Thanks to member ToddH(sorry forgot exact @), i stumbled upon Nomo RAW 2 app. So today I tested it out and tinkered with all settings so you don't have to. In the upcoming future, this thread will be updated with the shot comparisons of 14PM vs 15PM vs Sony Nex 7 (mirrorless camera).
Let's dive into the testing.
Intro: Nomo RAW 2 shoots all the pictures much better than original stock camera app. Quality is much better and app interface is very convenient with no lags. The only place where the stock app shines is 24MP/48MP shots to HEIF - it is just so much faster on OEM app versus Nomo.
Settings: let's dive deep into settings and observations. Luckily the app is neat so doesn't have lots of useless features and buttons.
1) Volume key - strictly subjective and do as you wish. Doesn't matter to the photo.
2) Preferred PRORAW pixels - it only makes sense to use 48MP if given so that is the only good choice. The reason is that 12MP is so much worse than 48MP even if RAW.
3) Preferred HEIF pixels - so 24MP gets better pics than 12MP, but then 48MP is even better than 48MP. It boils down to speed at this point. As we know, OEM camera app for 24MP is instant on 15PM, so that is a no brainer. Here, 24MP takes the same 1 second to save versus 48 MP.
Okay, so speed is the same then why sacrifice quality? The answer is memory size - 48MP can get to 18MB files and thus 24MP uses 2x less space. Decide for yourself, but I don't mind having 18MB 48MP HEIFs.
4) Always ProRAW->HEIF - so this function runs your regular JPG/HEIF through the ProRAW pipeline. In theory pics should be much better. Just to clarify, this setting only applies to your saved/shot HEIF and JPG files and doesn't affect ProRAW pictures.
I turned this thing off and here is why: when shooting strictly JPG/HEIC, all i want is decently useable pictures from the point and shoot stance. If I turn this on, then it runs it through ProRAW pipeline + settings in Nomo for that said pipeline(in further pics) which affect your JPG.
In short, option turned on - you get the bare bones raw style jpgs with no sharpening - looks dull and unsharp and they are asking for edits. Well if the photo is unsharp, then you need to edit them, but editing JPGs defeats the purpose of having them in the first place if I end up going to PS/LR to apply sharpening.
Turning off: gives the oem style HEIFs with normal amount of sharpening and other settings from OEM camera - basically the same as OEM camera app but with better quality and bigger size.
For some reason proraw pipeline HEIFs take much less space than regular shots.
5) Save originals - I didn't get what it does. Nevertheless, I don't really need the originals of the shots in JPG/HEIC no matter what it means - i never go back to original files. This option implies additional memory use. So in theory should preserve your original shots so you could reexport JPGs up to your liking.
6) ProRAW sharpness - here is why you pay for the app. It eliminates sharpening of Apple - perfect for shooting RAW. Because applying sharpening on top of sharpening is never a good idea, so better have unsharp pictures that will get edited later with sharpness anyways since it is for Pro RAW. Because of this option, your option #4 above will output unsharp pictures in HEIF/JPG if you toggle on #4 - and this is why I keep it off since my #6 is also off.
7) HDR Photo - my pics were better with this option turned on. Probably just the visuals of the device display, anyways having it on.
8) Compressed file size - only for HEIF/JPG. Put it on max if the space is not an issue.
9) Proraw and compressed files - i prefer to have 2 identical pictures in a camera roll 1 being RAW + 1 HEIF. You can set both files to be merged together.
10) Color Space - sRGB as the viewers more likely to be sRGB people.
Here you can shoot ProRAW + Heif/jpg or one of each separately. I usually do either only HEIF or only RAW.
App lets you choose color styles(film alike) if you wish with that grey button for JPGs.
Has no shutter speed/ISO/Aperture settings and I think it is good. Those are less usable on a phone versus cameras and if your shutter speed is 1/20 you will see lagged viewfinder on a phone vs you don't see it in DSLRs. Developers did great and not included those settings to make the experience smooth. You can edit focus distance, Exposure brackets +-, white balance(AUTO though very good).
In conclusion, app takes better pictures than OEM app at a cost of 2-3x larger files. It also introduces 24MP shots for iphone 14PM which is not there originally in IOS.
Pros:
- Functionality and settings
- Ability to eliminate all that extra things that go into oem beautifiers
- Quality of pictures is better
- Smooth oem like experience
Cons:
- OEM app is faster when doing 24MP(instant)/48MP(0.5 sec) HEIFs. This app takes 1 second for 24MP/48MP HEIFs - I suppose only because it has 2-3x more data to save(5-6MB files vs 25-30MB files). However RAW 48MP speeds are comparable.
