[séamuis]

I believe the K-7 will ship with a new application which looks promising. Digital Camera Utility 4. K-7?????????????PENTAX

[jeffkrol]

I believe the K-7 will ship with a new application which looks promising. Digital Camera Utility 4. K-7?????????????PENTAX

I believe Mr. Pentax was asked specifically if it would be available as an upgrade to current software users and the answer was a definitive "it was not decided yet"......

[séamuis]

I believe Mr. Pentax was asked specifically if it would be available as an upgrade to current software users and the answer was a definitive "it was not decided yet"......

well if its not, and I highly doubt that it wont be) it wouldn't be very difficult to create an ISO file that can be distributed and burned to a disc. oh wait that's illegal...

im sure it will be made available us an upgrade.

[thazooo]

"BTW: I'm leaning towards Bibble as of now.. not that it really matters"

Have a look at the Bibble Forums - Pentax section. A problem arises on Some
K10D files that leaves artifacts. Don't get me wrong, I have used the program
for several years and like it. Some of the plugins are great. These artifacts have shown up 10% of the time on my K10D images. Also running on Vista is not supported. For some folks it runs, others it doesn't.

[jeffkrol]

"BTW: I'm leaning towards Bibble as of now.. not that it really matters"

Have a look at the Bibble Forums - Pentax section. A problem arises on Some
K10D files that leaves artifacts. Don't get me wrong, I have used the program
for several years and like it. Some of the plugins are great. These artifacts have shown up 10% of the time on my K10D images. Also running on Vista is not supported. For some folks it runs, others it doesn't.

Thanks for the heads up. fortunately (or unfortunately) I won't be dealing w/ a k10.
That model is a bit of an anomaly w/ Pentax. 22bit ADC (as far as I can tell these are no longer made btw) , uneven AA filter, VPN in some instances, high DR...... it's really a 1 of a kind and I'm not surprised that some converters choke on it. I looked at the Bibble replies and understand what they were facing. Looking back this wasn't the only converter to produce maze artifacts w/ the k10 (I'm going off memory here though, and could be wrong). It is a heads up to the basic demosaicing algorithm they are using though. Will check into this more. There are programs w/ choices (regarding the alorithm) built in but that is a science in itself and I've found it's best to have more than one program. I currently use 3 Raw converters.
Unfortunately 2 are "outdated" as to new cameras.......
Second Vista is out for the time being. I'm quite happy w/ XP and, last I looked, I can still buy computers w/ "downgrades" to xp...
Besides 7 is released on Oct (in theory) and all will change again.
Oh I really hate that "selective" functioning of software. We have 8 computers at work, custom built around similar parts but 1 refuses to use a new HP printer driver (would be the bosses too) and spent too much time before I just rolled back the driver and left the "old" one in. so much for "keeping up" on updates.....
ADDENDUM:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1036&message=31050281
ADDENDUM2 (second link is a cool comparison):
RawTherapee lets you choose from 3 different demosaicing algorithms.
http://www.rawtherapee.com/?mitem=4&faqid=8
http://www.rawtherapee.com/RAW_Compare/

[philbaum]

Pretty sure you are right regarding Elements.and Photoshop definitely has 16bit (and at times 32/64 bit) capability.. You may be interested in this though:
Elements+ unlocks hidden features in Photoshop Elements
No guarantees on my part .............
BTW: I'm leaning towards Bibble as of now.. not that it really matters

Thanks for the tip on unlocking Elements!!!! Looks useful