Originally posted by MrApollinax So if you are running Vista with the right PEF codecs Paint.net will open and support your RAW files.
Does the PEF codec really work as a RAW converter ? Or does it just use the embedded JPEG image ? I don't have Vista so can't test myself. But the embedded JPEG image is not even as good as a normal JPEG out of the camera (embedded JPEG has a smaller filesize than the JPEG generated by shooting RAW+JPEG, so it is more compressed).
It is really something that everyone using image
viewing programs for RAW processing should be aware of. Some programs use the embedded JPEG (fast), some really convert the RAW file(slow), some let the user configure it (for example IrfanView). For on-screen viewing the faster approach is better, so many image
viewing programs default to that.