Let's dive into the testing.
Intro: Nomo RAW 2 shoots all the pictures much better than original stock camera app. Quality is much better and app interface is very convenient with no lags. The only place where the stock app shines is 24MP/48MP shots to HEIF - it is just so much faster on OEM app versus Nomo.
Settings: let's dive deep into settings and observations. Luckily the app is neat so doesn't have lots of useless features and buttons.
1) Volume key - strictly subjective and do as you wish. Doesn't matter to the photo.
2) Preferred PRORAW pixels - it only makes sense to use 48MP if given so that is the only good choice. The reason is that 12MP is so much worse than 48MP even if RAW.
3) Preferred HEIF pixels - so 24MP gets better pics than 12MP, but then 48MP is even better than 48MP. It boils down to speed at this point. As we know, OEM camera app for 24MP is instant on 15PM, so that is a no brainer. Here, 24MP takes the same 1 second to save versus 48 MP.
Okay, so speed is the same then why sacrifice quality? The answer is memory size - 48MP can get to 18MB files and thus 24MP uses 2x less space. Decide for yourself, but I don't mind having 18MB 48MP HEIFs.
4) Always ProRAW->HEIF - so this function runs your regular JPG/HEIF through the ProRAW pipeline. In theory pics should be much better. Just to clarify, this setting only applies to your saved/shot HEIF and JPG files and doesn't affect ProRAW pictures.
I turned this thing off and here is why: when shooting strictly JPG/HEIC, all i want is decently useable pictures from the point and shoot stance. If I turn this on, then it runs it through ProRAW pipeline + settings in Nomo for that said pipeline(in further pics) which affect your JPG.
In short, option turned on - you get the bare bones raw style jpgs with no sharpening - looks dull and unsharp and they are asking for edits. Well if the photo is unsharp, then you need to edit them, but editing JPGs defeats the purpose of having them in the first place if I end up going to PS/LR to apply sharpening.
Turning off: gives the oem style HEIFs with normal amount of sharpening and other settings from OEM camera - basically the same as OEM camera app but with better quality and bigger size.
For some reason proraw pipeline HEIFs take much less space than regular shots.
5) Save originals - I didn't get what it does. Nevertheless, I don't really need the originals of the shots in JPG/HEIC no matter what it means - i never go back to original files. This option implies additional memory use. So in theory should preserve your original shots so you could reexport JPGs up to your liking.
6) ProRAW sharpness - here is why you pay for the app. It eliminates sharpening of Apple - perfect for shooting RAW. Because applying sharpening on top of sharpening is never a good idea, so better have unsharp pictures that will get edited later with sharpness anyways since it is for Pro RAW. Because of this option, your option #4 above will output unsharp pictures in HEIF/JPG if you toggle on #4 - and this is why I keep it off since my #6 is also off.
7) HDR Photo - my pics were better with this option turned on. Probably just the visuals of the device display, anyways having it on.
8) Compressed file size - only for HEIF/JPG. Put it on max if the space is not an issue.
9) Proraw and compressed files - i prefer to have 2 identical pictures in a camera roll 1 being RAW + 1 HEIF. You can set both files to be merged together.
10) Color Space - sRGB as the viewers more likely to be sRGB people.
Here you can shoot ProRAW + Heif/jpg or one of each separately. I usually do either only HEIF or only RAW.
App lets you choose color styles(film alike) if you wish with that grey button for JPGs.
Has no shutter speed/ISO/Aperture settings and I think it is good. Those are less usable on a phone versus cameras and if your shutter speed is 1/20 you will see lagged viewfinder on a phone vs you don't see it in DSLRs. Developers did great and not included those settings to make the experience smooth. You can edit focus distance, Exposure brackets +-, white balance(AUTO though very good).
In conclusion, app takes better pictures than OEM app at a cost of 2-3x larger files. It also introduces 24MP shots for iphone 14PM which is not there originally in IOS.
Pros:
- Functionality and settings
- Ability to eliminate all that extra things that go into oem beautifiers
- Quality of pictures is better
- Smooth oem like experience
Cons:
- OEM app is faster when doing 24MP(instant)/48MP(0.5 sec) HEIFs. This app takes 1 second for 24MP/48MP HEIFs - I suppose only because it has 2-3x more data to save(5-6MB files vs 25-30MB files). However RAW 48MP speeds are comparable.