# RAW Converter



## Nikkor (Jul 18, 2010)

I know there's a million threads out there that answer this question, and I'd love to be pointed in the direction of them. How to I bring RAW images in from my camera to my Mac? Is the RAW converter a free download? 

Thanks!


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## ann (Jul 18, 2010)

your camera should have come with a cd that will provide a program that will convert them to a tiff or jpeg file. 

you have to download the files from the card and then open them with the software as the computer can't (usually) do that for you.  try DNG from Adobe, it is free.

there is also Photo Elements, Capture Nx2 (which is for nikon users in RAW mode, but will handle any other type of jpeg, tiff file) Picasa now does raw as does photoscape and these are free programs.

start with the program that came with the camera and move from there would be my thought


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## Nikkor (Jul 18, 2010)

I was a second shooter at a wedding last night and used the a Canon 5D Mark II, and the photographer is sending me a disc with all my images from last night in RAW, I'll look into Picasa's. I don't think Nikon's software is going to help me with since it's Canon. What do you think?


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## ann (Jul 18, 2010)

no it won't , i was thinking nikon as that was in your signature


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## ann (Jul 18, 2010)

however, you should be able to download ddp from canon's site. which will convert the canon files


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## Big Mike (Jul 19, 2010)

You could download Adobe's DNG RAW converter from Adobe.com.  Provided, of course, that you have software that will open DNG files (Photoshop).


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## j-dogg (Jul 28, 2010)

Now I would like to expand on this a bit, what is the best RAW convertor out there? I'm shooting a Digital Rebel and would like to work on my post-processing skills.


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## ann (Jul 29, 2010)

that is a can of worms. Many feel that it is best to use the convertor provided by the manufactor of the specific camera as it matches there "numbers". 

Third party software has to back engineer.

You can test a variety of convertors with the same image and they will all look different before you make the changes.

I am sure someone who is more knownable about the specifics will chime in and give a more detail answer.

Why not start with the software given to you by Canon and then use what ever else you have available and see which you like. Or, you can download some trials of various packages to see which works for your workfull.


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## KmH (Jul 29, 2010)

j-dogg said:


> Now I would like to expand on this a bit, what is the best RAW convertor out there? I'm shooting a Digital Rebel and would like to work on my post-processing skills.


In most cases, there is no one *best* for anything, just like there is no one *best* digital Single Lens Reflex camera.

"Best for" is usually qualified by, "best for what". What do you want to do with your RAW images?

What is more important to you? How the RAW converter handles Gaussian noise or how it handles Johnson-Nyquist noise? Bear in mind that Shot noise follows a Poisson distribution which makes it very similar, but not the same as, Gaussian noise and that Quantization noise has a nearly uniform distribution. 

Which do you prefer? RAW converter that de-mosiac using multivariate interpolation or bilinear interpolation? Or would you prefer demosaicing algorithms that exploit the spatial and/or spectral correlation of pixels within the color image?

Basically the differences between RAW converters is how they do their maths, but they all wind up producing an image that needs further editing before they can be considered ready for output.


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## j-dogg (Jul 29, 2010)

^^Yeah.....what he said.

I'm using StepOK. My Rebel came with no software, it was bought off of a close friend. I tried to find the software on Canon's website and found nothing.


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## Josh66 (Jul 29, 2010)

ann said:


> however, you should be able to download ddp from canon's site. which will convert the canon files



I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure you can only download updates for it...
I don't think it will let you download the full software.


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## KmH (Jul 30, 2010)

j-dogg said:


> ^^Yeah.....what he said.
> 
> I'm using StepOK. My Rebel came with no software, it was bought off of a close friend. I tried to find the software on Canon's website and found nothing.


What did your close friend do with the software?


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## Scatterbrained (Jul 30, 2010)

Here is a link to the Canon site if you want to download DPP (their Raw converter for Canon cameras) it's free.
http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/suppo...slr_cameras/eos_5d_mark_ii#DriversAndSoftware


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## macrojunkie (Jul 30, 2010)

Nikkor said:


> I know there's a million threads out there that answer this question, and I'd love to be pointed in the direction of them. How to I bring RAW images in from my camera to my Mac? Is the RAW converter a free download?
> 
> Thanks!



I've taken a bunch of pictures in RAW format with my Canon and I've just imported them into iPhoto (and recently Aperture). Then I just export them as jpegs or pngs.


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