Raw Conversion Software Recommendations Wanted

[nanok]

reading the original post several times, it seems the question remained somewhat untouched . of course i have my own favourite software, but reading your post again, the first thing that seems apropriate to state is: what is the question? you mean you are quite happy with your current software and workflow? in that case why bother, carry on. if your only concern is that it is discontinued, and thus a dead end, my advice would be to give some opensource software a go (ufraw will work nicely on windows, it has been mentioned), if you happen to like the software and does what you need it to do, the advantage is that it is future proof (open source means that, as long as there is interest, it will never be "discontinued", somebody can always take it over and continue developing it; open source means other things too, btw, this is just one of them ). another advantage is that oss software tends to be platform independent (or, to be technically correct, cross-platform firendly, as you cannot run the windows ufraw on a power pc), this means that, should you chose to switch to another system, most likely there will already be a port of ufraw available, which means less stress (no need to go through the choices, learning curves and so on all over again).

hope this helps a bit.

[pawzitiv]

To my mind, your need to move to a different raw converter will be somewhat dictated by whether or not you decide to ever upgrade your *ist DS. For example, I don't believe RawShooter Essentials will open a K20D .PEF raw file (please correct me if I'm wrong).

I've mucked around with ACR, Raw Therapee, SilkyPix, Lightzone and Capture One. I've found that each raw converter cooks a .PEF raw file to a slightly different recipe. I had a preference for SilkyPix .. until 6 months ago. Capture One is now my raw converter of choice .. it handles both my Pentax and my Leica raw files beautifully.

If you're sticking to your *istDS and you're happy with RawShooter's conversion, then leave well enough alone. If, however, you're curious about how another raw converter will render your *istDS files or you're moving to a current Pentax body, do give Capture One a try.

My Pentax Gallery
Intveld Images

[photog]

Originally Posted by raymeedc

I've been using the now discontinued "Rawshooter Essentials" raw processing/conversion freeware for years now. As I haven't had experience with any others (besides the poor conversion software included with my *ist DS Pentax DSLR). I was wondering if there would be a benefit to switching to another raw processor. Could I have some opinions/recommendations?
P.S. - I don't know if this matters or not, but I will probably soon be upgrading my processing software from Photoshop Elements 4 to the latest Photoshop Elements 7.

raymeedc
If you are not in a position to but Lightroom 2 (the Aust price is right over the top cf the US price) the current versoin of Photoshop Essentials is a good choice. Your familiarity with an earlier version will reduce the learning curve.
However, LT2.4 is simply the most powerful photo editing software (strictly, of course, it does NOT edit the image, but simply adds instructions to the metadata as to how to display etc. You can even print directly fron DNG / PEF without needing to create a bit map image.

[asw66]

Elements is a bargain: you get an incredible array of tools for relatively little money. It's cheaper still if you opt for the download version.