[DafTekno]

Hi Pentax People,

I recently got a KP, which is very nice.
But the bundled editing software (Digital Camera Utility 5 by SilkyPix) is not.

It doesn't have one of the main features I use, 1/3 & 2/3 horizontal & vertical guidelines in the cropping window.

The bundled software with our K-50 from a few years ago (Developer Studio 3.0 LE by SilkyPix) does have these cropping guidelines, is far better, and I'm very happy with it.

But, for some unknown reason, this older Pentax-specific bundled software won't open files make by the KP or our K-5, in JPEG or RAW (DNG/ PEG).

I can't work out why files taken on Pentax DSLR cameras won't open in Pentax-specific bundled software.

Or why the later, newer and supposedly better software (Digital Camera Utility 5) doesn't even have the cropping window guidelines.

Digital Camera Utility 5 also runs much slower on my Windows 7 PC, there being a several second time lag between setting changes and image refresh.

Can anyone suggest:

How to get my Developer Studio 3.0 LE working with files from the KP & K-5?

How to get Digital Camera Utility 5 to display cropping window guidelines?

What free / inexpensive software is good for editing JPEG & RAW files?

I don't need particularly powerful editing abilities, like Photoshop has.
I just like to crop, alter exposure / contrast / colour balance / rotation.
All the things you'd do in the darkroom, in days gone by.
Developer Studio 3.0 LE is fine for my needs.

I don't like renting software (like current Adobe Lightroom), I prefer to 'own' it (like my old Photoshop 5.5, which unfortunately doesn't have cropping window guidelines).

Why doesn't my Pentax software work with my Pentax files?
Why is the newer bundled software significantly worse than that bundled several years ago?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks - D

[simon_199]

If you are interested in RAW development software, I suggest you to try DxO Photolab 5 and Capture One, both are offered as 30 days full-featured demos, so you can make up your mind.
Then you can purchase either of them as a "lifetime" license. Personally I went for DxO for the superior noise reduction performance, but CO is also very good.
Otherwise, I would recommend Darktable as an open source alternative.
Instead, if you are after something more akin to Photoshop, There's Affinity Photo that is rather cheap.

I also recommend DxO Photolab and Affinity, both of which I use.

[Rider0974]

I use Affinity, fairly low cost ( £47-99 on Serifs website ), You can also get
a free trial from there as well. Serif website version works with
Windows® 7 (Service Pack 1; Platform Update KB2670838; Aero enabled),
Microsoft store versions does not support windows 7.
It works on RAW (PEF) files from my K10D & K1ii.

[kypfer]

Hi Pentax People,
I recently got a KP, which is very nice.
But the bundled editing software (Digital Camera Utility 5 by SilkyPix) is not.
It doesn't have one of the main features I use, 1/3 & 2/3 horizontal & vertical guidelines in the cropping window.
The bundled software with our K-50 from a few years ago (Developer Studio 3.0 LE by SilkyPix) does have these cropping guidelines, is far better, and I'm very happy with it.

I use the supplied Digital Camera Utility on my Windows 10 PC with little trouble … it's a rather more advanced program than the software supplied with the K-50
I'd recommend updating to the latest release from Software Downloads : Support & Service | RICOH IMAGING if you haven't already done so.
My workflow, simply because I didn't know any better, is to process the whole image in DCU, save the result, then crop/resize as required using Irfanview, which is also free, comprehensive (as a viewer with basic editing) and has configurable guidelines
At a guess, the licensing arrangement Pentax has with SilkyPix only allows the software to deal with cameras that it "knows about" at the time of release. So Pentax can make the software backward compatible with all previous Pentax DSLRs, which it does comprehensively, but has no way of incorporating cameras yet to be released.

[marcusBMG]

If you have a legit win 7 install there is no reason really not to upgrade to win 10 given that you can do this without any cost - it will run faster especially boot.
Just download windows media creation tool.
Is your PC an old one? Belatedly moving from socket 775 quad core to 3nd gen i7 2600 box for ~$150, prompted by the ending of support for win 7 and the need to use zoom during the pandemic, has vastly improved processing speed for me.

