Over the years, I've switched back and forth with RAW conversion products, depending on my current camera, editors, etc. I wonder if there is an absolute best way to convert. Here are my observations. I'd appreciate other views on the topic. Maybe others would, too.
DPP. The original was pretty lame, and it offered little in the way of editing, but it was the only way I could convert some Canon files. Later I found that in some circumstances, DPP could bring out a wide dynamic range than ACR, particularly in highlights. Lately, I almost never use DPP, as its lens correction database does not include all my non-Canon lenses.
ACR. I believe this is essentially the same program whether invoked by PS or LR. The features added in recent years have made it really handy. Lens corrections, in particular, save a lot of time in PS, by fixing distortion and CA. The lens manufacturers seem to get their new profiles to Adobe pretty quickly. In the worst case, Adobe has a free download for creating your own...just in case you're using that 50mm F:0.95 from your old Canon rangefinder from 1965.
The noise reduction feature in ACR is pretty good, although my old Noise Ninja plugin for PS is still superior. In a couple of test cases, it does seem that ACR is a little bit less capable of recovering the full dynamic range of an extremely bright Canon RAW file, than DPP is. Consequently, I use ACR all the time for speed and efficiency and then only call on DPP for light problems.
Other programs? Photo Ninja could be good, from the same publisher as Noise Ninja (now only available as part of Photo Ninja). I wonder if anyone here has use that one. SilkyPix Developer Studio is another I wonder about. Others? What do you guys do? If you use PS, it's really easy to just open from Bridge into ACR and PS, isn't it?
DPP. The original was pretty lame, and it offered little in the way of editing, but it was the only way I could convert some Canon files. Later I found that in some circumstances, DPP could bring out a wide dynamic range than ACR, particularly in highlights. Lately, I almost never use DPP, as its lens correction database does not include all my non-Canon lenses.
ACR. I believe this is essentially the same program whether invoked by PS or LR. The features added in recent years have made it really handy. Lens corrections, in particular, save a lot of time in PS, by fixing distortion and CA. The lens manufacturers seem to get their new profiles to Adobe pretty quickly. In the worst case, Adobe has a free download for creating your own...just in case you're using that 50mm F:0.95 from your old Canon rangefinder from 1965.
The noise reduction feature in ACR is pretty good, although my old Noise Ninja plugin for PS is still superior. In a couple of test cases, it does seem that ACR is a little bit less capable of recovering the full dynamic range of an extremely bright Canon RAW file, than DPP is. Consequently, I use ACR all the time for speed and efficiency and then only call on DPP for light problems.
Other programs? Photo Ninja could be good, from the same publisher as Noise Ninja (now only available as part of Photo Ninja). I wonder if anyone here has use that one. SilkyPix Developer Studio is another I wonder about. Others? What do you guys do? If you use PS, it's really easy to just open from Bridge into ACR and PS, isn't it?
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