RAW file format

[MICKEY88]

I'd get a second opinion on using 4gig cards...

memory is cheap, if you like the results of raw, buy more memory and shoot raw, if you shoot raw for 1 card, then switch to jpeg for the rest at wdw, you might really regret it, if there is a big quality difference..

never totally trust a sales associate, they get get more commision on selling certain items at any given time, so their advice may be based on that..

I can give you some good leads on memory at much better prices than ritz...

 

[Anewman]

I would try to get a few 4gb cards, but if you find really good deals on 2gb cards 170 shots on a card is not horrible. Remember the film days????

Again if possible get 4gb cards, and I would advise you to shoot RAW+Jpeg until you get fully acquainted with the Raw conversion process and 4gb cards should still give you plenty of room.

 

[NostalgicDad]

Anyone know a range for the 4G? I was told by the Ritz guy that the 4Gers do not work well with the D80 so should I stick to a few more 2G or just do JPG for the trip or switch back and forth do a card with RAW and then the rest JPG?

Like MICKEY88 said, don't always trust tech info from a salesperson. I use Transcend 4GB SDHC and 8GB SHDC cards with my D80 and have never had a problem. They work fine. In fact, I've been impressed with the write speed of these particular cards.

If I recall, I believe the 8GB card will display 649 shots when shooting in RAW. Shooting fine JPEG, that number is well over 1000. That's not actually the number you will end up with since each file is a bit differrent in size but will be fairly close.

 

[Zoesmama03]

Thanks.

Mickey88 I'll ask around when I'm ready to buy. Don't want to waste your time since I cannot purchase right now. My brother is really into the some newegg shop so I'll check there too when ready. But thanks for the offer. I should be ready to get more in a few months. I have some bills to get caught up and my car is finally getting paid off in June/July sometime and I can bank some paychecks and get some cards, lens, backdrop and stand and maybe an alien bee. I need a good savings for a cross country move(TN or FL leaning towards TN) and a WDW trip though so I'll be bargain shopping for sure.

 

[Golf4food]

So for fun this afternoon I decided to shoot some photos in RAW instead of JPEG only to discover that our ten year old version of Paint Shop Pro 5 won't open RAW files... who knew?

So I downloaded the Adobe DNG converter and another program that is only a trial version to convert those into JPEG... too much work.

Time to upgrade photo software anyway, so which ones can I get that will also open RAW files directly without all of the extra conversion steps, etc? Or is there a good freeware program out there to use?

Whatever we get I'd like to keep it under $100 or $150 if possible - I've got no reason to spend any more than that since I harbor no illusions of making money from my photos and only do it for fun. The more money we spend on software the less we have for going to Disney, after all.

 

[dr_zero]

Gimp can but you have to get a plugin

http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html
http://portableapps.com/node/4819

 

[AndrewWG]

What camera do you use? It should have come with free software to convert them.

 

[ukcatfan]

Raw Therapee is a voluntary donation RAW processor. Google's Picasa is also free, but somewhat limited.

You are going to pretty much have to do a multiple step process for RAW files. Even Photoshop requires you to process it before bringing it into the program.

Kevin

 

[drcandon]

About the only real decent program for messing around with RAW and batch processing them is Adobe (photoshop) Lightroom. I handles them natively, has a decent catologue part as well and can batch process a whack of RAW to JPG's. It is a bit over your budget, but can be found here and there for less than the price Adobe wants on their web site..

The only other problem with the program is the learning curve is a bit steep...

 

[jann1033]

camera raw is a freebie( last i looked) and is identical to lightroom in raw conversion.
and like andy mentioned if your camera shoots raw the software that came with it should have a raw converter.. if you have a student you can get lightroom 1 for $99 via campus tech.
however you are always going to have to do some adjustments if you shoot in raw, even if it's just to hit auto in everything so imo, if you don't want to adjust things you may as well shoot in jpg and let the camera adjust everything in camera. one of the main uses for raw is it lets you choose how to post process but if you don't want to post process why bother? it's not like your photo is automatically "better" cause it was in raw, it's the same photo, just the camera adjusts it then throws the extra info away before you download the photo vs you download and adjust and have more info to use...
another option is shoot in raw and jpg if you have that option and just file the raw away in case you ever want to get into adjusting them.

