Free raw converters?

[pennylane]

What are the freeware raw converter programs? I only know of UFRaw.

Does one raw converter work better (purely in the raw conversion process, not feature-wise) than another?

I don't do much with raw. I mainly just want a program that lets me browse all my raw pictures, pick out the ones I like, adjust exposure and white balance, and export to .psd, with exif data intact.

Also, can Irfanview view raw files with a plug-in? If I could browse raw files in Irfanview, maybe I could just do the raw adjustments elsewhere.

Thanks.

 

[magomago]

http://www.rawtherapee.com/

 

[OdiN]

If you can still find it, RAW Shooter Essentials is quite good. They got gobbled up though so may be hard to find. I have an installer I can put up at home I think.

 

[pennylane]

Originally posted by: magomago
http://www.rawtherapee.com/

Originally posted by: OdiN
If you can still find it, RAW Shooter Essentials is quite good. They got gobbled up though so may be hard to find. I have an installer I can put up at home I think.

These look promising.

How does the raw conversion compare to products like Lightroom and the Canon/Nikon RAW converters?

 

[corkyg]

All "RAW" formats are not the same. Irfanview can read them, but cannot SAVE in RAW format. Check this Irfanview chart and you'll find at least 12 different RAW formats. That complicates the problem.

IFV

As was mentioned above, a really good program was RAW Shooter. I bought RAW Shooter Pro a couple of years ago and still use it. It is outstanding.

However, it's parent, Pixmantec was acquired by Adobe last year, and has been incorporated into Adobe ware. But, it ain't free.

RAW

I have a "free" RAW handler that came from Canon as bundled software with their DSLR.

 

[jmagg]

magomago, thanks for the heads up on the free nef editor. I surely needed it, since Nikon chose not to include one.

 

[Gooberlx2]

The native Canon RAW converter, Digital Photo Professional, is decent and free. Other than that I used Raw Shooter Essentials quite a bit. That was a great program.