Panasonic's Lumix Raw files - wth???

saltydog

Okay, so I finally afforded myself my very first compact camera since the dawn of the digital age and splurged on a Panasonic Lumix LX3. One of the big selling points about this camera is it's RAW capabilities. Or so I thought.

But, Panasonic's .RW2 RAW format cannot be opened by Adobe Bridge, Adobe Camera Raw or Adobe Photoshop. Panasonic Tech Support told me that I need to download the Silkypix software on the enclosed CD, which I did. But aside from the fact that I don't want to learn yet another PP software and find the user interface very annoying, there is also no way of previewing the entire folder, you have to thumbnail through it pic by pic. So I thought to myself, THAT'S where Adobe's DNG converter comes in real handy and successfully converted all my image files to DNGs, "problem solved".

Not! Unfortunately, neither Bridge, nor Raw, nor Photoshop can open those converted Panasonic files either, even though they are now sporting the .dng extension. When I called Tech Support back and tried to explain, the guy had no clue what I was talking about and insisted on using the Silkypix software provided with the camera. Now, what good is it to shoot in RAW if you can only open those files in some strange mediocre software program with no preview function and from there can only save as non-raw file extensions?

I am still hoping that someone here has found a way around this and can explain to me, what I am doing wrong :dunno.

Lumix LX3 owner, anyone :wink? Thanks,
Jana

pathfinder

saltydog wrote:

Okay, so I finally afforded myself my very first compact camera since the dawn of the digital age and splurged on a Panasonic Lumix LX3. One of the big selling points about this camera is it's RAW capabilities. Or so I thought.

But, Panasonic's .RW2 RAW format cannot be opened by Adobe Bridge, Adobe Camera Raw or Adobe Photoshop. Panasonic Tech Support told me that I need to download the Silkypix software on the enclosed CD, which I did. But aside from the fact that I don't want to learn yet another PP software and find the user interface very annoying, there is also no way of previewing the entire folder, you have to thumbnail through it pic by pic. So I thought to myself, THAT'S where Adobe's DNG converter comes in real handy and successfully converted all my image files to DNGs, "problem solved".

Not! Unfortunately, neither Bridge, nor Raw, nor Photoshop can open those converted Panasonic files either, even though they are now sporting the .dng extension. When I called Tech Support back and tried to explain, the guy had no clue what I was talking about and insisted on using the Silkypix software provided with the camera. Now, what good is it to shoot in RAW if you can only open those files in some strange mediocre software program with no preview function and from there can only save as non-raw file extensions?

I am still hoping that someone here has found a way around this and can explain to me, what I am doing wrong .

Lumix LX3 owner, anyone ? Thanks,
Jana

Jana, do you have the current up to date version of Adobe Camera Raw v 5.6? I think you will find it will open your files - I know it does mine for the Lumix GF-1 Raw files. I confess I have never used SilkyPix - like you I am content with Adobe's RAW converters, and don't want to learn a new one to integrate with LR2 and CS4.

Googling -> http://mikelao.wordpress.com/2008/11/25/camera-raw-52-now-available-calling-lumix-lx3-users/

http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=31041 Apparently there was some issue with Adobe's auto updater for ACR 5.2 that did not recognize the Panasonic RAW files, but if 5.2 was installed manually they would be recognized.

Just update to the current 5.6 and you should be good.

chrisdg

Yup, you just need to update your Adobe software and you should be good. Not sure about desktop preview, but at least you'd be able to open, view and process the files within the Adobe suite.

saltydog

Thanks guys! I didn't have the time until now to try this but yes, it worked . According to the Adobe website, the Panasonic LX3 Raw files were supported since the Raw 5.0 converter. I don't know what came with my PS CS4 but it obviously must have been a previous version. Thanks again,
J.