Any free RAW converters out there?

[Dierk Haasis]

After the imminent demise of RS|e, the free version, and a highly competitive market section around the $120 mark, are there any other free RAW converters out there?

[Diane Fields]

Of course if you are a Canon shooter, there is DPP. Other than that, I know of none. Its sort of the case you get what you pay for LOL. I will continue to use RSP/CE and C1 with ETC profiles for the time being. I will also download the upgrade for Bibble--but the interface puts me off there---and there is no camera profiling possible.

[John Ferguson]

I read the Helicon Noise filter has built in RAW support now. It has a free version.

If you haven't checked out the latest version of DPP, recommend giving it another look. It has a built in auto curves button that works very well. The landscape DPP setting gives very nice greens without oversaturating them to yellow like some other converters.

[Dierk Haasis]

Originally Posted by Diane Fields

Its sort of the case you get what you pay for LOL.

To give you a bit of background to my question: RS|e was the converter I could easily recommend to people asking me (or not), it was cheap but capable and, most important, non-proprietary in regard to file formats. DPP, ZoomBrowser, PictureProject, Nikon View and all other give-aways from cmaera manufacturers can usually only work with their own RAW formats. In the case of Nikon (PP and View) the converters do nothing more than what their cameras could do.

As long as RAWShooter is available I could still recommend it but what about later?

[Harvey Moore]

Does every camera that has raw as an option not ship with a converter for its raw files?

[Dierk Haasis]

Yes, for its but not for others. And they aren't always capable of even the most rudimentary changes (see my Nikon comment).

[Harvey Moore]

Originally Posted by Dierk Haasis

Yes, for its but not for others. And they aren't always capable of even the most rudimentary changes (see my Nikon comment).

It appears that you are looking for a raw converter as universal as possible as far as camera models are concerned, with extended image adjustments, and free

I think Diane's comment regarding you get what you pay for applies here. As the saying goes, "There aint no such thing as a free lunch".

In Pixmantecs case the initial entry was no cost giving them market exposure and many "beta" testers before they released the pay version with a lot more features.

In Canon's case, they ship DPP with the camera and it is updatable at no cost, but it is by no means free. The cost of it is in the hardware cost.

Support by other hardware mfrs raw utilities varies by brand as pointed out. I do not think you are going to find much without paying some price.

Maybe a search of shareware will reveal something close.

[scott kirkpatrick]

Originally Posted by Harvey Moore

Does every camera that has raw as an option not ship with a converter for its raw files?

My Ricoh GR-D produces RAW DNG files, for which it sends along a copy of Adobe Elements (with ACR). Dave Coffin's DC-Raw also reads vanilla DNG, using the parameters as found, no camera profiles. So small manufacturers that produce a raw file are the first converts to DNG -- it saved them a software development bill, and left someone else with the problem of getting the most out of their raw files.

[Rense Posthumus]

You can try dpMagic minilab.
It wil cost you $12 a a year.

[Daniel Harrison]

Please check this out, it could be interesting as it develops in the future. It even supports linux!

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...ssage=19187667