the 2.3 release) so that I can wait forever for this getting fixed.

****

In a side note, my observation is that imaging industry, which invents new raw formats with every new camera they release, became a little sloppy recently of providing new camera support timely and with quality.

Of the three raw converters I own and paid for - Lightroom, DxO Optics Pro, and LightZone only Lightroom supports the G1 and Lightroom still has a major flaw on it. Capture One, and Bibble do not support the camera either, RawTherapee just by chance, not officially (the program does not crash at least). Thus only Silkypix seems to do OK (this software came with the camera).

Kind regards

Thomas
 
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tgutgu;41'72 said:
I filed a bug report at Adobe already, but haven't got any response on it. The acknowledging mail in fact states that they won't respond on bug reports, which I find a little strange and quite unacceptable. I want to know, when this problem will be fixed. [...] I am afraid that nobody at Adobe takes care (they didn't in the 2.3 release) so that I can wait forever for this getting fixed.
Click to expand...

Slow down Thomas... you reported the bug on what, the 29th March? And we're now on the 5th April. Just because the bug existed in 2.2 doesn't mean that they were ignoring it - perhaps no one else has reported the problem, and it obviously got through QE. There don't seem to have been a flood of reports of problems on the forums, which would suggest the problem is not widespread.

Would you like to guess how many bug reports they get? I wouldn't! They promise to read every single bug report, and I have it on good authority that each bug is indeed checked out. Of course you want to know when it'll be fixed, but the more time they spend personally replying to each bug report, the less time they have to trace and fix them.

In a side note, my observation is that imaging industry, which invents new raw formats with every new camera they release, became a little sloppy recently of providing new camera support timely and with quality.

Of the three raw converters I own and paid for - Lightroom, DxO Optics Pro, and LightZone only Lightroom supports the G1 and Lightroom still has a major flaw on it. Capture One, and Bibble do not support the camera either, RawTherapee just by chance, not officially (the program does not crash at least). Thus only Silkypix seems to do OK (this software came with the camera).
Click to expand...

Silkypix obviously have a paid relationship with Panasonic, inside information, and advance warning, so that working ok makes sense. The fact that some of the other raw converters have done FREE updates to cover new cameras is all credit to those companies. They don't have to. And Panasonic, by all accounts, have not played nicely. It's not called the bleeding edge of technology for no reason!

Is there anybody else with a Lumix G1 who could report about his / here experience of importing those G1 files into Lightroom?
Click to expand...

If you'd like to send me some files (http://vbftp.net - username webupload, password 123), I'd be pleased to try to reproduce the bug on my Mac for you....
 
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Hi Victoria

I know I was a little over tempered, when posting this, however, I posted the issue in the Adobe user to user forum a long time ago, and received only responses like "Check your antivirus software", optimize your catalog, delete your preference files etc., none of them helped.

Apparently, as nobody else reported his own experience, there are either no LR users having a G1 or there are none which have problems. So, I thought it is only my setup of my computer.

I got triggered to write this reply, when I tried to import G1 files on my company's notebook. When noting the same problems there, I thought that the problem cannot be such a single issue.

Honestly, having Adobe just displaying a web page saying we won't comment on your bug report usually, after filing the bug, does not give the impression that they would spent a lot of effort to track the problem down. I have a different experience with another raw converter producer, which takes care of reported bugs pretty well and openly (i.e. informing you if the problem could be reproduced, how complex it could be to fix it, and if I can expect a fix any time soon). OK, I cannot expect a solution one week after my bug report, but Adobe does not give the impression that they care a lot.

I don't think that we have to that thankful that raw converter vendors provide new camera support for FREE in between major releases. If they won't do it, they would go out of business very soon. Personally, I would rather pay 5' $ for a new camera support update, which works, than waiting for it half a year until it works. I also believe, that the fault is probably not only on Adobe's side, because possibly Panasonic did something nasty with the G1 format, which could be difficult to reengineer. That's why I say that the imaging industry has to get its act together, to stop this information hiding and interoperability issues (do you know, how often image metadata is not preserved, when processing images with different editors?).

So enough rant. The G1 issue is just one other case of the many problems a digital photographer has still has to deal with, because of the unwillingness of the industry to establish and obey some standards.

I will try to post you some images to see if you can reproduce the problem on your MAC.

Kind regards
 
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I can understand your frustration Thomas, and I'd be really pleased to see if I can replicate it here. I'll even go dig out a Windows machine or two to see if I can replicate. If you can give me exact steps to compare against, that'll help.

Re: posting on the Adobe forum - well, that's just user to user too. Whilst tech's do drop in there, there's no guarantee they'll have even seen the thread, so your bug report is the best idea.

Actually, all campaigning for the camera manufacturer's to support DNG would be the obvious solution to all of these problems....!
The fact that there hasn't been a mass complaint doesn't help - if there were mass complaints, it would be easy to narrow down where the problem is occuring - it might even be something specific to your specific camera! That said, if a few of us try your files, that'll provide Adobe with more information to go on.
 
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Hi Victoria

Thank you for your efforts. You and your(?) forum fill a gap, which I feel Adobe should have been engaged.

As I am short before a vacation, I am not sure if I can post you the images before that trip.

Actually, I will be on several travels this year and I am planning to try taking my Lumix G1 equipment with me instead of the much heavier Canon gear. Being back from those trips, I probably will have several thousands of images to import, manage, rate, and process. Thus, I am increasingly concerned with the situation regarding Lumix G1 support by Adobe and other vendors.

