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[sky]

Great thread.
I'm just starting to get in to the fun of RAW tinkering... it's really cool, but also a little daunting at times. So many possibilities!
Thanks for the advice so far, I can't wait to get home and start messing around now...

 

[chaostrophy]

I installed the Silkypix RAW processing software that came with my LX3, but haven't really delved into it. The software is confusing and the documentation is very badly translated, perhaps I'd have a better time with it if I could read Japanese. Luckily the LX3 has very good in-camera processing: you have the option of turning down noise reduction to retain detail while shooting JPEG, and it has dynamic film modes that give nice boosts to contrast.

 

[Aruarian Reflection]

What exactly is a RAW "converter"? This thread made me interested in RAW so I took some random JPEG + RAW photos with my Digital Rebel.

When I open up the RAW file in Lightroom, is that automatically converted? I did some color and exposure tweaking in Lightroom and then exported it as jpeg. Am I doing it right? :lol I don't have any Canon plug-ins or whatever for Lightroom, but the program seems to be able to open the RAW files fine.

 

[Rentahamster]

What exactly is a RAW "converter"? This thread made me interested in RAW so I took some random JPEG + RAW photos with my Digital Rebel.

When I open up the RAW file in Lightroom, is that automatically converted? I did some color and exposure tweaking in Lightroom and then exported it as jpeg. Am I doing it right? :lol I don't have any Canon plug-ins or whatever for Lightroom, but the program seems to be able to open the RAW files fine.

A RAW converter is a program that takes the raw data from the camera sensor and turns that into a file that is a standard image format (JPEG, TIFF, etc). What you see in Lightroom is a temporary JPEG preview of what your file will look like when you export it with whatever settings you applied.

The Rebel is not a new camera, so Lightroom already supports it. You never need any plug-ins to open a RAW file in Lightroom. As long as you are adequately updated, you should be fine.

Lightroom, like Adobe Camera RAW, were made to do some serious RAW editing, and they do it well. Other programs, not so much.

 

[BlueTsunami]

What exactly is a RAW "converter"? This thread made me interested in RAW so I took some random JPEG + RAW photos with my Digital Rebel.

When I open up the RAW file in Lightroom, is that automatically converted? I did some color and exposure tweaking in Lightroom and then exported it as jpeg. Am I doing it right? :lol I don't have any Canon plug-ins or whatever for Lightroom, but the program seems to be able to open the RAW files fine.

You'll notice that post processing RAW files will grant you more latitude with exposure and contrast compensation (more or less of them). Using a higher bit file is great for Dodging and Burning detail in a picture.

I personally process from Canon's DPP and export to Photoshop but that's overkill compared to the streamlined UI of Lightroom. I just wish Lightroom wasn't so horribly unresponsive on my system.

 

[Rentahamster]

I just wish Lightroom wasn't so horribly unresponsive on my system.

Specs?

 

[Deleted member 22576]

I shoot in RAW on my LX3.

Spoiler

I can't really tell the difference.

 

[BlueTsunami]

Specs?

1.8GHz AMD
1.5GB RAM
NVidia 8800GT (512MB)

The CPU is definitely the bottleneck on my system.

 

[Rentahamster]

Yeah, you could use an upgrade in a lot of areas.

A dual core CPU is recommended, and a quad core is even better. Lightroom can fully utilize all four cores.

A decent hard drive is good too. 7200 RPM 16MB cache at least. For optimal speed, you could have separate drives to hold your catalog and data.

More RAM is important as well. 4GB is so cheap nowadays there's no reason not to go for it. If possible, upgrade to Vista 64-bit and try for 8GB. 32 bit operating systems limit Lightroom to only around 800MB of RAM usage max.

Video card doesn't really matter as much.

 

[fart]

fwiw, lightroom is completely acceptable on a pretty modest setup. i have a 20" imac 2.4ghz c2d, 4gb ram, booting off of a 160gb 5400rpm notebook drive (!). my catalog and scratch are all on that drive and photos (nikon compressed NEF from a 10mp D80) are pulled from a redundant storage array connected via gigE. there can be a bit of lag rendering 1:1 sometimes, but it's really completely acceptable (i didn't know about this pre-render 1:1 thing until this thread!). everything else has basically negligible latency.

not too long ago, i tried to run aperture 1.0 on a 1.83ghz c1d 17" imac, and i literally could not adjust any slider in the program in real-time.