Which RAW soft is yours???

[AjP]

Hey guys, I'm sorry if this subject was on before, just would like to see which RAW converters are most popular

[ndsimm]

I usewd to use Pixmantec's RawShooter essentials (Free download), but just recently started using Adobe Camera as part of Adobe Bridge (came with CS2). Much faster and works better.....

[awsilver]

Mostly Adobe CS2 RAW...works, fast, and best of all...it works!

[Hogleg 44]

I have a bunch of converters..AdobeCS2, Bibble, Breeze, C1, Helicon, RawShooter, The two Canon programs, and some others that will also do converting.

Here is my take on them from my point of view. Your take is probably different!

I voted for both C1 as a first place and Adobe as a real close second (didn't it would let me vote vote two) because I use the both of them mostly.
I use C1 most, because it just naturally is the easiest for me to get what I want quickly, but the actual processing is much slower.
Adobe is slower for me to use but seems to have more features, and does the processing much faster.
I have never really gotten the feel for Bibble. Using C1 seemed to just happen automatically for me but Bibble doesn't fall into place like C1.
I like the output of Breezebrowser, but it is extremely slow! And won't work in the background, so it takes a month of Sundays to get a big group of files converted. It won't let you convert individual files with different settings at the same time. You have to wait for one set to finish before you can start another set.
RawShooter is kind of like Bibble for me. The flow just isn't natural for me like C1.
Canon's DPP is good, but it I like the others better.
Any one of them can be better than any other in certain situations. Handling Noise is one problematic issue where Helicon shines brightest.
If I don't like the output on one I run the file through another until I find the conversion that suits me best.
( Different converters handle different situations differently! ugh...did I say that?)
I guess it all means for me is, there is no one perfect Converter....!!!

[Abel]

i definitely interested in opinions between CS2 Raw Converter and Capture 1

[billbunton]

I used to use C1, but they at least used to have a real problem with yellows. When ACR 1 came out I started using it for shots that were exhibiting the yellow problem, and C1 for everything else. Then a new C1 version became available that seemed to fix the yellows somewhat, but introduced a black one-pixel line across the top of each frame. I pretty much gave up on C1 at that point.

Now with ACR 3 the first thing I do, after backing up freshly downloaded raws, is convert them to DNG. I archive off a set of DNGs with the original raw embedded, then create a set without the original embedded and delete everything else.

I recently thought I'd try a comparison. C1 doesn't support DNG yet, neither does Bibble. RSE has partial support, but is having a problem (white squares appearing at random) with DNGs produced by ACR 3.2 (and DNG converter 3.2).

[Hogleg 44]

Originally Posted by billbunton

I used to use C1, but they at least used to have a real problem with yellows. When ACR 1 came out I started using it for shots that were exhibiting the yellow problem, and C1 for everything else. Then a new C1 version became available that seemed to fix the yellows somewhat, but introduced a black one-pixel line across the top of each frame. I pretty much gave up on C1 at that point.

That black line was supposed to be caused by a picture size bug in the new C1. Supposedly, if memory serves me properly, it was cured if you cleared the C1 cache, or whatever C1 calls it. It seems it had something to do with installing the new over the old. I didn't experience it because my trial version of the old expired some time before the new came out and I had un-installed it.

[jeffkohn]

I'm a diehard ACR user. Best workflow (for me), excellent results, and lots of power/flexibility. The calibration feature is truly unique among raw convertors and gives me the most consistent color reproduction, which is huge because even though I don't mind post-processing I hate messing with color casts and other color issues (reds that look too orange, purples that look too blue, etc).

Tip for Nikon shooters: if your camera supports uncompressed NEF you might want to consider using DNG as your "working format" (I'll leave it to you whether you archive the original NEF's). Compressed DNG's are just over half the size of the original NEF; slightly larger than a compressed NEF but unlike compressed NEF the compression in DNG is truly lossless (as opposed to "visually" lossless).

I tried C1 a few releases ago, didn't like it at all. Image quality wasn't as good as NC or ACR, and their UI was kinda funky, not to mention their white balance implementation which if I recall put "daylight" at 3500K (?!@?). Some people love the workflow, but IMHO if you use Photoshop much at all it's hard to beat the workflow with ACR.

[billbunton]

Originally Posted by Hogleg 44

That black line was supposed to be caused by a picture size bug in the new C1. Supposedly, if memory serves me properly, it was cured if you cleared the C1 cache, or whatever C1 calls it. It seems it had something to do with installing the new over the old. I didn't experience it because my trial version of the old expired some time before the new came out and I had un-installed it.

It may have been related to installing the new over the old, I can't recall if I did that. But in my case (and many others), the cure was to turn sharpening back on, but put all the settings at 0. It was caused by having sharpening turned off, and didn't happen if you left sharpening turned on to settings that didn't do any sharpening. That's about when I really started losing confidence in C1 :-)

[engstrom]

I've been using ACR for a year (PS CS until a couple weeks ago when I upgraded to CS2). I REALLY like the improvements in CS2 workflow. Gordon sent a link in another thread which has videos on how to use the bits and pieces of CS2. I watched the video on Bridge and ACR and now am able to process mutiple files in ACR under Bridge quickly and easily. Since ACR is a Bridge plugin you don't even need to open PS to save your images. Very cool!

[Jim Victory]

I have used C1, Bibble, Raw essentials, breezebrowser, DPP, and CS2-ACR. I didn't like C1 at all. Allot of people rave about it but I didn't like anything about it.

The new DPP is very good and slightly better than ACR on 5D files. Since the ACR converter for 5D files is a beta edition I expect it to be better when the full version is released. I use ACR for all of my other camera files.

[swanny338]

I use photoshop raw and C1 Pro

but Aperture from Apple looks quite quite nice

http://www.apple.com/aperture/

[brad]

Originally Posted by Jim Victory

I didn't like C1 at all. Allot of people rave about it but I didn't like anything about it.

I'm glad to see someone else say this. I hated C1 - I found it very counter-intuitive to use.. I used Paint Shop Pro's converter for a while, but discovered that at ISO's higher than 400, it was introducing an unacceptable amount of noise and artifacts into the image (it was doing it at 400 and below as well, but it wasn't as noticeable).... so I'm back to using Canon's converter again.