Fast RAW conversion software

ThatCanonGuy

Haven't posted in a while, so:
What RAW converter do you like to use when you want to do quick, basic conversions? Like just tweaking WB, colors, cropping, etc. I'm currently using Adobe CR (does what I need it to do) for my Canon CR2 files. Just curious as to what other photogs use. I'm talking PCs here.

SalsaFoto

I've been using Breezebrowser Pro forever. It also makes web pages, prints "contact sheets" does side-by-side comparisons, and much more.

Free trial available. Chris Breeze is always updating for new cameras and such. There are a host of other programs available. Well worth purchasing.

http://www.breezesys.com

I'm not affiliated in any way.

Best of luck.

malch

For very decent (not the best) quality and amazing speed and ease, skip the RAW conversion.

Most RAW files contain an embedded JPEG and there is plenty of good software that will work with those images.

One program that I like is IrfanView. It will extract the JPEG and work with it. Crop, resize, and simple adjustments to brightness, contrast and color are blazingly fast. It has good batch features too.

When traveling, I can run this on my (ancient and underpowered) laptop and produce very decent images for mailing home etc.

I'm a Nikon shooter and so I don't know exactly how good the embedded JPEG's in Canon RAW files are but I suspect they're just fine for your purposes.

ThatCanonGuy

@SalsaFoto
Thanks for the recommendation, BreezeBrowser sounds great. I'll be sure to download the trial.:D
@malch
I'll try that, I know Nikon imbeds JPEGs in their raws, don't know about Canon. I hope so, I'm in the same boat as you with my slow laptop

malch

For very decent (not the best) quality and amazing speed and ease, skip the RAW conversion.

Most RAW files contain an embedded JPEG and there is plenty of good software that will work with those images.

One program that I like is IrfanView. It will extract the JPEG and work with it. Crop, resize, and simple adjustments to brightness, contrast and color are blazingly fast. It has good batch features too.

When traveling, I can run this on my (ancient and underpowered) laptop and produce very decent images for mailing home etc.

I'm a Nikon shooter and so I don't know exactly how good the embedded JPEG's in Canon RAW files are but I suspect they're just fine for your purposes.

ziggy53

I use Faststone for simple JPG extraction from the RAW file. Similar to IrfanView, Faststone works on older equipment and can view my Canon RAW files including my 5D MKII RAW files. Compared to IrfanView, which I sometimes use, Fastone is very feature rich. Faststone is "donationware", but it is fully enabled once installed. I do suggest that any donation is greatly appreciated.

Faststone works nicely with my older laptop, Win 2000, 2G RAM, Pentium M processor.

If you want to defer major processing, but need full-resolution files to assess image quality, shoot RAW+JPG. The JPG files allow basic tweaks and a tremendous spectrum of software support (for the JPG files).

MarkR

You might also look at Bibble 5. It has an optional DAM component, is built around workflow, scales from a Pentium III on up, (has been seen running on netbooks), provides a pretty good RAW conversion, and has a "Lite" version that is relatively inexpensive.

Art Scott

I have been using Lightroom since it came out......and with a few months 99.9% of all my processing was done in LR.......
It is also my DAM software....it is geting more powerful with each upgrade and I have hardly touched photoshop since getting into using LR..........
Since I am not a sports or journalist shooter...I shoot exclusively raw.........I want every bit of the info possible in all of my files......

BradfordBenn

I am doing Lightroom as well. I like that I can do batch adjustments in it very easily and on import do keywording. I have not found a better tool for my workflow.