Quote - So yeah, we could read the fine manual, but what FUN would that be. ::biggrin::

:-/

The first problem is misinformation, since this thread is unreadable (if you miss more than a day), and second it makes it even harder to read since everyone will post the same basic questions again and again, page after page ("my car has 4 seats, do I need to sit behind the steering wheel to drive, or can I pick just any place?"- type ones).

Tone mapping is how Lux manages to make the extended luminosity range fit into our low-range displays.

Reinhard is a cheat, much like an audio compressor is for sound.

Linear works like a photography camera, if you have ever used a real one (not a point & click one), you'll feel at home, having settings for film sensitivity, Exposure (shutter time), FStop (aperture), and gamma.

Contrast tries to keep contrast, but unlike Reinhard it works on the whole picture instead of zones.

MaxWhite does what it says: It considers the brightest value to be white, period.

Linear is the only linear (duh) setting, so for quality, it's the one to use. Next in quality comes Reinhard, although, like with an audio compressor, you degrade your signal. Next comes Contrast, which really should be only used in  very specific cases, and last MaxWhite, for which I don't really see a situation it might be the preferred choice.