Where to get Pentax PhotoLab?

[jonathan_rush]

Where can I obtain the Pentax PhotoLab software you guys are always discussing?

My K100D came with the ACDsee discs. ACDsee's stuff is fine for a beginner like

me, but I'd like to start playing around with RAW photos and some of the

features that have been mentioned here. When I search on Pentax's website, I

find updates to the PhotoLab software, but they assume you've already got the

disc with the software.

[denys_meunier]

I think your wright,I just see the upgrade to,you need the disc,may be if you surf the net you can get the download,not sure,but if you want playing with raw,I suggest photoshop element 6 with the new version for raw image,i have the CS3 and I'm pretty sure its the same program for the raw,I never use the photo lab for raw image,I prefer photoshop,its my opinion.You can get the photoshop element 6 for around 100.00$.

[mc2imaging]

If you shoot a large amount of RAW, you might want to consider Aperture (Mac only) or

Lightroom (Mac or PC). The tools you need most often (exposure, saturation, white balance,

crop, rotate, etc...) are readily available and you can do batch processing as well. Post

processing is WAY faster than running everything through photoshop, and you can play with

multiple versions of the same image w/o using up a bunch of disc space...

[william-porter]

<p>Jonathan,</p>

 

<p>Have you tried contacting Pentax customer support? I don't use the Pentax software that came with my cameras, but I assume that it only works with PEF files, and for that reason, I can't think why Pentax would deny anybody a copy of the software.</p>

 

<p>My impression is that the Pentax Photo Lab software is decent, and although I don't use it myself, I often recommend that people who have it, give it a try before spending money on something else. But if you're going to spend money later on, you will have lots of options. I use Adobe Lightroom mainly to organize and evaluate my photos. It's a very decent processor, as well, but these days, I tend to do my editing/processing mostly in Light Crafts LightZone. So I'm using both programs: LR for file management (at which it's great) and LightZone for editing (at which it's great). Unfortunately this is not a cheap combination.</p>

 

<p>Aside from Lightroom, LightZone, and Apple Aperture (Mac OS X only), there are lots of other choices. Bibble/Bibble Pro is powerful and very affordable. Silkypix is another program that's reputed to be pretty good. And Raw Shooter Essentials was available for a while as a free download and may still be. <a href="http://www.photo-freeware.net/raw-shooter-essentials.php">Here's one link you can try</a>. Don't know if it supports PEF raw files or not. Raw Shooter Essentials was a hot program in 2006, so innovative that Adobe bought the company (Pixmantec) and now the chief folks from the old RSE team are working on Lightroom.</p>

<p>Oh, and of course there's the (mysteriously) ever-popular Photoshop, in both the XXL version known as CS3, and the more manageable L version known as Adobe Photoshop Elements. I like Adobe Lightroom. Photoshop, not so much. But Denys Meunier points out, you can get Elements for a pretty good price. It provides all the tools you need: organization, and editing. I own it. I never use it.</p>

[mountainvisions]

I was evaluating the full version of Silky Pix, and WOW!!!!

 

First thing, the Pentax version (which I like and use) is a joke compared to Silkypix full version.

 

This is by far the best RAW converter I've used.

 

It made my D1H images look darn close to my K10D, while Camera RAW (Adobe) made them look dull and lifeless.

 

It will be hard not to buy it, but it's also $300. I wish they made an in between version or a Pentax user upgrade. Anything to knock that $300 down a bit.

 

Anyway, I really like the SilkyPix program but those of you that would judge Silkypix based on the supremely scaled down PPL version don't know what you are missing.

[john carter]

PhotoLab, will process DNG RAW files.

[davidwarman]

Not sure you really want to if you are Mac based. The only save mode that renders anything is Extract to JPEG. And no compression control. Everything else - tiff, or printing (!) - just yields a slightly grey blank image with a date on the lower right. And yes, I did get the latest upgrade from the Pentax site.

 

If anyone knows the fix please do tell. At the very least, I need to convert PEF to something the other images processors can use!

[davidwarman]

Turns out you might be better served by the latest Gimp release. yes, Pentax recent update fixed the problems I had, but it is still very slow and limited. The Gimp, OTOH, can now read .pef files natively.