Posted by Mark Green on September 25, 2009 at 8:33 AM
need a little guidance from canon users, as a newbie to canon.
what is the process people normally use to transfer pics from the camera and do RAW conversion.
as a previous nikon users, Transfer NX and Capture NX were really good apps provided my Nikon.
The nice thing about Transfer NX is that it would make a backup copy of your RAWS to another disk during copy and do renaming and apply meta data too.
Is there Canon equivelents to this , or is there some good 3rd party software. Eric has already recommended breeze browser/Downloader , but this isnt available for MAC !!
I was thinking of aperture. but not sure what the RAW conversion is like with that app.
I use Lightroom from start to finish. RAW conversion and processing.
Canon proprietary software can do your RAW conversion surely? I think it's called Digital Photo Professional and comes with your camera.
I have trialled aperture and found it to be quite slow (on my Macbok 2GHz). I might throw it on the iMac and see what happens. It's certainly a full equipped programme.
Chris
Posted by JMACTAVISH on September 25, 2009 at 9:11 AM
Aperture.
You do need a good spec graphics card for it to run well though 512mb is a good start, RAM and processer speed are not too important for Aperture, as it takes it's rendering power from the graphics card.
Firewire card reader is good for transferring shots from card to 'puter with much speed.
Aperture and Lightroom are both excellent converters, and pretty good at organizing, although nowhere near as good at organizing as a proper DAM application. The non-destructive RAW conversion process that Ap and Lr allow will save you masses of hard drive space compared to a DAM application {(eg iView MediPro/MS Expression Media) and Photoshop workflow.
Both Ap and Lr are available as downloads to trial, and worth trialling as they 'look' different and handle slightly differently. Personal choice which is better - Lr is cross-platform with a huge user base and regular upgrades, Ap needs a revision (one is coming 'soon'), and each has strengths and weaknesses which its worth researching - loads on google under 'aperture v lightroom'.
FWIW my current setup is download and edit with PhotoMechanic (dumping rejects), transfer to a holding folder to allow importing to catalogue in iView, and use iView to caption and transfer jpgs, video and RAW's to three separate folders. This enables the RAW's in a folder to be picked up by Lightroom and I can use Lr to convert them. It might seem convoluted but its done this way for good reasons I wont bore you with!
If metadata handling is important to you Ap might be better. If you just want a straightforward broad-user-base programme get Lr. Personally I find Lr's interface to be pig ugly and depressingly drab - if I'm going to be staring at a computer screen for hours I'd rather not have the added depression that Lr's dreich interface brings to the experience!
Others love it though!
Posted by Adam Seward on September 25, 2009 at 9:45 AM
I use a SanDisk memory card reader to transfer the RAW files to a hard drive. I then do most processing in Lightroom (including keywording and captioning), export these as 16 bit tif files and do last bits in Photoshop CS3. I think Canon's DPP works well too as an alternative to Lightroom (as Chris said above) and comes bundled with Canon cameras.
*Edit* I use lightroom when importing images from my card and apply some keywords at this stage as well as sorting into folders.
Posted by Mike Smith on September 25, 2009 at 9:46 AM
I use the 3rd party apps from Breeze Systems;
For downloading from the card - DownloaderPro, it can be set up to automatically generate folders by date and dumps files from your card into the appropriate date directory.
The sister programme BreezbrowserPro is good for quickly/batch entering EXIF data on selectied files and doing a first cut review of files to be deleted as it is very quick at generateing the embedded thumbnails from RAW files, something that I find the Adobe products very slow at ie - generating thumbnails when you open a new directory
I use canons eos utility to download from the camera, it puts my metadata on the image as it downloads, displays them on screen as it goes and puts them in dated folders, then process to tiffs using dpp. Any more is done in photoshop.
Posted by Sean Bolton on September 25, 2009 at 12:57 PM
I use ;
I download with Downloader Pro from Breezesys.com (download and rename)
I edit and select with BreezeBrowser
I then process in Lightroom
If you're looking for the Mac equiv of DLPro and Breezebrowser, then the nearest you'll get is Photomechanic - it incorporates the downloading and browsing into one package.
I can't agree with john that Aperture isn't as good at organisation as a DAM... I rejected ones such as iView (or whatever they call it now) as being too unweildy and clunky - due to it's hideous modal user interface and lack of versioning LR falls into that category. I've 180K images in a single database in Aperture, and it's easily searched. The 'Smart' albums are great - give it the appropriate metadata you want it to collate images for and every time you add a new image to the library with the associated metadata... hey presto it appears in the album. You can do that for exif/keywords etc etc.
Aperture isn't 100% there yet, but it's worth looking at. LR benefits from a wider user base and from having loads of plug-ins etc etc... it is one area that Aperture needs to catch up on.
If I where you, for now, I'd go with PhotoMechanic for day to day stuff, and have a bit of a play with Lightroom and Aperture to see which floats your boat for more complicated playing .
