RAW developer for MRW

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morello69@libero.it - 30 Jul 2006 01:09 GMT

Hi, everybody. Which is, in your opinion, the best RAW developer for
Minolta RAW files? I have Dimage Master, but it's so slow it's
unusable. Now, I'm using Bibble (ver. 4.4): good but not so clear, not
user friendly ....

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David Kilpatrick - 30 Jul 2006 12:11 GMT

> Hi, everybody. Which is, in your opinion, the best RAW developer for
> Minolta RAW files? I have Dimage Master, but it's so slow it's
> unusable. Now, I'm using Bibble (ver. 4.4): good but not so clear, not
> user friendly ....

There's some loss of colour accuracy - which Dimage Master does best -
but for speed and ease of use, the best bet is a new edition of
Photoshop Elements 4.0 (Windows or Mac) which costs about £69 UK,
probably less elsewhere, and does a very good job with .MRW files in
terms of detail, lack of artefacts, contrast, exposure adjustment etc.
The main benefit is speed. It's simply much, much faster than any other
converter and you get to edit the image directly with a full set of
tools once opened.

David

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Alan Browne - 30 Jul 2006 18:43 GMT

I make do with Elements 3.0 and will be upgrading to PS CS2 in the not
too distant future.

It is not easy to get the colours correct, however ... I find Elements
.MRW import to give a dull yellow cast and it takes some effort to get
it right. (At that the 7D in-camera JPG's have a very good, slightly
saturated, colour rendition (Embedded Adobe RGB mode)).

Since Elements is RGB oriented for the info probe, I'm upgrading to CS2
as you can get the full YMC info while running over the iamge and that
is the better way to get skin tones nailed (Yel/Mag).

Cheers,
Alan.

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POHB - 31 Jul 2006 13:24 GMT

Dimage is so slow its enough to put you off taking RAW images if its
your first foray.

Pixmantec Raw Shooter is good value (free) and has plenty of settings
to fiddle with, although you then need to use another tool for anything
other than the RAW conversion. Get it while you can because they've
just been swallowed up by the Adobe machine
http://www.pixmantec.com/products/rawshooter_essentials.asp

Picassa works fine with MRW files, although to my eyes the images are
less sharp than those from Pixmantec. It is very fast for viewing,
sorting etc and basic stuff like cropping, but again you need something
else for detailed tweaking.

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Stanislav Meduna - 31 Jul 2006 14:16 GMT

> > Hi, everybody. Which is, in your opinion, the best RAW developer for
> > Minolta RAW files? I have Dimage Master, but it's so slow it's
> > unusable. Now, I'm using Bibble (ver. 4.4): good but not so clear,
> > not user friendly ....

> Pixmantec Raw Shooter is good value (free) and has plenty of settings
> to fiddle with, although you then need to use another tool for anything
> other than the RAW conversion. Get it while you can because they've
> just been swallowed up by the Adobe machine
> http://www.pixmantec.com/products/rawshooter_essentials.asp

But note that it is unclear whether you will be able
to register it on a new machine or after a reinstall
after the Adobe Lightroom is released. So while this
is probably a good solution for existing users, it is
well possible that if the OP switches to it, he'll need
to switch again a few months later. OTOH, maybe he
don't mind...

I am using the RawShooter now. Personally I don't like
the Lightroom beta (for various reasons) and looking for
an alternative to the RS the Bibble looks very interesting.
I also wouldn't say that the RS is more user friendly
than Bibble - but YMMV.

OP: I'd say that if you already have a Bibble license,
upgrade to a recent version (4.8, should be a free upgrade)
and use this until the situation regarding RawShooter
Essentials, Lightroom etc. clears up.

Regards

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Stano

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Christina Robertson - 31 Jul 2006 13:59 GMT

I use Pixmantec's Raw Shooter as well and like it. The only time I
find it slow is when it first loads the images in a directory. I
usually navigate to the directory I want, go off and get myself
something to drink and come back to find it ready to work. Actual RAW
conversion is quite fast and works inthe background while I tweak the
next file.

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