IMAGES PLUS (Ver 2.80)
Bayer Processing
Vs.
Color Processing

The M51, Horsehead and Rosette images below were taken at WSP 2007.  I was very disappointed with the results of M51 and the Horsehead, which were shot the first night.  There was a bunch of blue noise.  I thought it was the poor sky conditions, but in fact, it was operator error.  I have been converting my Canon Raws with the Color option vice the Bayer Option. 

I did an experiment (as recommended by Soren on Yahoo_Digital_Astro) where I did a series of 5min light frames and darks in my basement (you can barely see the shelves).  Sure enough, I got the same blue noise.  I started to experiment with the processing (no, I didn't watch the videos that I paid good money for) and tried using the bayer conversion, and sure enough, the image improved dramatically.  I reprocessed the WSP Frames, and the results are below.   The upper frames were processed with Color, and the lower frames were processed with Bayer. 

The M51 and Horsehead images were taken at ISO1600, 5 min frames.  The Rosette Nebula was imaged at ISO800, 4 min frames.  The Rosette Nebula was not overly effected by the blue noise and there was only a very modest improvement with the Bayer conversion. 

By the way, the M51, Horsehead and Test Images (ISO1600) were processed using only Images Plus with Digital Development set to background at 1500; the Backgrd Wt at 1.01; and the Break Point at 1100.  I used Min/Max for the combine.

The Test Images (ISO800) were processed using only Images Plus with Digital Development set to background at 2000; the Backgrd Wt at 1.01; and the Break Point at 800.  I used Min/Max for the combine.

Your thoughts on what else I may be doing wrong, would be very much appreciated.  I would also love to know why this was not an issue under the older versions of Images Plus.  Thanks for the help.
Tom K

Test Image F5.6-28mm; 5.0 mins; 20 frames; ISO 1600; (dark subtract)	Test Image F5.6-28mm; 4.0 mins; 19 frames; ISO 800; (dark subtract)

M51 F7.0-110mm; 5.0 mins; 11 images; ISO 1600; (dark subtract) w/autoguiding	Horsehead F7.0-110mm; 5.0 mins; 7 images; ISO 1600; (dark subtract) w/autoguiding	Rosette Nebula F5.9-66mm; 4.0 mins; 21 images; ISO 800; (dark subtract) w/autoguiding