Adobe of Borg assimilates RawShooter

[don_e]

"that hardly anyone will be shooting jpg's anymore?"

 

Eric

 

I've spent the last 3 weeks looking for a new fixed lens digital raw shooter. I went through each and every camera on dpreview's 'Timeline" for 2006. So far this year, it lists one: Olympus SP 320, which is hardly new.

 

Canon no longer makes one. They no longer make the Pro or the G Series, and the latest S, the 80, has no raw mode. It looks like we will be shooting jpeg unless we all buy dslr's -- which means we have odds of seeing the "advanced" or "slr-like" fixed lens digitals being replaced with some cheap dslr body and a crap kit lens from China that'll make one long for the FZ30 or G6.

 

Has anyone heard any news about a FZ40, G7, LX2, or R2?

 

I need a raw mode compact digital in my work. I don't need a dslr. If it comes to that I'll go 4x5 -- or buy back my Fe2 and darkroom, shoot b&w and be happy.

 

fussed by it all,

 

 

Don E

[EricM]

Don, I'm hanging onto my Canon S70 like gold. I hear you!

[eugene_scherba]

Why all the tears after Pixmantec? I tried their product once, never

really liked it, replaced it with Bibble, and discovered it is much

better quality-wise.

[Richard Williams]

Thanks for the correction Joseph. I tried your link but I just get an error message: 'Resistance is Futile'. This one seems to work, though:

 

http://www.rawmagick.com

[sean de merchant httpw]

I can give two suppositions for the purchase (beyond the unethical but legal buy what you cannot beat):

 

1) RAW conversion in RSE/RSP is hands down flat out superior in low light and high constrast shots with far less shadow noise when noise reduction is turned off.

 

2) RSE/RSP uses the SSE instruction set (Altivec for x86) and it is faster and more responsive as a result. Apple now supports SSE with the introduction of Intel CPUs in Macs.

 

Personally, I would love to have a hybrid between RSE/RSP and ACR as they both have their strong suits.

 

some thoughts,

 

Sean

[ted_marcus1]

I (fortunately) never bought RawShooter Premium, but I used RawShooter Essentials (RSE) as my preferred raw converter with Paint Shop Pro until Corel effectively sold me Photoshop CS2. I prefer RSE's image quality and usability over either of the two raw converters Canon provided with my 350D. When I got Photoshop I switched to Adobe Camera Raw. Its image quality is as good as RSE, and it corrects chromatic aberration better (important if you've got an ultra-wide lens). It also integrates better with Bridge and Photoshop.

 

But I still keep RSE around and use it on certain "problem" images because of its unique "fill" slider that opens up shadows. Photoshop's Shadow/Highlight tool does the same thing (and also tones down highlights). But RSE works on raw data before conversion, which reduces noise and artifacts. Also, since different raw converters take different approaches, RSE sometimes does a better job than Camera Raw for particular images.

 

It's good to have a choice of tools. Adobe's acquisition reduces that choice, with the only apparent benefit to Adobe in its lust for market domination. It also deprives Paint Shop Pro users of a good raw converter, something that I'm sure Adobe's executives consider a benefit from the deal (to themselves, that is).