[Mary Lippold]

Hi all,


I have a K5, with which I installed on my PC Silkypix v 3. I also now have a K3, with which a v5 utility disc arrived. My question is: I am presuming that if I install the newer v5 Silkypix, it will work with BOTH camera photos, which are combinations of JPEG and RAW files. Am I correct? I don't want to uninstall v3 only to find out that v5 ONLY works with the newer K3 and doesn't even recognize pix taken on the K5. I am keeping both cameras and have lots and lots of African safari photos, some of which in RAW I can ONLY view in Silkypix for some reason.


Thanks for your advice, as always,
Mary
Los Angeles

[jgnfld]

Hi all,


I have a K5, with which I installed on my PC Silkypix v 3. I also now have a K3, with which a v5 utility disc arrived. My question is: I am presuming that if I install the newer v5 Silkypix, it will work with BOTH camera photos, which are combinations of JPEG and RAW files. Am I correct? I don't want to uninstall v3 only to find out that v5 ONLY works with the newer K3 and doesn't even recognize pix taken on the K5. I am keeping both cameras and have lots and lots of African safari photos, some of which in RAW I can ONLY view in Silkypix for some reason.


Thanks for your advice, as always,
Mary
Los Angeles

Yes, It will work with any version. Upgrading to v6 Studio Pro is a tad expensive, but you get a lot of useful tools for RAW files and it is much better than the non-Pro V6. The HDR tool to bring out underexposed areas is particularly useful. Silkypix has more limited facility with jpegs as I'm sure you've noticed. Photoshop/GIMP/etc are just fine with jpegs.

[mcgregni]

I don't think Mary is referring to Silkypix ... It's the classic mix -up with Pentax Digital Camera Utility, which is the software provided with those cameras. I think on the CD there is the message 'powered by Silkypix' which I am sure fuels the confusion.

They are very different beasts. .... Some of the PDCU control panels resemble features in Silkypix in concept, but overall the scope of the programs is vastly different, with PDCU designed to mimic the camera control options. But yes, AFAIK there is backwards compatibility with files from earlier Pentax models.

[jgnfld]

I am ignorant there. With my K50, at least, I got a true version of SilkyPix (SILKYPIX Developer Studio 3.0 LE). Limited, however, and so I upgraded to 5 Pro and then when it was released to 6 Developer Studio Pro (they offered a nice discount).

[mcgregni]

Yes, I've heard the same from K30 owners, often bemused by talk about PDCU .... Seems that the K50 has followed on from the K30 in this respect. Apart from the fact that PDCU is given out with the 'flagship' models there doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to it. I got PDCU with the K7 and it has been updated since then for both K5 releases and the K3 ....(I'm not sure whether it was available with the K20d and earlier cameras ..... ?)

PDCU is a custom design, apparently with input from Silkypix and using aspects of the processing engine, so maybe it had costs associated with it so was part of the package for the top models. The Silkypix version offered with the other models is a standard 'light' program with the upgrade offers as you said, and clearly that was a great deal for a very powerful RAW program.

[Crooski]

Yes Mary
PDCU version 5 works with both the k5 and with the k3

regards Crooski

[Mary Lippold]

Ahaaaaaa! Yes, I just brought up the v3 on screen and it DOES say Pentax Photo Browser, powered by Silkypix! Thus, my confusion. I really don't use it (and the Photo Laboratory that came with it) for editing. Currently I'm using Photoshop Elements, which seems to do a good job for me so far; though I've been thinking of either updating to a more recent version and/or addiing Lightroom as well. Just haven't decided and done it yet. What I found initially very helpful about PPBU was that I knew there were a series of RAW files from my last trip which were not showing up in my DCIM folders (when browsing it with Windows), but when I loaded the files directly from my camera into the Pentax Photo Browser, there they were. THEN I could see them and work with them in Photoshop and save them in my DCIM folders. Actually, now that I'm thinking back, I think those "lost" RAW files might have been from my Panasonic Lumix ZS35 which went along on the trip as a point and shoot. The Pentax RAW files (.DNG) downloaded just fine, but the Lumix RAW files were .RW2 files and had to be viewed with the PPBU program, and did not initially download to my computer at all. Technicalities which are probably easily explained and understood by many of you, but I'm not quite up to par on that level of technical details.


Anyway, thanks for the confirmation that the photo browser v5 will not create problems. Presuming that during the upgrade installation, I will be replacing the v3 with the v5.


THANK YOU!
Mary