Canon EOS digital software

I'm looking at going digital , and i'm not sure whitch camera i'm

going to get yet, waiting on to see what the new realease is going

to be before i take the plunge. What i'm wondering about is how

difficult is the software that comes with the cannons is to use. Is

it something you can learn to use in a couple hours or do you need a

class to use it correctly. Thanks Paul

Paul, it really depends on what level of photo-editing skills you already posess. For instance, have you used Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Irfanview, ACDSee, etc...<br> The software that comes with the Canon DSLRs is quite reasonable and wouldn't require a class attendance, in my view...

Paul, I have had the DSLR Rebel for 20 months and have yet to use any Canon software. I download my pictures using a generic card reader plugged into a USB port. The images transfer from the media card to the computer's hard drive and you can do about anything you wish with the images. If you want to edit the images using some form of software, you will need to acquire that. You should have some basic knowledge of a computer however. Photoshop has some very simplistic software that works well for editing. i.e. Photoshop Elements 3 and 4. If you are more adept and desire more sophistication in editing, then there is Photoshop CS etc. There are many varieties of editing software which can be downloaded free. Two that come to mind are Irfanview and Picasa. Elements 3 serves my purposes. Hope this was helpful. Roger

Paul, For some reason, the initial post by me was submitted prematurely. Please disregard that and read this modification. I have had the DSLR Rebel for 20 months and have yet to use any Canon software. I download my pictures using a generic card reader plugged into a USB port. The images transfer from the media card to the computer's hard drive and you can do about anything you wish with the images. If you want to edit the images using some form of software, you will need to acquire that. You should have some basic knowledge of a computer however. Photoshop has some very simplistic software that works well for editing. i.e. Photoshop Elements 3 and 4. If you are more adept and desire more sophistication in editing, then there is Photoshop CS etc. There are many varieties of editing software which can be downloaded free. Two that come to mind are Irfanview and Picasa. Elements 3 serves my purposes. Hope this was helpful. Roger

Included with the 20D was a copy of PS Elements 2.0, and included with the Rebel XT was a copy of ArcSoft Photo Studio 5.5

 

I use Elements 2.0 from back when I was shooting film. You can teach yourself (in most cases) to use the basic functions of many photo editing programs. You will not "Have" to take a class. A lot of info can be picked up in the archives here at PN.

 

The simple auto functions in Elements are a good starting point, and you can learn what to do based on those functions. It just takes a little practice, and a little reading to get fairly proficient.

 

ArcSoft is even more simple, and straight forward. All you have to do is play with them a little. Have fun with them. It's a learning process, as is anything.

 

Mike

Early versions of Photoshop / Photoshop Elements cannot be updated to handle current RAW file formats, which is why the copy of Elements 2 still being shipped with the 20D is pretty much a waste of space. Elements 3 is (currently) fine; as far as editing capabilities are concerned, Elements 4 is just bloatware - it fails to add genuinely useful raw conversion capabilities (correction for CA, vignetting, and distortion) some of which are built into the full version of PS - but if you don't already have Elements 3 that is what you will find on the shelf. Combined with the PTLens plug-in, Elements 3/4 do a pretty good job on workflow for those who do not want to spend rather a lot of money on the full version of PS.

 

As far as the Canon software is concerned, EOS Viewer is now obsolescent, and as far as I know it has no capabilities missing from the combination of the latest versions of ZoomBrowser and Digitial Photo Pro. The one glaring omission from DPP is the inability to enter text into the Comments field or to read what is in it. So I use ZoomBrowser to check what I've got and add comments - I don't like the image management facilities that come in Elements 3 - and then do raw conversion and printing in Elements 3 once I have identified which image I want to load up.

 

What would make DPP really exciting would be the ability to correct for CA, distortion, and vignetting at raw conversion time, with a built-in database of the required corrections for all EOS lenses for each of those adjustments (like PTLens has for distortion) and for each camera body, to provide a starting-point, and for most purposes, end-point. Some corrections are distance-dependent, and for lenses that do not report distance, a bit of fine-tuning might be necessary.

If you don't have experience of image editing you would certainly benefit from getting advice - look in the Digital Darkroom forum.

<i>"the copy of Elements 2 still being shipped with the 20D is pretty much a waste of space"</i><P>But it does provide <a href="http://store.adobe.com/store/products/master.jhtml?id=catCanon">an attractive discount off the retail price of Photoshop CS2</a> ($299, direct from Adobe, U.S./Canada).

I have no experience with any photo editing software. I did browse the digital darkroom , but didn't find any info i was looking for. From what i understand there are different programs shipped with the different digital cameras. I do have basic knowledge of a computer and is there a magic lantern book for the software or the digital cameras. Thanks guys Paul

I didn't realise this discount was still going, but in any case I don't think it was ever valid in Europe.

Paul,

 

I have no idea what volume of images you're talking about, but what I don't see mentioned above is workflow. I have found Canon's DPP (starting with the original Digital Rebel up through the version provided with the 5D) to be quite awkward. Many professionals use an aftermarket raw processing workflow. I happen to use Capture One (C1 Raw). It has all the tools for adjusting exposure, contrast, curves, color temperature, hue, etc., and processes the files (to TIFF) in the background via a processing queue while you continue to tweak the rest of your images. I use a high speed card reader (internal) to copy the raw files directly from the CF card to a folder on a hard drive for working in C1. The conversions are significantly better than those with DPP - in my opinion.

 

After a wedding this past weekend, it only took me a couple of hours with C1 and PaintShop Pro (v8) to get approximately 315 images (20D and 5D) adjusted, converted and sharpened. I'll now make a second pass in PSP to make final adjustments to contrast and crop as needed.

 

I hope this is of some use to you.

 

Regards,

Rob

Maybe you didn't look very hard?

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a.tcl?topic_id=1701&category=Books

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a.tcl?topic_id=1701&category=Software%3eEditing

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a.tcl?topic_id=1701&category=Color+Management%3eCalibration

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a.tcl?topic_id=1701&category=Imaging+Techniques%3eRetouching

 

All areas I suggest you investigate...

My workflow usually involves browsing through my images with IrfanView, and then opening them for editing in PSE 3, which is equipped with PTLens and Noise Ninja plug-ins.

 

One thing I find missing (or I've been unable to find) is a way to view shooting data for the target image in an always-open window or panel in either IrfanView (click Image / Information, then EXIF button; must close to browse to the next image) or PSE 3 (click File / Properties (I believe; not at that PC) / Data 2; must close to continue to edit image). IrfanView's Thumbnail mode doesn't display shooting data, either.

 

Does anyone know if EOS Viewer or DPP ... both of which provide shooting data next to Thumbnails ... has the ability to launch any selected image in an external editor (i.e., PSE3)? I have both applications in my 20D software kit, of course; I just don't want to go through the hassle of installing, updating, exploring, removing, if someone can answer the question in advance. Or any other third-party program provide this capability?

Found exactly what I want in the PSE 3 File Browser (File / Browser Folders) and its Metadata Display Options.

 

It's amazing what you can find when you actually go looking for it ...