[fantom]

I have a KP and as software I use GIMP for Jpeg files, and for Raw files I use Darktable I find it Excellent even if at first the interface found it difficult.There are many videos on youtube on how to use it.Both programs are free.

https://www.darktable.org/

[CristiC]

The Windows 7 PC is a limiting factor. It has both software (SW) and hardware (HW). Most good, usable, up-to-date image editing software has certain minimum hardware requirements. Please check what type of CPU and how much installed memory (RAM) you have. Instructions here.

If you wish to keep the same hardware, then you may expect that the software recommended by others may run slow, because the SW is designed to run smooth on modern (today's) hardware, not on 10 years old HW. There has to be a matching combination of both HW and SW. Regarding Pentax, you can't expect old SW to work with things that were developed later, even coming from the same vendor, because most digital consumer-grade products have fast obsolescence and are designed to ”work” in a matching HW/SW environment, not spanning over generations.

If you wish to upgrade the HW, one particular type of hardware is: the installed memory (RAM). Possibly buy more of that, say a total of 8GB, if you have 4GB. Some old laptops may not allow to add RAM. If you have a desktop computer, then please check if the mainboard has free slots for more RAM. Another popular way to increase speed and responsiveness is to add storage HW, such as a solid state drive (SSD) and possibly clone your existing Windows onto it. Another way of enabling a better user experience is to replace the graphics card (HW) in your computer, possibly buying a second-hand graphics card for gaming, that has much more graphics memory on it. If you can't or won't update the hardware, then please consider using a new laptop.

If you wish to keep the same SW operating system (i.e. Windows 7), then please check that the desired image editing software is compatible with that. I was surprised to see that darktable provides a Windows version too. Darktable is well-known to the linux/unix world, but it can be less user-friendly than the old SW you are accustomed to. YMMV. Not that Silkypix is extremely user friendly, anyway. I strongly recommend to update the SW (the ”Windows” OS) for security reasons, or at least never connect it to the internet.

I also got used to the old Silkypix image editing SW (you call it Developer Studio 3.0 LE, it's the same thing) that came bundled with my Pentax K-30, thus I bought later editions of that SW. See the SW vendor's page with two offerings, one for editing JPGs and the other for RAW development - Silkypix 11. Even though it isn't the best image editor out there, the fact that I am used to it and can do small edits very fast, things like those you mentioned, makes it a suitable choice of SW in case that the learning curve is too steep for other more advanced image editors out there. Beware that Silkypix 11 may run slow (or not at all) on your old HW. They offer a free 30-day trial.

[krazny]

Just to add to the list of available software in no particular order

Licenced:


On1 photo raw
Exposure
Luminar
Corel Aftershot Pro

Free:
Rawtherapee

Of all the ones listed in this thread so far I believe the Capture One is the most expensive ~ 300 $/€ for a licence. While the rest are closer to ~ 100 $/€.

All are available for free for a trial period 14-30 days. So technically you could give yourself about six months or so of free editing if you so desire.

Other than Silkypix I believe Rawtherepee is the only editor that supports Pixelshift. Please correct me if I am incorrect.

[BigMackCam]

Hi Pentax People,

I recently got a KP, which is very nice.
But the bundled editing software (Digital Camera Utility 5 by SilkyPix) is not.

It doesn't have one of the main features I use, 1/3 & 2/3 horizontal & vertical guidelines in the cropping window.

The bundled software with our K-50 from a few years ago (Developer Studio 3.0 LE by SilkyPix) does have these cropping guidelines, is far better, and I'm very happy with it.

But, for some unknown reason, this older Pentax-specific bundled software won't open files make by the KP or our K-5, in JPEG or RAW (DNG/ PEG).

I can't work out why files taken on Pentax DSLR cameras won't open in Pentax-specific bundled software.

Or why the later, newer and supposedly better software (Digital Camera Utility 5) doesn't even have the cropping window guidelines.

Digital Camera Utility 5 also runs much slower on my Windows 7 PC, there being a several second time lag between setting changes and image refresh.

