Raw Software

Peter10d

Peter10d

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Peter
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Anyone aware of any free RAW convertor software. I have always shot JPEG format up until now, but I would like to give RAW a try before purchasing any expensive software. Some people say there is a big difference between RAW and JPEG, others say it is minimal, so I would like to check for myself.
 
Use the Canon software that came with the camera.
 
If you are going to use the Canon DPP software, use the latest version, not the one that's on the 10D disk. It was a bit pants back then.

You might also like to look at the Phase One software Capture One. Not free, but has a 15 day trial. I used to use this prior to Lightroom. Some say the latest version has one of the best RAW conversion programs available today
 
If you want free, another vote for the Canon DPP software. You will eeed to use the disk that came with your Camera, then update it from the Canon site I think.

However it is also worth using the 30 day Lightroom trial, as I find Lightroom much moure intuitive and well worth the £200!
 
I should have advised that unfortunately I have since lost the Canon software disc that came with the camera. The idea of a free trial sounds good. Does there tend to be much difference between all the different software out there or do they all do much the same job?
 
All of the software mentioned really does a similar job. Each has it's own way of converting the data but unless you are trying to exact the last bit of data they in general produce similar results. However how you get there is different. I would suggest that Lightroom/ Adobe ACR in Photoshop has the most flexible an easy to use user interface, with the ability to make numerous adjustments.

I would warn you however that once you've used it in anger, it's difficult to use anything else
 
I can seriously reccomend Raw Therapee. It's really good and free, comes with loads of features that I rarely use, and has never caused me any problems.
 
Thanks for the info. When I bought my camera several years ago, the shop assistant advised me that due to the amount of preset parameters on these cameras, there was no requirement to post process the image. However I get the impression that most people are shooting in RAW, therefore I assume there must be a significant difference to JPEG ?
 
It gives you control of the final output. It's more work, but generally you get better images.
 
With JPEG you decide on the processing before you take the photo, or the camera will decide if you have it in a "Picture" mode. If you decide wrong, or the camera is fooled, then you can do some re-processing on the computer but the quality will suffer.

With raw you decide on the processing after taking the photo, and you can review the result and change it, adjust it , alter it etc as often as you like without losing quality.
 
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