Loyal Site Supporter Registered: March, 2007 Location: Toowoomba, Queensland Posts: 23,920 | | Review Date: April 19, 2012 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Fast, efficient, tailor made to PEF files | | Cons: | User interface unimpressive | |
This programme does what it's set out to achieve: process RAW images and set JPEGs up ready for further manipulation in PP.
It does the job and provides results without fuss.
The user interface, as with Topaz Labs plugins, is clunky and not so attractive. Given the amount of time a photographer spends on converting RAW to JPEG, it matters that the GUI is not so user-friendly.
Otherwise, a robust software package that works and leaves the photographer with little else to desire from a RAW converter.
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Pentaxian Registered: November, 2009 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 4,002 | | Review Date: August 29, 2011 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Excellent image quality output, Simple, Powerful, Free | | Cons: | Not most user-friendly | |
I have used PDCU for nearly 2 years since I got my K-7. I now use version 4.33 that I review here, and which a major improvement from the version 4.11 that I tried first.
PDCU is a powerful image editor. It carries all the basic functions and more. Some features (eg dodge) are only available on more expensive softwares. The qualty of the image outputs is excellent. Since the software is distributed by Pentax, it is regularly updated to handle the latest developments incl. new lenses, GPS, ....
Recent improvements included a new noise reduction function with sldier, the dodge function, ... The version 4.33 is in particular much more stable than the earlier version and can handle batch processing.
Lastly it is free and possibly the best value fo money software on the market.
The main criticisms are:
- the software is not the most user-friendly;
- the help file and documentation is thin;
- PDCU recognises only Pentax lenses for lens distortion correction; for accurate lens distortion correction, PTLens can be strongly recommended.
All in all I can recommend strongly PDCU although I coudl understand that some prefer to invest in a more user-friendly interface.
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