Blurry Sony raw images on SD BEFORE import

[Sarah23606027mitq]

Often I see others' thumbnails on their SD cards are crisp and in focus, BEFORE importing. However, when I insert my SD cards into my Mac's card reader, with raw Sony files, my SD card images are blurry. This keeps me from selectively importing only those that are worth keeping. Why is this?

[GoldingD]

I assume that when you look at these images in Camera, that they are not blurry, correct?

[Sarah23606027mitq]

Correct- and also not after import (unless I took a horrible shot). Is it a Sony thing that raw files still on card are not clear before import? 

[GoldingD]

Correct- and also not after import (unless I took a horrible shot). Is it a Sony thing that raw files still on card are not clear before import? 

By @Sarah23606027mitq

Hmm, that statement confuses me, perhaps too much coffee.

Are you saying that when you look in camera at the photos taken, the photos that the IQ for was set to RAW, are blurry?

Remember those images, in camera, are not the RAW, but small embedded JPEG files the cameras processor made for you to be able to preview in camera. That has nothing to do with post processing, nothing to do with LrC.'

If those are blurry, then either you have an in camera setting causing it, a focus problem, or a user error

[Keith Reeder]

What do they look like on your machine, outside of LightRoom?

[Sarah23606027mitq]

I don't open them outside of LrC. They're raw 

[Per Berntsen]

So I take it that it's in the Import dialog that the images are blurry?

The images displayed here are jpg previews, created by the camera, and embedded in the raw files.  This is the same previews that you see on the camera. LrC will display these because it has not yet rendered its own previews.

Can you post a screenshot that illustrates the issue?

Please do not attach the screenshot, use the Insert Photos button in the toolbar.

[Conrad_C]

It looks like this is a Sony thing.

I used RawDigger to inspect the preview sizes of Sony raw images from three different models: A7R, A7C, and RX100.

Even though the sensor dimensions of the three cameras are totally different, all three returned the same size for the preview image embedded with the raw files: 1616 x 1080 pixels. That equals 1.7 megapixels for the preview, even for the 61-megapixel raw file of the Sony A7R. It looks like that’s the preview size Sony embeds regardless of the frame dimensions a camera is actually recording.

Those preview images are what’s used for any “quick view” of the files, such as in macOS QuickLook, or in the import preview such as that in Lightroom Classic. So that’s probably why the images look blurry on import: The camera recorded the raw preview at just 1.7 megapixels, so that’s all it gives to Lightroom Classic when previewing an import.

I took a quick look through the menu of my Sony camera and in the manual, and I can’t find an option to change the raw preview size like I can with other brands I have used. Anyone know if there is a way?

(Note that if there is an option to save a larger embedded preview size, every raw file will use more storage space. This might be why most camera makers, including Sony, do not default to maximum size preview.)