Performance of Lightroom 2.3 with 5D Mark II RAW files

[DavidFenwick]

I'm a huge fan of Adobe's Lightroom but since upgrading to the Canon EOS 5D Mark II I've been slightly frustrated by the length of time it takes to move between shots in the 'Develop' module - about 3 seconds. It doesn't sound like a long time but when processing 5'' shots from a wedding I may well move between shots over a 1''' times - this means 5' minutes of waiting for Lightroom!

I'm using Lightroom 2.3 on a 2''6-vintage Apple Mac Pro featuring 2x 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon "Woodcrest" (a name I associate more with Cabernet Sauvignon!) processor, 9GB RAM, a NVIDIA GeForce 73'' GT graphics card and running a 3'" Apple Cinema display.

I've been using Aperture 2.1.2 recently and observed that moving between shots is much faster but that applying adjustments to shots can often be much slower. So at the moment I intend to stick with Lightroom. Incidentally, I was very pleased to see that Aperture displays flash exposure compensation EXIF data - very useful. I've submitted this as a feature request with Adobe.

My assumption is that software rather than hardware is the limiting factor. But is this correct? Are there any tweaks I could make to my Mac Pro to speed things up? I'd rather not have to invest in a new 8-core Mac Pro!

Any advice or comments are most welcome.

All the best,

David

 

[Sean McCormack]

Sure David. You're shooting weddings. So do you need to shoot a 21MP shot for every shot at the wedding? A 3' Mb Raw file that needs to be rendered each time you got to Develop *has* to take a finite amount of time. Develop doesn't use cached files, whereas Library does. You need to be working directly on a correct rendition of the file, so Develop must render each time.

The 1'MP sRaw1 setting is more than adequate for the majority of wedding shots. And of course it'll be faster, use less card and disk space. For the biggie shots, like B&G portraits, 21MP can be used, but for most things, sRaw1 is more than adequate.

 

[DavidFenwick]

Hi Sean,

Thanks for your response. Not shooting 21MP files would, of course, be a good way of speeding up Lightroom. And yet Aperture seems to move between the files quickly enough - is it not fully rendering them?

David

 

[Victoria Bampton]

David, another thought - where are your raw files stored? Fast internal storage is your best bet, as disc read time is your biggest issue with those size files.

 

[DavidFenwick]

Hi Victoria,

All my hard discs are internal. I recently set up new catalogues in both Lightroom and Aperture, for the sake of comparison, and imported the same 2' RAW files into each - all files and catalogues were placed together on my primary hard disc.

Moving from one file to another it takes Lightroom about 2 seconds to display the new histogram, after which some simple adjustments, such as to brightness and contrast, are possible and 4-6 seconds before the 'Loading' dialogue disappears, after which all adjustments are possible.

Aperture was much faster at moving between shots than Lightroom (it takes about a second). The significant drawback, however, is the time lag when applying adjustments, in stark contrast to Lightroom's real time response. I wonder if this is because Aperture is not fully rendering the RAW file initially? Swings and roundabouts?

Anyway, the bottom line is that there's no way I could work with this limitation and so I'm sticking with Lightroom for the time being.

Bibble 5 has just been recommended to me so I might check that out too!

Yours,

David

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Also bear in mind *when* you're needing to flick from one image to the next - Library module uses the pre-rendered preview, so should be quicker moving from image to image than Develop.

 

[Zappa]

Same Problem!!!

Hi Dave,

I thought i was the only person having this issue until i read your post! I am running "almost" exactly the same set-up as you and i am having exactly the same speed issues, it has become that much of a problem that i have joined this forum to specifically try and resolve it......plus i hope to learn a lot more in the process! :mrgreen:

Just a quick summary of my setup:

Lightroom 2.3 on a MacPro with 2 x 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon "Woodcrest" processors, 1'GB RAM, a NVIDIA GeForce 73'' GT graphics card and running a 3'" Dell 3''8 display and second 2'" LG display.

The HDD read-speed definitly cant be the issue as i am running the core application on asmall raptor drive (1','''rpm) and all working files are sitting on dual 25'gb drives (72''rpm) in a striped RAID config, this is only used for "current jobs", and when these are completed the files are moved off to a storage drive, this exact set-up was used for doing live animation editing/rendering so i would be surprised if it wasnt sufficent for Lightroom.

In the past i was using a Canon 4'D with Lightroom 2.2 never had an issue, i would struggle to get over 2'-3'% processor utilisation and i have never exceeded 5'% memory use.....until now!

I now use the Canon 5D MKII with Lightroom 2.3, the system idles at an average of 2-4% processor utilisation depending on the apps that are loaded however the minute i attempt ANY task in Lightroom processor usage peaks almost instantly and it doesnt take long for the m usage to stack right up....especially when using the brush tool in the develop module......I know 21mp is a large file however the hardware behind the app isnt exactly underpowered. I have gone through the same process and loaded a set of files into Aperture and another using Bridge/photoshop CS4 (with camera raw 5.3) and to my surprise i had no issues with either of these.

My question: is this issue related to Lightroom 2.3's compatability with the 5D MKII OR is there an larger issue with the 2.3 update that becomes more apparent when dealing with large files?

 

[DavidFenwick]

Hi Zappa,

Great to hear from the similarly afflicted - I'm sure we're not alone! The larger file sizes of the 5D Mark II are clearly pushing Lightroom's coding to the limits.

