Mantis on Paperbark (+ musings on PureRAW 3)

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David Berry

🇦🇺 Australia 🦘
I didn't mean to take this photo …

Mantis on Paperbark
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Paperbark Tree : Melaleuca quinquenervia
Mantis: Order Mantodea
camera–subject : 1.5 metres
Great Dividing Range, SE Queensland, AU


Early September (last year): At the end of a ramble through the forested eastern side of the Great Dividing Range, I had nothing better to do with my camera than to snap a photo of the peeling 'bark' of a melaleuca tree.

Until this morning the image was lost somewhere known only unto Lightroom Classic. With only three days of my DxO PureRAW 3 trial period left, I sent the raw image to PR3 and waited (and waited a bit longer) while it worked its DeepPRIME XD magic. (Who makes up these ridiculous names!) After 32 seconds—well, it seemed like an eternity at the time—PR3 returned the image to LrC. Voila!: one small mantis that had been hiding all along in clear sight!

Thanks to PureRAW 3, Lightroom Classic's metadata info panel now shows the camera–to–subject distance: 1.53 metres in this case. Clearly I wouldn't have photographed a small mantis (length about 40 mm) from that distance had I known it was there! Too bad. There's no point in going back to find the mantis: the local butcherbirds, who have DxO vision, will have picked it off long ago.

Tech Trivia:
  • DxO PureRAW 3 processing time for DeepPRIME XD:
  • Between 30 & 35 seconds for 45/47 MB raw files (Canon R5 & Leica Q2) using…
  • MacBook Pro 16 (current model with M2 Max processor).

  • I have no idea whether camera–to–subject distances are calculated by PR3 (using DxO's lens/camera data) or…
  • Is distance info already in the metadata stored by the camera. Does anyone know?
 
Yes.. amazing how intelligent software can pull in lost details. I will have to give Deep Prime a trial here soon. I use ON1 and it works very similar and is super fast on my newer PC.
 
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