In general I doubt that there is a problem with my specific camera. I have some other programs (FastStone Image viewer, RawTherapee), which do not have any problem browsing and displaying G1 raw files and the Lightroom import dialog is just doing that. (BTW, even with Canon files, one can see short delays when using the import dialog, but these are neglible in comparison to the G1 behaviour). The Lightroom library and development modules do not show any problems with G1 files, it is just the import stuff, which I feel has some general problems.

Meanwhile, I'll give RawTherapee a chance, however, it will break my workflow considerably.

Kind regards

Thomas
 
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No problem Thomas. Whenever you have time is fine.

I have downloaded 9' G1 raw files from a variety of websites, and I can't replicate your import problem, so that may explain why it got through QE, and why your bug hasn't been fixed yet.

I can't do anything else without trying your files now, and I guess the same may be true at Adobe.
 
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Victoria,

Thank you very much for already trying to help! Can you point me to the sites, where you get the G1 raw(?) images from, so that I can test myself? Perhaps it is a certain camera setting (not the camera itself), which causes the slowdown.

Kind regards

Thomas
 
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Possibly so Thomas!

I got them all over the place (google for raw files download for that camera) so I've put the files I've used on my server ftp://tgutgu:[email protected]/Panasonic-1.zip 14 different files duplicated numerous times to bump up the import number.

Let me know how you get on!
 
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Hello Victoria

I downloaded your 14 images and imported them without any problems using the usual SDHC-Card (SanDisk Ultra II 8GB).

Then I shot 14 test images and imported them also without problems.

Getting curious, I shot another 57 test images and tried to import them as well. Now the usual already described problem of unresponsiveness started. So I think it really depends on the number of images you are trying to import from your card. The more you have on the card the bigger the difficulty gets.

I did not have time to multiply your images to see if there is a problem too, when importing them in a greater amount, I'll try that later in the week.

So far, I haven't been able to determine at which image count the problem starts to occur, if it is a proportional issue or if the slowness starts at a "magic number" of images.

Unfortunately, I only have one SDHC-Card at hand, so that I can't assure that the problems aren't card related. Which card type did you use in your tests?

Currently, I still don't see evidence that the issue is related to my particular camera body.

I'll continue my testing and keep you informed about further results.

Kind regards

Thomas
 
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I've got CF cards and tried from my hard drive. I duplicated until I hit 9' in an import, which was quicker than I could time. One thought - you're not trying to convert to DNG while importing, are you? That WOULD be slower.
 
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Hi Victoria

No, I do not convert to DNG. And even so, that would not affect the problem I describe. The slow performance is in the import dialog and all the operations doing in it. All these activities are before importing. When trying to import a significant amount of G1 files, the import dialog crawls. Changing the folder, the image selection, keywords etc. everything is terrificly slow.

Once I could manage to configure my import options, which can take up to 2' minutes until I am done, the actual import works as with any other camera files and is reasonably fast.

As far as I remember the problem occurs only, when previews are switched on in the import dialog, but I need to verify this again.

Thanks for the help and kind regards

Thomas
 
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tgutgu;4118' said:
...As far as I remember the problem occurs only, when previews are switched on in the import dialog, but I need to verify this again.
Click to expand...
Yes, check that Thomas. But being at your place I would consider buying a new SD card as soon as possible as a last test. It will not be lost money as I think you will really appreciate having a second card on vacation... ;)
 
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Yesterday, I bought an additional SDHC card with specs equivalent to the SanDisk Extreme III.

The card is from Panasonic and supports 2'x reading.

The first import of few images went without glitches, but when I imported a larger amount of images from this card, the same unresponsiveness occured as well. Thus, it is not the card, which causes the problems.

The import dialog is quick and without problems when previews are turned off.

Kind regards

Thomas
 
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We are now pointing that Calumet reader I think. Can you borrow a friend's card reader to narrow down the problem. Or on a laptop, try a card reader at the store?...
 
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I'm not sure we're looking at card reader Denis - didn't Thomas say he got the same behaviour importing from the hard drive?
 
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I have tried in the meanwhile another card reader with the same results. To me it is a real issue with the previews from .RW2 files in the import dialog.

My problem is now that it does not seem that there is an immediate solution nor any help from Adobe. How can I proceed? I filed a bug at Adobe more than three weeks ago. It appears that they aren't going to answer on bug reports (which isn't appropriate in my opinion, regardless of how many reports they receive). How do I know if they are able to reproduce the bug? How will I know if and when they gonna fix the problem (it exists since the release of LR 2.2). Will they approach me to track the problem down? Is there a bug database accessible, where I can see at least if my problem has been addressed at all?

The situation is getting increasingly frustrating.

Kind regards

Thomas
 
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Thomas, it's unlikely you'll hear back from them, but if they need to get in touch, they will. Whether that's right or wrong is not up to us. You could try contacting the Help Desk at Adobe, and see if they can come up with any other solutions or bump it to a higher level.

If some of us could manage to reproduce it as well, it's more likely to get attention. The offer's still open to upload some of your own raw files to my FTP or somewhere like YouSendIt, so that we can try to reproduce it with your files, as it wasn't reproducible with those off the web. And save us reading all the way back through this long thread, remind me - it was also slow importing directly from the hard drive, not just the card, and you tried another computer too, correct?
 
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Thomas, just a thought.... is there an option in the G1 setup to choose the type of USB setting that it connects with ? Many camera's have a choice between 'Mass Storage' and MTP/PTP as connection options and maybe changing this will have some impact on your issue.
 
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