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Will Silkypix 3 be a major contender in RAW conversion?

John Burkus

New member
I have been trying DxO 4, Lightroom, Silkypix 3 and Nikon's Capture NX. Here are some subjective thoughts to add to the ongoing dicussion.

DxO 4

Pro: Like the display and work process flow
Has a professional 'feel' to it
Lens correction a great plus
Muliple output choices
Sharp pictures but tends to overexpose a bit

Con:Slow in upadating
Slow in processing
A bit pricy

Lightroom

Pro: Well on the way to being a great piece of software with lots of features
Nice layout and flow to it
Free final version for Rawshooter users

Con: Too long in the development process
Colours still lack richness

Silkypix 3

Pro: New design and work flow a real winner
More options than one could dream of wanting
Fast with lots of real time changes
Great, crystal clear and vibrant pictures

Con: Their manuals are still the pits. They need someone like Jason Odell to do " A Photographers Guide to Capture NX" for Silkypix asap.


Capture NX

Pro: For Nikon users, like myself, this is the software for great, crisp, saturated pictures. No other software comes close except for Silkypix. I can still pick out the NX processed photo from all the others. Might just be my visual preference.

Con: Those disappearing panels drive me crazy each time I have to activate them. Can't believe that this got into the final product. This is not rocket science.
Their manual is not the greatest either. IMHO opinion Jason's saving their bacon with his new book.
 
John_Nevill said:
The highlight controller has some presets for highlight dampening, this did a good job on sunsets etc. (have you tried it?)

The CA tool has a picker which calculates CA, just click the aberration and its gone.

Did you notice that a lot of the tools adjust there default settings depending upon inage?

I have played around some more, where is a lot of new things that I missed when I was running the Japanese beta. I'm still not completly happy with the highlight handling, the luminosity and Hue is OK but I'm loosing details for some strange reason. LR B4 is really good at getting detail in highlight areas but is more tricky with Hue.
The CA tool works fine but I would have preffered to have it done automatically as in DxO (with an option to turn it off).
I haven't noticed any setting changing between untouched images , can you give some samples ?

The "Skin color tool" seems to be usefull on some images with mixed light sorces where you have problem to find some neutral reference for normal WB. If you press the shift and hold it before selecting the tool you can do left click and drag to create sample areas in different areas of a portrait. Clicking just a point didn't work that good on the picture I tried.

The Fine color controller is one of my favorites that has imroved in SP3, the 8 colors are larger so it's easier to use the mouse for Hue/Sat. Many times I use only the lightness slider get what I want.
A feature I never found in the Japanese beta was the Cloakroom (SP dev versions), it poops up when you press the wheel symbol in the upper left corner of the development panel. As before you can save the parameter setting and use them on other pictures.

BR/ Stefan Hellstrom
 

Denis de Gannes

New member
I have used Silkypix (SP) for over one year since it came out in English version. I have always considered it a major contender in the raw converter market. While I have used RSP as my converter of choice because of its ease of use and speed I find myself coming back to SP, when I need to make special large prints at 13" x 19" or larger, for the great color and resolution it produces in the end. The advanced features it offers are second to none and the results justify the effort needed in understanding the manual. (The translation appears to be done by someone whose native language is Japanese maybe they need an English speaking translator who understands Japanese.) I just hope the upgrade to version 3 is not too expensive.
 
Denis de Gannes said:
I just hope the upgrade to version 3 is not too expensive.
I wouldn't call it cheap, the "Generous treatment price" for SP3 is 12 800 Yen (=86 Euro) on the Japanese market if you own SP2 or 1.
The sharp version of SP version 3.0 was released on the Japanese market 25th of September.

BR/ Stefan Hellstrom
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Stefan Hellstrom said:
I wouldn't call it cheap, the "Generous treatment price" for SP3 is 12 800 Yen (=86 Euro) on the Japanese market if you own SP2 or 1.
The sharp version of SP version 3.0 was released on the Japanese market 25th of September.

BR/ Stefan Hellstrom

What is the reason for calling it "sharp"?

Asher
 
Asher Kelman said:
What is the reason for calling it "sharp"?

Asher

Sorry Asher, sharp was not a good word in combination with photo software. We use "sharp version" at work as a slang expression for released documents or software. For software we use:
Beta -> Release Candidate -> "Sharp version"
Anyway Silkypix started to sell 3.0 the 25th of September in Japan.
The first Beta version in Japanese came out during the spring so the English Beta is very stable.

BR Stefan
 
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