Can anyone suggest:

How to get my Developer Studio 3.0 LE working with files from the KP & K-5?

How to get Digital Camera Utility 5 to display cropping window guidelines?

What free / inexpensive software is good for editing JPEG & RAW files?

I don't need particularly powerful editing abilities, like Photoshop has.
I just like to crop, alter exposure / contrast / colour balance / rotation.
All the things you'd do in the darkroom, in days gone by.
Developer Studio 3.0 LE is fine for my needs.

I don't like renting software (like current Adobe Lightroom), I prefer to 'own' it (like my old Photoshop 5.5, which unfortunately doesn't have cropping window guidelines).

Why doesn't my Pentax software work with my Pentax files?
Why is the newer bundled software significantly worse than that bundled several years ago?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks - D

I suspect the old Developer Studio 3.0 LE was intentionally limited through licensing arrangements with the authors of SilkyPix to open files only from certain camera models. As I recall, this software wasn't provided with higher-end Pentax models at the time, but was aimed more at consumer-level cameras.

Digital Camera Utility 5 is actually a decent piece of software, but it's quite hungry on system resources and doesn't run well on older and/or lower-specification PCs. It's fast enough on my high end laptop, but still slower than tools such as Darktable, RawTherapee, Adobe Lightroom etc.

Given your relatively modest requirements, I'd try Faststone Image Viewer. It has all the basic editing functions I think you'll need, including rule-of-thirds cropping guidelines. It's free, quick, and should run just fine on Windows 7

[Not a Number]

You can upgrade from 3.0 LE to the full blown Studio 11 or Studio Pro 11 for a reduced price.
Minimum requirements:

• Microsoft® Windows® 11 / 10 / 8.1 64-bit version
  * It does not correspond to the Windows® 10 tablet mode.
  * It does not correspond to 32-bit version OS.
• Intel® Core™ 2 Duo or higher, or AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 or higher processor
• Graphic board compatible with DirectX 10 or higher.
• 4GB or more RAM (8GB or higher recommended)
• 20GB of available hard-disk space or more
  * Composing selected images may require over 50GB of free space.
• Display that supports screen resolution of 1024×768 or higher

See the price table for upgrade price:
ISL Online Store

[ivar_bg]

FastStone is a fast and free option...

[joelbolden]

I use Affinity, fairly low cost ( £47-99 on Serifs website ), You can also get
a free trial from there as well. Serif website version works with
Windows® 7 (Service Pack 1; Platform Update KB2670838; Aero enabled),
Microsoft store versions does not support windows 7.
It works on RAW (PEF) files from my K10D & K1ii.

I've been using Affinity for several years now, even though I also use the Adobe package. It does provide several download versions. If you choose to stick with an outdated/not supported OS, you'll have problems with most up-to-date photo editing S/W, so Affinity offering several download options is a good bet. As stated, there are trial versions.

[The Squirrel Mafia]

I have a KP and as software I use GIMP for Jpeg files, and for Raw files I use Darktable I find it Excellent even if at first the interface found it difficult.There are many videos on youtube on how to use it.Both programs are free.

https://www.darktable.org/

Yeap. GIMP is free & it's also similar to Photoshop. You can convert your RAW images to jpegs with DCU5 & then use GIMP to crop or to do additional edits.

GIMP - GNU Image Manipulation Program

You can also add GMI'C to GIMP. It adds more functions to GIMP.

https://gmic.eu/

But yeah. That might be far more than what you need.

[IsaacReaves]

I'll add another vote for Darktable, as I find it to be an extremely powerful editor similar to Adobe Lightroom. It seems intimidating at first but after a week or two of using it the modules start to make sense. What I like about DT is that the masking tools are consistent for each of the modules and can be reused. For example, if I work up a simple radial mask for the Levels tool, i can reuse the same mask for Local Contrast or vice versa. Once you get the hang of it, its quite excellent and fast.

Rawtherapee is another open source option you can try out. It's capable of making the same results as the best editors but I didn't find the windows and controls to fit very well on my smaller laptop screen.

Cheers