[interested_observer]

Several years ago, I picked up Bibble Pro 4. I liked it and in many ways still do. Version 5 is both a step forward and backward. Anyway, for various reasons - its time to move on. I also have Elements 6 - like some aspects of it, but hate the others. Absolutely despise the partitioning of the utility into several pieces, and regardless of what updates I install, it refuses to recognize K20 generated PEF files (K100 PEF files are fine). I guess that this goes for the rest of the Adobe's family of imaging tools. DXO - I have not used it - since I have read that its copy protection is pretty close to being a rootkit. I heard that they are doing something slightly different now - but I do not trust them now.

So, suggestions for a windowz based system?

[Adam]

If you don't like PSE then you probably won't like GIMP, but I'll suggest it anyway: GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program

That along with the full photoshop + adobe camera raw is what I use.

[Marc Sabatella]

Several years ago, I picked up Bibble Pro 4. I liked it and in many ways still do. Version 5 is both a step forward and backward. Anyway, for various reasons - its time to move on.

Curious what some of those are. Bibble 5 looked on paper, and in the pre-release beta/previews, to be the one to beat for that sot of thing (integrated image management / non-destructive editing).

I also have Elements 6 - like some aspects of it, but hate the others. Absolutely despise the partitioning of the utility into several pieces, and regardless of what updates I install, it refuses to recognize K20 generated PEF files (K100 PEF files are fine). I guess that this goes for the rest of the Adobe's family of imaging tools.

Not sure why you'd say that. Any release of any Adobe tool from the last two years should support the K20D PEF just fine. And while Elements and Photoshop CS are "partitioned", Lightroom is the program Bibble was copying in ccreating its own integrated workflow tool, so it certainly seems worth a look.

Beyond, the other obvious choices for Windows would include ACDSee Pro (which is what I use) and maybe Lightzone. A few others that focus more on the management side and less on the processing, others with the opposite focus.

[d3zzzz]

I use ACDSee Pro too. Works great with PEF files (K-x here).
Why don't you download the trial version of ACDSee Pro and the Lightroom beta. That's what I did. After a couple of weeks of using both I made my decision (based on personal preferences about the user interface and file management).

[YJD]

I started with Bibble Pro 4 and since Bibble 5 took forever to come out I have start using Lightroom... great program, really worth a look you can get the trial version to test it. Version 3 of Lightroom should come in a few month so if you want to buy it I would suggest you to wait. It will have many new features.
At work, since I'm on Linux, I am using Bibble Pro 5 and it's really fast and I love all the black and white settings you have on it as well as all the free plugin.

If you want to move away from Bibble, give Lightroom a try.

[interested_observer]

Curious what some of those are. Bibble 5 looked on paper, and in the pre-release beta/previews, to be the one to beat for that sot of thing (integrated image management / non-destructive editing).

Several items - I made the mistake of putting v5 in to full window mode, where upon it removed the icons in the upper right hand corner, to minimize, to toggle back to window mode and to close the program (and I updated to the latest dot release). Next, both V4 and V5 will not apply any of the operations to saved as jpg files. There were several features of v4 that did not make it to v5. Their overall development schedule, lack of moving lens models from v4 to v5. And - I am just tired of waiting.

Not sure why you'd say that. Any release of any Adobe tool from the last two years should support the K20D PEF just fine. And while Elements and Photoshop CS are "partitioned", Lightroom is the program Bibble was copying in creating its own integrated workflow tool, so it certainly seems worth a look.

I was using Elements 6 prior to the K20 release. I have never been successful in installing the K20 PEF update in to Elements 6. The files are there and its setup properly, however it does not work. Both on my old machine and now my new system. Emails to Adobe fall on deaf ears - for the last 12 months. So, basically Adobe does not need my money. I am getting cranky in my old age. Actually, prior to going with Bibble, I liked Lightroom demo quite a bit, almost went with them over Bibble.

Beyond, the other obvious choices for Windows would include ACDSee Pro (which is what I use) and maybe Lightzone. A few others that focus more on the management side and less on the processing, others with the opposite focus.

I just want one single fully integrated environment for both management and processing with a decent set of features, that just works. I'll check in to these - Thanks for the suggestions!!!

[pb_red]

most windows software out there is available as shareware so all you have to do is download it and try it out. if you like it then go ahead and buy it. otherwise uninstall and no harm done*.

*way too much software out there does a poor job of uninstalling but in most cases it's worth the risk.

[SpecialK]

I was using Elements 6 prior to the K20 release. I have never been successful in installing the K20 PEF update in to Elements 6. The files are there and its setup properly, however it does not work.

All I had to do was download the newer ACR and put it in the plugin (?) directory. Voila.

[Wheatfield]

I like the full version of Photoshop. It's a pretty expensive piece of software, but if you are serious about image editing it is the benchmark of the industry.
If you don't need such a heavyweight imaging program, Lightroom has very good (but quite basic) editing capabilities, but was designed more as an image management program that would complement the editing capabilities of Photoshop.

[VaughnA]

I I don't do a lot with photoshop unless absolutely necessary. I find that I can do 95% of what I want with Aperture and the Nik Software Complete tools. In windows Lightroom and Nik would be a similar setup. I only have elements but it's rarely used. Recently I've found that I'm going more to using Viveza to do most of my PP work after my normal raw default processing.

The NIK tools are 200 bucks at B&H and give a lot of bang for the buck IMHO.