[reeftool]

I did not like the Photo Lab software that came with my camera at all. I suppose a digital camera maker has to bundle some sort of photo editing software with their cameras but I think they would be better off giving you Picasa on a CD (some people may not have a internet connection to download it) or a coupon for Adobe. Picasa is so user friendly anybody can use it and get good results right off. All the photo editing software makers should take notice. Since i discovered Picasa and downloaded it I use it 95% of the time and Photoshop Elements for the stuff that needs a little extra tweaking. I'm a newbie to digital but would rather spend my time learning to use my camera and lenses than trying to figure out a difficult editing program. Photo software should at least be easier and less time consuming than developing film.

[Workingdog]

Well, I just thought I would pass on some helpful information I obtained right here on this forum. But first, a comment about photolab; I found it so inconvenient to use I wondered why on earth anyone would want to shoot RAW.
Now for the helpful info:

Two very nice and very "FREE" RAW editor/converters are RAWTHERAPEE and UFRAW (I think?)
I find myself using the RAWTHERAPEE much more because there is so much more you can manipulate. Just Google it and download. There is also something of a user manual available on line. After using this you may find your images need no further editing eliminating the need for Photoshop, Paintshop, etc.

Give it a try. It's FREE!

[simons-photography]

well I find the pentax software totaly useless and picasa well it decided to scan my computer and now I have all my pictures there and can't figure out how to do much else I'll have to spend some time on it and that menas it was not well designed if I have to search high and low to figure out the software writers logic

pentaxs software is a rehash of silkypix why the hell counld't they just give us silkypix ?

[reeftool]

Personally, I kind of liked it that Picasa organized all my pictures the way it did. I had photos all over the place and sometimes had trouble finding things. I guess if you're short on hard drive space it could be a problem but I have 500GB on 2 drives. It's easy to backup too. I recently replaced a harddrive and backed up all my pics and reinstalled them on the new drive with no hassle with Picasa's backup.

[simons-photography]

yea I have 1040 GB of space on 3 HDD but I never asked picasa to go scan them all I didn't particularily need all videos in the library too I have mymown way of organising things not open a program to find it has dunped all my images into itself when a lot of them are just random stuff off the net and not images I will be working with

[SpecialK]

Phew - the Forums save the day again .. I can literally now take "Learn about the Pentax Photolab" off my To-Do list, and settle into learning even more about Elements

Because a couple people have not taken the time to learn it, you decide not to?

It does all I need, except dust spotting.

[dosdan]

Simon, in Picasa2:

1. For cataloging only certain filetypes: Tools | Options | Filetypes.

2. For restricting areas watched: Tools | Folder Manager.