Originally posted by Genshu Hi,
I have a K-x and want to start shooting raw which iphoto cant handle. What is the best app for working with raw files? I dont need a lot of fancy stuff just want to work with raw photos. thank you.
Digital Camera Utility is the best program for raw conversion IMO. It shows off the colours and detail in Pentax files better than the Adobe products I've tried (CS3, Lightroom 3 Beta and Elements 7). Silkypix displays exactly like DCR4, but the interface is very clumsy.
If you understand your camera, you will immediately understand DCU4, because it has mostly the same controls. I use it to do my all raw conversions (sensitivity, Image Tone, Sharpness, contrast, saturation, noise reduction, straightening). For cropping or if I want to fine-tune the file a little more or add special effects, I use Picasa. The added benefit of Picasa is that you can upload photos for sharing. (Don't use Picasa for raw conversions, as it has non-defeatable auto-adjust for brightness).
I had a terrible problem with DCU4 crashing and not responding, but it's pretty stable now after a couple of updates. I think Windows was part of the problem, because even Explorer was choking on K-x files.
The Pentax software is free, it's easy to use and does superb raw conversions. That's the obvious place to start IMO.
Here's an unprocessed raw conversion in CS3 (K20D):
Here's the same photo converted in Pentax Photo Browser (older Pentax software, but both PPB and DCU4 use Silkypix raw conversion):