RAW

<p>Does anyone know of a free canon RAW converter?, I have a 7D and photoshop CS2.<br>

Any help would be much appreciated.</p>

<p>Your 7D came with Canon Digital Photo Professional, which will have no problem converting your RAW files.</p>

<p>You can also convert your RAW files to DNG and open the DNG files in CS2. This is done with Adobe's free conversion tool.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I recommend against the DNG/CS2 path. It works, but you end up with high noise levels due to an artifact called mazing.</p>

<p>Canon's DPP does a good job but it's missing some key controls. Also it's a cumbersome workflow.</p>

<p>You can download Lightroom 3 beta for free. It does a great job. However it's a trial license with an expiry date. I'm using it as a stopgap solution.</p>

<p>Raw therapee is free and it works with 7D files. Output is not bad, but the workflow is cumbersome.</p>

<p>+1 for using DPP, since you should already have it</p>

<p>Arie, I've been using DNG to convert RAW files from my 5D Mk. II for CS3 with absolutely no noise problems, even at ISO 1600.</p>

<p>J., you don't say which OS you're using, but here's the link to the download for Adobe DNG for Windows:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4620">http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4620</a></p>

<p>Try it. It's free, so there's nothing to lose. If you don't like it, you can always use one of the other options...</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I also 3rd or is it 4th for DPP or DNG conversion either way your 7D will be nicely served.</p>

<p>I'd like to hear more about the DNG noise problem, I've been converting on import for awhile now and haven't noticed the problem.</p>

<p>If you google "Canon 7D maze artifacts" or something like that, you'll find lots of info.</p>

<p>As an example, check out this link and scroll down to the sample photo with the kids, halfway down the page:<br>

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/842418</p>

<p>The issue is that the 7D sensor has a color filter with an RGBg pattern where one of the greens has an expanded spectrum. If you feed a RAW converter a DNG file from a 7D, and if the RAW converter doesn't recognize the special format, it'll assume that both greens are the same (RGBG pattern). This leads to mazing artifacts. There's a ton of stuff in the Fred Miranda 7D master thread, but it's a long read (many hundreds of posts). If you're bored and/or you're into signal processing, start with the post by "thesuede" halfway down the page here:<br>

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/809801/100</p>

<p>i've heard people say canon's DPP is the best for RAW to JPEG conversion. same people seem to like other software for further tweaking.<br>

this may not be the case anymore. i only use DPP</p>

<p>Ys, DPP is a bit slow but it depends on how many images you need to manipulate. I like the output of DPP and view all images in zoombrowser before I decide which ones need more work in RAW. It is not many so the additional time compared to other converters does not worry me.</p>

<p>Here is <a href="http://www.cybercom.net/~dcoffin/dcraw/">DCRAW</a> , a command line decoder usable under Linux used with gPhoto (with ports to Windows and other OSs.) It may not interest everybody people, but the web page has a link to around 50 different raw decoder programs for you to look through.</p>