RE viewing RAW images without Photoshop

[drcolyn]

I know this may be a dumb question but please bear with me.
I was looking for some macro images to see what detail the G10 is capable of capturing and came across this article by Carl Chapman who did a sharpness experiment because he noticed the RAW images on his Canon G10 looked less sharp than those taken with his Canon 750IS.
He realised the following:
The difference was due to looking at both the images on the cameras LCD. The 750IS image was already JPEG and the G10’s RAW image was unprocessed. Processing the RAW image in Photoshop provides a result that is equivalent to, if not slightly sharper than the in-camera processed shot.
Now my question is – do I have to get software like photoshop (and at what price) before I can view the raw images on my PC or is there complimentary Canon software that will at least allow me to save the images in jpeg? My laptop is a 2003 Compaq with XP Home and I definitely did not budget to upgrade that as well or buy photoshop software.
Here is the whole article for those that are interested


Canon G10 Sharpness Experiment Posted on July 18, 2009
I was looking through a few images the other day and noticed the RAW images from my Canon G10 looked less sharp than those taken with my Canon 750IS. I was a bit concerned as it had recently been repaired so I decided to do an experiment, which taught me a couple of interesting things about the camera. I used a PADI underwater greyscale slate that was lying around as a target. The target was placed in a low light environment to push the camera to the limits, and simulate underwater environment.
A tripod was setup for the cameras, and testing was done with each camera 20cm (macro mode) and 1.5m (non-macro mode) from the target to simulate near and far environments.
Test 1 – JPEG to JPEG
The 750 only outputs JPEG images, so for my first test I set both cameras as:-
• 20cm from the target
• widest zoom
• macro mode
• JPEG output
• IS OFF
• 10 second timer. (The ten second timer was used to help reduce any vibration from pushing the shutter button, as I did not have a remote cable for either camera.)

Image 1
There is little detectable difference in image sharpness between the two cameras at 1:1 magnification. (They have slightly different zoom factors so are not quite aligned in lightroom).
I was happy with this as it indicated nothing had happened to the G10 during the repair.
Test 2 – RAW vs JPEG
So if my camera was producing sharp images in JPEG, was there a difference with RAW as I had been seeing. To test this I compared the JPEG and RAW version (produced in the camera) of the same picture from the G10.
The test settings were:-
• 20cm from the target
• widest zoom
• macro mode
• IS OFF
• 10 second timer.

Image 2
You can see from the comparison above that the JPEG image on the left is noticeably sharper that the RAW image on the right (1:1 magnification).
I thought about this for a little while and noticed the brightness was also different between each. It then struck me:- The JPEG is processed by the camera, but the RAW image is unprocessed.
Processing the RAW image in Photoshop provides a result that is equivalent to, if not slightly sharper than the in-camera processed shot.

 

[Warmwater Wank]

D--No worries, the supplied Canon software works pretty good to open RAW files, browse, edit etc. Also it will allow you to save a copy to a common file format (like uncompressed TIFF) that will let you run the file on any other software. P'shop is nice but not a necessity.

What would be desirable though (here goes the budget again!) is plenty of RAM on that "old" Compaq. If you aren't maxed out on RAM (Or rands...) you might look at a site like this: RAM Memory Upgrade: Dell, Mac, Apple, HP, Compaq. USB drives, flash cards, SSD at Crucial.com to see how much memory you can add. The 16-18mb RAW files (especially in 16bit color) do take some resources to run. More RAM is a pretty cheap fix though, if you can add some. // ww

 

[Puffer Fish]

A couple of things:

1. The supplied raw processing software for the G10 is the same software supplied with every high end Canon. Buy a 1D and it is the same. That was not the case with the G9 and earlier..Make sure you check Canon's web site, as that software gets updated from time to tim.

2. Raw images do not have any sharpness applied.. the JPG's do. If you are going to shoot in raw (which I highly recommend).. then you need to learn to apply the raw sharpness amount you like (there are two places one can adjust sharpness... make sure with a raw image to use the raw slider).

All of my images I post here are processed the same (if shot with my strobes)..

1. Add raw sharpness.

2. Increase the blue channel slightly (color temperature is off between the stobes and the incamera flash). (right side)

3. Decrease the red slightly (top down adjustment) (to get pure white on a card)

4. Use "convert and save" feature to save as a smaller JPG.. in usually high quality.

Done so many, I think I could do it blind folded.

I suspect most of the lack of sharpness is from the lack of sharpenning with the original RAW file

 

[Abigail111]

Actually,i used to meet the same issues.But i have creat an image viewer after that,then everything is ok

 

[RVBldr]

Although PS might be overkill, you might seriously look at Adobe Light Room, I'm finding that for digital development for both topside and u/w shots, it's a great tool.

 

[lmorin]

Although PS might be overkill, you might seriously look at Adobe Light Room, I'm finding that for digital development for both topside and u/w shots, it's a great tool.

I really like LightRoom, but the OP should know that if he wants the current version of LR (which is quite inexpensive), he will probably have to upgrade his computer to handle the software.

Also, Google's free Picasa photo managing software will allow you to view most RAW files and do low level editing.

 

[charlesml3]

Free, simple, RAW file viewer. Works with every RAW I've ever thrown at it:

FastStone Image Viewer - Powerful and Intuitive Photo Viewer, Editor and Batch Converter

 

[lmorin]

Faststone does not appear to convert to DNG or open DNG files.

 

[kelemvor]

You can get Photoshop Elements for around $65. It will process raw files. I believe Paint Shop Pro is only about $35 and also supports camera raw.

I'd probably go for paint shop pro if you never intend to carry forward and learn full Photoshop. It's got a smaller learning curve, and is feature rich.

If free is what you're after, bring out the gimp. I think it's a little tougher to use. You'll need an appropriate camera raw plug-in for gimp. Having said that, it's supposed to be every bit as powerful as photoshop once you learn the software.

 

[charlesml3]

Faststone does not appear to convert to DNG or open DNG files.

I'm not surprised, and for the life of me I cannot come up with any good use case around DNG. It made sense a long time ago when the camera manufacturers were all weird about their proprietary RAW formats but those days are long since over. There are dozens of free utilities that can read RAW from all of them. There's even a plugin or update for Windows 7 that will display RAW files in Explorer.

-Charles