The end of DPP?

I was just on the US Canon website looking for update for DPP and found that it

is no longer available for 5D customers.

 

They claim in the download library that current version is 1.0.0? I have version

3.0.4 on my Mac. What is going on?

Sorry I had pop ups disabled. I love that program!

Yep, DPP 3 just came out a month or so ago. Pretty sweet upgrade.

The end to DPP may be Photoshop CS3. Adobe has borrowed or imitated features of DPP, like click white-balance. And unlike DPP, CS3 doesn't strip out metadata you have dutifully entered on raw files. I switched from CS2 to DPP 3.0 for quality and operability reasons. Now I've switched to CS3 for the same reasons. CS3 permits more control in conversion, permitting even cloning out of dust spots before conversion.

I think this is no more than one of Canon's periodic glitches on their US website. It's all available here in a choice of languages and operating systems:

 

http://software.canon-europe.com/products/0010252.asp

DPP 3 represents major development from DPP 1, and has the potential to become a Really Useful Engine, so it would be quite surprising if Canon dropped it. I would also be surprised if they merged DPP, which is a very business-like piece of software, with ZoomBrowser - already it's a bit like the difference between Adobe InDesign and MS Publisher, for those that know their DTP software.

 

DPP 3 now has per-frame noise reduction control. I keep pointing out (please listen, Canon) that there are three more tasks ideally done at raw conversion time that would make it into a killer app: correction for vignetting, distortion, and CA. Even having manual controls for these would be welcome, but an automatic option that looked up the required corrections in a database of Canon lenses would be fantastic. The technology exists - DxO can do all or most of this (at silly prices) and PTLens can do some of it (for micromoney) - but only after raw conversion.

"The end to DPP may be Photoshop CS3. Adobe has borrowed or imitated features of DPP,

like click white-balance. And unlike DPP, CS3 doesn't strip out metadata you have dutifully

entered on raw files."

 

Does CS3 read camera parameters embedded in RAW files? The prior versions didn't and

wasted lots of my time retweaking. One of the nicest features of DPP is it opens your RAW

file at the camera default thus saving the bother of trying to recreate your fav Picture Style,

saturation, color tone, WB, etc. It even opens my custom pic style as default. Besides CS3

will have a hard time competing with DPP3's price. I'm finding it difficult to find a reason to

upgrade my old version of PS...

"The end to DPP may be Photoshop CS3. Adobe has borrowed or imitated features of DPP, like click white-balance."

 

ACR has had those features from inception.

 

"Does CS3 read camera parameters embedded in RAW files?"

 

I doubt it, it uses sidecar files to store tweaks; this is in fact more sensible from archiving and data security point of view.

 

I am running CS2 at present but I have heard the CS3 converts everything to Adobe Digital Negative format; anyone know if this can be turned off so you can just work with the original RAWs?

<I>I have heard the CS3 converts everything to Adobe Digital Negative format; anyone know if this can be turned off so you can just work with the original RAWs?</i><P>

 

My copy of CS3 doesn't do that. It just keeps the original Canon RAW files intact. Good luck!

Lester, CS3 does not by default convert everything to DNG format. You can convert your RAW files to DNG if you wish, but it is not required, unless you wish to work in RAW and your camera's RAW format is not yet supported by CS3/ACR.

Mark U thank for the link. Canon changed the website a little. The FireFox showed a pop up but even with disabling the pop it wouldn't open new a window. The Euro link works much better.

 

Thanks

"I keep pointing out (please listen, Canon) that there are three more tasks ideally done at raw conversion time that would make it into a killer app: correction for vignetting, distortion, and CA."

 

I once used Silkypix for a trial period, instead of DPP, and noticed all of a sudden there was some chromatic abberation present which could then be tuned away. The absence of it in DPP leads me think Canon may have built in CA correction (note: I used the EF 28mm f/2.8).

 

What DPP most badly needs is better highlight recovery. With this I mean not only white, but also the reds and oranges. Even with underexposing it these colors still bleed to a patches without detail. Try recovering and you will end up either with a very dark image and/or everything is desaturated except the reds you wanted to save....

But generally I am very happy with it. Version 3 is slower rendering, though :(

 

Oscar

<i>What DPP most badly needs is better highlight recovery.</i>

 

<p>Strange. <a href="http://www.tedsimages.com/text/kuausst.htm">This picture of a sunset</a> had problems with noticeable banding artifacts in the overexposed highlights when I processed it in ACR and ("legacy") Raw Shooter Essentials. Out of desperation, I tried it in DPP. Although it didn't recover anything in the burned-out areas, it gave me a nice usable image with no artifacts.

 

<p>I normally don't use DPP. I don't like the user interface, and it offers no way to remove the purple fringing my Tokina 12-24 likes to produce (ACR easily gets rid of it). But I keep it around because it's good to have different raw converters available. ACR works well for me most of the time, but sometimes completely different software may yield better results for a particular image. I normally have no use for Zoom Browser and RIT, but I know that some day I'll have a file for which RIT's emulation of the camera's processing provides the best results.

Comparing DPP and ACR I very much wish Adobe would add the capability to clone stamp via ACR like you can in DPP but storing this as meta data in the sidecar file.