HTH
Posted by JMACTAVISH on September 25, 2009 at 5:02 PM
Just remember that Photo Mechanic is $150, which is about the same as Aperture.
PM is superb when speed and efficiency is needed, (ask most photojournalists) but for batch processing of RAW files, Aperture, Lightroom or Capture One are well ahead. Canon's own DPP is also a good RAW converter and should not be ignored, as it can really pull a lot of detail from badly exposed shots (not that any of us badly expose shots, do we? !!!!)
Nick - I wasn't saying Aperture is not good at organization - I know it is, and its better than Lr in my opinion from using both programmes - which is what I was implying with my previous comment
"If metadata handling is important to you Ap might be better."
FWIW I'm probably going to become an Aperture user myself shortly!
Agree on PhotoMechanic - thats a really excellent tool and well worth the money. The speed with it which it works and allows sorting/editing is quite remarkable.
Discussion
10 replieswhat is the process people normally use to transfer pics from the camera and do RAW conversion.
as a previous nikon users, Transfer NX and Capture NX were really good apps provided my Nikon.
The nice thing about Transfer NX is that it would make a backup copy of your RAWS to another disk during copy and do renaming and apply meta data too.
Is there Canon equivelents to this , or is there some good 3rd party software. Eric has already recommended breeze browser/Downloader , but this isnt available for MAC !!
I was thinking of aperture. but not sure what the RAW conversion is like with that app.
Mark
I use Lightroom from start to finish. RAW conversion and processing.
Canon proprietary software can do your RAW conversion surely? I think it's called Digital Photo Professional and comes with your camera.
I have trialled aperture and found it to be quite slow (on my Macbok 2GHz). I might throw it on the iMac and see what happens. It's certainly a full equipped programme.
Chris
You do need a good spec graphics card for it to run well though 512mb is a good start, RAM and processer speed are not too important for Aperture, as it takes it's rendering power from the graphics card.
Firewire card reader is good for transferring shots from card to 'puter with much speed.
John
Both Ap and Lr are available as downloads to trial, and worth trialling as they 'look' different and handle slightly differently. Personal choice which is better - Lr is cross-platform with a huge user base and regular upgrades, Ap needs a revision (one is coming 'soon'), and each has strengths and weaknesses which its worth researching - loads on google under 'aperture v lightroom'.
FWIW my current setup is download and edit with PhotoMechanic (dumping rejects), transfer to a holding folder to allow importing to catalogue in iView, and use iView to caption and transfer jpgs, video and RAW's to three separate folders. This enables the RAW's in a folder to be picked up by Lightroom and I can use Lr to convert them. It might seem convoluted but its done this way for good reasons I wont bore you with!
If metadata handling is important to you Ap might be better. If you just want a straightforward broad-user-base programme get Lr. Personally I find Lr's interface to be pig ugly and depressingly drab - if I'm going to be staring at a computer screen for hours I'd rather not have the added depression that Lr's dreich interface brings to the experience!
Others love it though!
*Edit* I use lightroom when importing images from my card and apply some keywords at this stage as well as sorting into folders.
For downloading from the card - DownloaderPro, it can be set up to automatically generate folders by date and dumps files from your card into the appropriate date directory.
The sister programme BreezbrowserPro is good for quickly/batch entering EXIF data on selectied files and doing a first cut review of files to be deleted as it is very quick at generateing the embedded thumbnails from RAW files, something that I find the Adobe products very slow at ie - generating thumbnails when you open a new directory
I download with Downloader Pro from Breezesys.com (download and rename)
I edit and select with BreezeBrowser
I then process in Lightroom
Sean
I can't agree with john that Aperture isn't as good at organisation as a DAM... I rejected ones such as iView (or whatever they call it now) as being too unweildy and clunky - due to it's hideous modal user interface and lack of versioning LR falls into that category. I've 180K images in a single database in Aperture, and it's easily searched. The 'Smart' albums are great - give it the appropriate metadata you want it to collate images for and every time you add a new image to the library with the associated metadata... hey presto it appears in the album. You can do that for exif/keywords etc etc.
Aperture isn't 100% there yet, but it's worth looking at. LR benefits from a wider user base and from having loads of plug-ins etc etc... it is one area that Aperture needs to catch up on.
If I where you, for now, I'd go with PhotoMechanic for day to day stuff, and have a bit of a play with Lightroom and Aperture to see which floats your boat for more complicated playing
HTH
PM is superb when speed and efficiency is needed, (ask most photojournalists) but for batch processing of RAW files, Aperture, Lightroom or Capture One are well ahead. Canon's own DPP is also a good RAW converter and should not be ignored, as it can really pull a lot of detail from badly exposed shots (not that any of us badly expose shots, do we? !!!!)
"If metadata handling is important to you Ap might be better."
FWIW I'm probably going to become an Aperture user myself shortly!
Agree on PhotoMechanic - thats a really excellent tool and well worth the money. The speed with it which it works and allows sorting/editing is quite remarkable.