Update on November, 21th 2020
From time to time people always ask what would be a low cost but yet effective suite for raw development of photos.
From time to time people always ask what would be a low cost but yet effective suite for raw development of photos.
This is a tricky question because it will greatly depend on what are your plans, how much patience, time, and knowledge you have.
But first, you need to consider some basic things:
But first, you need to consider some basic things:
- How many different raw formats do you need to deal with?
- Is your camera fitted with a conventional sensor (Bayer) or more exotic ones, like X-Trans and Foveon?
- What's your budget limit?
If you deal with only one raw format I would give a try to the maker's bundled software.
Canon's Digital Photo Professional has lots of features and even remote tether to most of their cameras, It's fast and easy to use.
Nikon also has its own raw converter, pretty similar to Canon's. It's called Nikon Capture NX-D.
Pentax, Fuji and Panasonic bundles an OEM version of Silkypix. It's pretty powerful but staggering slow if you plan to run large batches or have a slow computer.
Olympus' Workspace is pretty basic, but enough for basic adjustments.
But my advice is to try the free versions of Capture One. They have for Fuji, Sony, and Nikon. The free versions are called "Express". Even these free versions are way more powerful than the maker's bundled software. Look for Capture One Express
If you use more than one raw format, the low budget options are narrow. You may try, for example, Luminar 4 (I don't like it) and if you plan to go hardcore, maybe RawTherapee.
All the above-mentioned programs are available for Windows and Mac.
If you have a Mac, RawPower is a simple, yet robust raw converter, and it's not expensive. Actually, I think it's a bargain.
I would avoid subscription-based programs.
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