Raw Conversion - Lightroom or Epson's?

[helloharry]

Dear all,

Its my first post here so I hope I be able to learn from and share more with all of you in the future 🙂

Here is my dilemma: for raw coversion I got used to use Lightroom for pix I took from my dslr which I have used for about a year. Having recently change to R-D1 as my primary camera (i am completely obsessed!) I find the colors turns out much nicer with Epson's own rawconverter, but compare to Lightroom, it a bit slow and I still would hope to use lightroom.

Anyone here have similar issue and what do you do?

Cheers.

 

[louisb]

Welcome, helloharry.

I can't compare the two products because since I bought my R-D1 I have only used Lightroom. Like you I had used Lightroom with my DSLR and I did not even think about using the Epson supplied utility.

I agree that Lightroom is slow, you can of course always use Adobe Bridge if you are fortunate enough to own Photoshop.

Although slow, I think the user interface and the range of facilities in Lightroom outway the performance hit, imho

Good luck with your R-D1, it is an astonishing camera which continues to impress me.

LouisB

 

[Geo]

Nice photo's at your webblog HelloHarry!
And enjoy your RD-1.
Geo

 

[helloharry]

Dear Louisb - thanks for the reply. Actually I am pleased with Lightroom's process speed - its much much faster than Epson's rawconverter (at least on my Mac). But you if are shooting on raw..try epson's converter and the picture quality turns out much nicer..I don't know whether its because lightroom don't really interpret erf files as well (?). Cheers

Dear Geo - thanks for your words of encouragement 🙂

 

[helloharry]

also..does anyone use Apple's iPhoto here? Its serves my purpose jpegs for online viewing and websites well enough but it doesn't recognize erf files..anyway to get around that? anyone?

cheers!

 

[photorat]

I use iPhoto and Epson's RAW converter seperately. (Process erf files with the Epson utility according to focal length, save as maximum res. jpg's and then import to iPhoto.)

It's a slow and cumbersome process but Epson's utility really does give the best results and I like iPhoto for organising and viewing. I've heard of software like Aperture, etc. and there is talk of support for RAW formats but it might be a long time coming.

also..does anyone use Apple's iPhoto here? Its serves my purpose jpegs for online viewing and websites well enough but it doesn't recognize erf files..anyway to get around that? anyone?

cheers!

 

[helloharry]

I use iPhoto and Epson's RAW converter seperately. (Process erf files with the Epson utility according to focal length, save as maximum res. jpg's and then import to iPhoto.)

It's a slow and cumbersome process but Epson's utility really does give the best results and I like iPhoto for organising and viewing. I've heard of software like Aperture, etc. and there is talk of support for RAW formats but it might be a long time coming.

Thanks photorat: yes I love iphoto interface - the library keeps my photos organized and its so fun and convenient to publish my photos onto web, make presentation DVDs, I especially love to use 'print album' into PDF into neat minimal looking portfolio books..

Thanks for sharing. 🙂

 

[JonasYip]

I used to use Capture One and now use Lightroom. I only used the Epson converter once or twice when I first bought the camera. My choice is based primarily on the workflow though. I haven't compared the Epson tool to the others. But I'm happy with what I'm getting from Lightroom anyway.

j

 

[mackigator]

I'm still using Rawshooter, which Adobe bought to kill off/retool as their own product in Lightroom. I find it does all I need, very fast, and not a resource pig. Still have the PC install file for the freeware version if someone wants to give it a try. Even on my new (and fast) machine Lightroom seems clunky to me. No idea if it will work with an RD1, but it does fine with my Lumix LX1.

 

[helloharry]

Thanks Jonas and Mack..

I am surprised no one here actually experience the quality difference for raw conv. on lightroom vs epson's...on my mac screen here my b/w raw shots (biogon 35) looks sharp and contrasty and ready to go on Epson's, on the contrry it looks so flat and soft in lightroom..I should do a A-B comparison here to illustrate my point when i have more time..😛

Because of this now I am back shooting at jpeg. Big difference from when I shot with dslr, with R-D1 most of the time I don't need to post-edit anything and they came out great already😉


HH.

 

[RML]

I haven't used Lightroom. Only PhotoRAW, and very pleased with it.

 

[johnastovall]

I prefer Capture One for the RD1 and JFI profiies for B&W.

 

[0bli0]

i use a hacked .plist and .DNG files for raw support in OSX (and therefore Aperture and iPhoto).