SharpCap Forums

Hi,
Beautiful color image of Sun in LiveView. If I save the image using any LiveView option (Start Capture, Quick Capture, Snapshot), the result is a highly pixilated monochrome image. However, if I use Save Image from Display Histogram Stretch (same settings), the result is a beautiful color image (exactly as shown). Que pasa?
Thanks!

Hi,

you are saving RAW images from your colour camera (except for the save from display histogram). RAW images have the colour encoded in the grid pattern, since they contain the pixel values from the individual red, green and blue pixels on the sensor. Saving as RAW images is good because it means smaller files and the ability to use more advanced algorithms later when changing them to colour.

You need to use software that can debayer the RAW file to colour to see the colour images - see this thread for more details : viewtopic.php?t=254

cheers,

Robin

Hi Robin,
I experienced the same thing as Tblog (no color in the snapshots) but the snapshots were being saved as PNG files, not FITS -- using SC4.1. The camera, ASI178MC, was shooting RAW16 images.

Also, is there any advantage to using the PNG format vs. JPG, which produces considerably smaller files?

Thanks,
Waid

Hi,

JPEG is actually disabled when saving raw images, because the compression that makes the files smaller does it by throwing away the finest details in the image, and that means that the detail that stores the colour information would be destroyed.

By using PNG (or FITS, TIFF) you are making sure that you keep all the information in the original camera image.

You can process PNG files that are RAW images to colour using tools like 'PIPP' and other processing tools. I do recall that at one point DSS would *not* do this for PNG (only for FITS), but maybe that has been fixed now.

cheers,

Robin