New to Raw conversion

[michael_patrick]

I'm a new 1D shooter and had a D60 for 6 months before that. Honestly, I never shot in RAW mode with the D60, but after a weekend of a large indoor soccer tourney, I had several great action shots that I had to crop a little more than usual. Naturally, with more crop comes less detail, bordering on the fine line between barely useable, and trash. I'm thinking that if these were shot in RAW that more of these might be salvageable. If my understanding is correct, there is more image info in RAW, to work with.I've read, (many times) that the Canon Raw conv. software is slow and generally poor. Can someone set me straight on what RAW conversion software would combine ease of use, along with an efficient workflow. Everything I'll be shooting for the local paper will be fine JPEG, but portraits and re-prints of sports action will benifit from the addition of RAW detail. BTW, I'm on a PC. Thanks, as usual, Mike

[Uwe_Steinmueller]

If you want to save time then Capture One DSLR is the solution. Have a look at our RAW conversion series (with capture one review):
http://www.outbackphoto.com/artofraw/index.html

There is also a lot of info in our handbook:
http://www.outbackphoto.com/handbook...rocessing.html

Uwe

[michael_patrick]

I can see that Capture One DSLR is probably a fine prog, but, as my newspaper stuff is all JPG, I wouold be using it mostly in conjunction with work that is not so time sensetive. My only drawback, is shelling out the $650.00 for a CD,(the only way I would order this prog.) Is there other software that will accomplish raw conversion,(albeit slower)with basically the same results, or is the Capture One so far superior to anything else at the present time, that it is simply a "must have"? Thanks again, mm [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

[Lon_Larsen]

You could shoot in RAW+Jpeg and convert only the images that needed work after you reviewed the Jpegs. I however am a C1 user and love the program. I have gone to shooting RAW all the time. I have used C1 for 5 basketball games, and my images are so much better than when I shot in Jpeg only and processed in Photoshop. I save so much time too. C1 is worth the investment.

[Uwe_Steinmueller]

Clearly the C1 workflow is the best I have seen. Download the 30 day demo and see yourself. You can save hours!

Uwe

I can understand your feels about shelling out $650 for a RAW conversion program. You can get very good results with programs like BreezeBrowser or YarcPlus. These programs are in the $40 range and both offer free trail periods. The Canon basic SDK conversion program is a free download.

With many, you can convert into normal TIFF files or Linear TIFF files or a combination of both.

I have yet to find a Linear conversion program that gives good results and although in theory, Linear is supposted to offer better results, I have not seen it happen. Some loose resolution and others give inaccurate colors and lots of artifacts.

[Rob_Galbraith]

FYI, Capture One DSLR is about US$500 for a boxed copy purchased from a dealer. The much higher price on the Phase One web site is clearly designed to encourage purchasers to do so through a Phase One retailer.

-Rob Galbraith