 

[Golf4food]

camera raw is a freebie( last i looked) and is identical to lightroom in raw conversion.
and like andy mentioned if your camera shoots raw the software that came with it should have a raw converter.. if you have a student you can get lightroom 1 for $99 via campus tech.
however you are always going to have to do some adjustments if you shoot in raw, even if it's just to hit auto in everything so imo, if you don't want to adjust things you may as well shoot in jpg and let the camera adjust everything in camera. one of the main uses for raw is it lets you choose how to post process but if you don't want to post process why bother? it's not like your photo is automatically "better" cause it was in raw, it's the same photo, just the camera adjusts it then throws the extra info away before you download the photo vs you download and adjust and have more info to use...
another option is shoot in raw and jpg if you have that option and just file the raw away in case you ever want to get into adjusting them.

I don't mind the postprocessing, it is the getting to that point from RAW I'm having trouble with. I don't mind tweaking things as long as I can open the files!

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone.

 

[Groucho]

If you want to be able to just look at them without doing much processing (and have the ability to crop, save to jpg, etc), the free Irfanview can open most raw files, when you install the main program plus the optional plug-ins pack.

 

[MICKEY88]

About the only real decent program for messing around with RAW and batch processing them is Adobe (photoshop) Lightroom. I handles them natively, has a decent catologue part as well and can batch process a whack of RAW to JPG's. It is a bit over your budget, but can be found here and there for less than the price Adobe wants on their web site..

The only other problem with the program is the learning curve is a bit steep...

Paint shop pro photo X2 does a decent job of batch processing raw files, and handles most raw files , of course I recently found out that it doesn't do sony raw, after I bought my new A700s

it can be bought for about 80

 

[jann1033]

microsoft has a free raw viewer i know i works with nikon and canon , not sure what else...once you open the file(it's large like a slideshow) you can click to open the editor if you want to convert it. the only problem is if you set it for default you have to click the button for each photo to edit it so i don't use it much now. but it does open the raw files as thumbnails in your hard drive folder so you can see a small version of them ( sorry but i must be totally missing what you do and don't want to do ) down load here, i know andy (?) had problems getting it to work with his 30 d, it works fine with my rebel xt, not sure what other cameras are compatible(http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...8E-B10D-4CE4-A141-5866FD4A3286&displaylang=en

 

[Groucho]

Microsoft's Pro Photo page has a link to download codecs, which are what you need in order to open the raw files without any other special software needed. It has ones for various manufacturers and lists which cameras are supported.

 

[bnorm27]

Good morning all! I have a quick question for you today. I have a Rebel XTi, and have found myself shooting in RAW more and more as I get acquainted with everything the camera can do.

Is there an on line photo service (similar to Winkflash,Snapfish, etc.) that I can upload RAW images to ,for prints?

Thanks for your help!

 

[DueyDooDah]

I can't say for sure but I don't think so. As the files are completely unprocessing (per se) and have propriatory formats, it would require alot of photo processing and website upkeep to support all the different issues that would arise. Most places want at least basic processing to be done before a file is uploaded. As a RAW file has basically nothing done to it, they would have trouble adjusting colors properly. It is up to the photographer to ensure colors are set as they remember them or how they want them to look. If I'm mistaken, I'd like to know a place that would take my RAW files too, although I don't think I'd be happy with their results.

 

[bnorm27]

Thanks Duey. I couldn't seem to find any on line, and I would think due to the sheer size of some of the files, uploading would be a nightmare.

Is there a service that you recommened? I have been using Winkflash, and have not been real happy with the prints.

 

[thomas998]

If I'm not mistaken most if not all printers are 8-bit per color... that works well with jpeg since its 8-bit also... but RAW is more than 8-bits so your RAW would have to be converted at somepoint down to a 8-bit file for printing... If you didn't do it then some lab guy would and I could assure you he wouldn't spend the time you would making sure the picture was as good as it could be.

I think your always better off if you take your raw file and tweak it as you please, then save it in a format that is 8-bit and have it printed.

I've had good luck with Adorama, they accept Jpeg or Tiff (8-bit) up to a 40mb file size. At the moment they've been runing a sale for 4X6 prints at 8 cents a pop... every once in a while they run a decent sale on larger prints like 8X10s for 99 cents or something like that...

 

[DizzyV6P]

I usually convert my RAW into JPG using Bibble Lite and then upload them to Fotki for viewing. I use Adoramapix.com for the prints that I sell and for larger prints. For simple 4x6, I use either adorama or mpix. Both are very good printers so the choice is up to you.