Which "developer" to process E-P1 raw files?

[rui]

Since I bought my E-P1 a month ago, I've been revisiting the available RAW processors.

I quickly forgot about the slow and limited Olympus Master software and, with the latest updates, I have now three options:
- Using Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop Elements 6 for MAC
- Buying Adobe Lightroom 2
- Buying Capture One 4

My current RAW workflow is something like this:
- Convert ORF files to DNG using DNG Converter 5.5 beta
- Open the DNG files in PsE's ACR (5.4)
- Apply my defaults to all images
- Review and adjust each one (marking rejected images for deletion)
- Save all selected DNG files to a new folder
- Go to PsE's "Process Multiple Files" to convert that batch of DNG to JPEG Max Quality.

The problem is that "JPEG Max Quality" actually means "quality 12" (in the Photoshop 1-12 scale) and not "quality 10", which is enough to minimize artifacts. Result: the JPEG files are almost as big or even larger than the original RAW capture! Choosing "JPEG High Quality", I get "quality 8" with visible artifacts! I've been searching around and I see no way to choose an intermediate quality (like 10)...

So, I'm thinking about either switching to Capture One 4 or Lightroom 2 to have the output results I want and a simpler workflow.

Capture One is cheaper, faster and I really like its simple and slick interface. On Lightroom's side, I'd find the same raw controls that I'm used to tune in ACR, but I don't need its organiser features (because I have iPhoto '09 for that).

Any thoughts on this? Am I the only one struggling with RAW processing? 🙂

 

[rui]

It's seems it's just me struggling with this... 🙂
I've been trying out the conversions made by Olympus Master 2, ACR and Capture One and the later (by Capture One) look *amazingly* better. I was surprised by the difference... I'll post some examples later (the files are too big for the mobile connection I'm using).

 

[250swb]

I'm using the beta ACR 5.5 release candidate (with CS4) and the results are very good from the E-P1, better IMO than from Master 2 (but then we would all expect that anyway).

Steve

 

[M4streetshooter]

I'm using LR to organize and process the image to prepare for PS.
Then PS for final plug in's and actions.

Works great. That oly program sucks ...

LR now supports plug ins like Nik....
Once it does actions...I'll stop PS.

I would suggest going to LR.
It gets better every new release....
Shooter

 

[Wiyum]

I'm not using the E-P1, but I'll recommend Lightroom. For my money, there's no better RAW converter. It is the only software that I routinely use that I actually enjoy using.

That said, i arrived at that by taking a set of photos and running them through the trial versions of all of the software. I'd do that if I were you. But if you know the ACR tools, you'll probably prefer Lightroom, which I think makes by far the most sense in its tools approach.