Previews are unsharp on my screen

Some photo previews are unsharp when shown on my screen by DxO PL, although other RAW editors show them correctly. This is already so before any adjustments are made. I have attached 2 screenshots. The first is a section from a 100% preview in DxO PL, the second shows the same section in Capture NX-D. The render is from a 24,78 megapixel raw file taken with a Nikon DSLR. My screen is a 24" 2560x1440 pixel screen. No adjustments are made.

This or similar problems seem to have been reported before in this forum, but no posting seems to be clear enough to get an adequate answer. I hope this helps.

DxO PL
Capture NX-D

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Hello @Delpozo and welcome to the forum,

Which platform you are working on Win or Mac?

Can you, please, share the image with us? Please, upload to upload.dxo.com under your forum name and let us know when ready.

Thank you,
Regards,
Svetlana G.

Does Nikon’s capture nx-d by any chance apply your in-camera settings to you image automatically or does it apply any other settings automatically? Canon’s DPP does that. Most raw programs apply some pre-processing which is one of the reasons that “unedited” images may look a little different depending on the software used. And it also depends how the image you are viewing has been rendered by the software. I am currently viewing the same “unedited” raw image in five different programs, PhotoLab, Canon’s DPP, ON1 Photo Raw 2020, Faststone Viewer and Fast Raw Viewer. The image looks different in all five programs in various ways, including color and sharpness.

Mark

I have just uploaded the raw file to upload.dxo.com. I use Windows 10 Home 1909.

Mark:

Not as far as I know. All preprocessing settings I could find were off. Moreover, I have recently tried Lightroom and RawTherapee. They did not have the issue and rendered the photo sharply as well.

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CaptureNx-d is producing an image from the raw exactly the same as the in-camera jpg, including the in-camera settings for sharpening etc. You can set those parameters in the camera. Non Nikon raw converters don’t use them. Maybe they try to get an equal result. I think that counts for any brand. The differences in the used tools are to big, starting from the beginning: the calculated white balance.
Comparing the exif might show something…

George

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Thanks George. Looking in the exif shows that indeed there was some sharpening and clarity preset in the camera. That might explain the difference, though I will do some more testing to see why the issue was not clear in Lightroom en RawTherapee.

In Capture Nx-D have a look in picture control. When I’m right that are the camera settings. It acts something like a preset.
Every raw converter starts with demosaicing using a calculated wb and tint. They’re different in every raw converter.
Just a thought, what will be the difference when shooting with a predefined wb in different converters.

George