Having said that, Lightroom responds in real time to basic adjustments (such as contrast, brightness, shadows, highlights etc) whereas Aperture doesn't always for me.

If you Google my name you'll find my website. Feel free to e-mail me directly so that we can compare notes - I'd be really interested to hear of your experiences in more detail.

All the best,

David

 

[Sean McCormack]

David, I don't believe that it's strictly a code based thing. The 5DII files are much larger than most files any Raw processer has had to deal with and so simply take longer to process, because they are bigger.

I'm on a lower spec machine and not finding the 21MP files a massive struggle, but I am choosing to shot SRaw1 unless I'm doing something that needs the detail of a larger file. (e.g. live band vs promo shots)

Serious advice?
Use Quick Develop initially. Stay in Library until you've made your selects. Then when you've weeded out the duds, go to Develop to fine tune.

 

[DavidFenwick]

That's exactly what I do Sean.

D

 

[Zappa]

Getting Frustrated!!!

Well i thought i would give a quick summary of my latest experiences and welcome some feedback or advice (or even an explanation from adobe?? ) as Lightroom is currently on death row on my Mac.

I love the app, love the plug-ins and the simple workflow, but ALL of this is completely useless when it starts sucking down more system resoures then Photoshop CS4 and Bridge combined!

Simple tasks such as the loading of previews in the library view are taking up to a full minute but worst of all is the fact that it has started crashing/hanging when i am working in the develop module!!! It hadn't crashed once when i wrote my last post, however since that time its started happening on a regular basis (ONLY when editing 21mp images in the develop module, the crash comes when using the brushes or spot removal tool).

I really dont want to change applications but i wont have much choice with it's current state, I have ordered a bunch of extra RAM which may assist in the short term (this will take me to 16Gb RAM) however Lightroom is meant to be a lightweight alternative to its bigger CS4 brother and that isnt the case at the moment. I understand the suggestion of using sRAW however this isnt an option as I need the large image. (plus i invested in the camera to use its full capabilites and there are numerous other apps that dont have issues with the files)

As Victoria has seen from another thread, i am keeping the catalog sizes to an absolute minimum by running a separate catalog for each project (which appears to have helped a small amount) however Lightroom doesnt offer any tools for "multiple catalog management" other then the selection box on startup, so it is helping one issue while also creating a new one!

When did this Start?

Well Lightroom 2.2 was perfect with my 1'.1mp images from the 4'D and my 2'' monitor, it never missed a beat....BUT the major changes i have made since then include:

• Upgrade v2.2 -> v2.3
• Addition of a 3'' monitor (so lightroom is running in dual screen mode now)
• Addition of the 5D MK2 RAW files (avg 23mb)

Since those changes were made it has gone downhill very quickly! So if anyone has any additional advice or suggestions on what you think might help the situation I would really really appreciate it

Thank you in advance

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Not a lightweight alternative - just different.

But yes, I think you'll find it's the 5d MkII files that are causing the problem. I've just finished another wedding of 5d MkII issues and I REALLY notice the difference in speed - I'm not used to waiting 4 seconds for sliders to become available!

Although, that's still nowhere near your 1 minute - remind me, is your 1 minute with or without local corrections?

One question - what happens if you shrink the window size and switch back to single monitor? Just interested!

 

[Zappa]

Not a lightweight alternative - just different.

But yes, I think you'll find it's the 5d MkII files that are causing the problem. I've just finished another wedding of 5d MkII issues and I REALLY notice the difference in speed - I'm not used to waiting 4 seconds for sliders to become available!

Although, that's still nowhere near your 1 minute - remind me, is your 1 minute with or without local corrections?

One question - what happens if you shrink the window size and switch back to single monitor? Just interested!

The one minute delay happened today and was just after uploading 69 files, Lightroom generally renders the previews as it downloads them however today after the download was complete i switched back to the lightroom window and initially i only got the 2 side tool bars ...(and nothing else) and as usual the CPU usage peaked right out and the lightroom GUI slowly came back, this is the first time this has happened. Then i waited for the previes to show up and basically for the system to go back to an idle state (since these issues i have been monitoring all system resources) the overall process is what took almost a minute....but in very simple terms all i was wanting to do is restore the main window and view the photos i had just downloaded which is quite a standard operation.

I will try the changes on the monitors and will let you now the result tomorrow

Were you experiencing the delays on your Mac Pro?

 

[Zappa]

Drivers

Hi Victoria,

Last night while editing an image i remembered what you mentioned about turning off the scond monitor in LR, so i hit the icon to disable it and the whole thing froze (it didnt recover)! I have taken a couple of "activity monitor" snapshots during the hang and also taken 3 process samples if these are of any interest?

Just a thought, but while scanning through the forums i noticed a few XP users are having issues when they are running NVIDIA video drivers (theres a heap of threads on this).

I know that both David and I are on Mac's however the one thing we have in common with the Windows PC users that are having the issues is that we are all using NVIDIA video cards, more specifically in this case we are both running the NVIDIA GeForce 73'' GT, do you think that this could be the issue?

I havent reloaded LR today as i am working on some other things however i will reload later tonight and turn off the monitor up front and let you know the result. :mrgreen:

 

[Victoria Bampton]

I'm really not quite sure Luke, but it's something I'm investigating further. I'm still tempted to say that there's something specific to 5D MkII, because I've been working with Nikon D3 files all day, which are actually slightly bigger files on disc, but are loading quicker than the smaller sRAW1.