Adobe Photoshop CS-2 -- Better RAW Converter?

[krimple]

I just downloaded the 30-day tryout of Adobe PSCS, and am very impressed with Adobe's new RAW converter. The new file browser, the "Adobe Bridge", is much peppier, and easier to use for RAW. I haven't figured out the background batching process, but I already see much better RAW output. Some new features I really like:

1. Cropping w/ratios like 1:2, 3:4, 3:2, etc...
2. "Auto" checkboxes next to the settings, which are checked by default, and give a pretty good start for each image
3. Good, quick thumbnail generation for the R-D1 images
4. Better quality output, in my opinion, than the original Adobe Camera Raw
5. File browser (now Bridge) is a seperate application that is linked in to Photoshop
6. Smart Sharpening filter -- seems to be better sharpening than USM -- doesn't sharpen the noise as much

I'm going to play out my trial and then purchase the upgrade in early June. Anyone else with different opinions? I use Epson's RAW converter because the quality it gives is pretty good, but if this (seems to be) is going to generate good image quality, I might switch. Oh, if Capture One ever gets to support the R-D1...

I truly hate the interface of Epson's RAW converter. Very clunky, single-threaded, and not made for ease of use.

Ken

 

[krimple]

Unscientific example...

Unscientific example...

Here's a quick unscientific example...

I took the same image in PSCS and PSCS 2, and converted it from RAW. My point? The image out of the PSCS program looks a bit less natural than the one from the upgrade. The point is that I had to tweak the ver 1 file more than the ver 2 file, as the auto settings got me most of the way.

Note: image is original image downsized to 800 x 511 px, so don't bother with sharpening comments, etc... Hence "Unscientific".

From ACR # 1:

From ACR #2: