RAW Software Tests

The camera used for the tests is a Nikon D70 but with D70s firmware, so results should apply to both the D70 and the D70s

Nikon PictureProject : Supplied with the camera, this package is almost universally ignored. Although the application itself is far more basic than any DSLR deserves, it does have limited RAW powers and comes with a NEF plug in for Photoshop. By default this displaces Adobe Camera RAW - is it any good?    Version tested 1.75

Nikon Capture NX : Nikon don’t supply this for free with their DSLR’s. They give you a 30 day trial which is enough to find out how good this is and how poor their free package Picture Project is. Is it worth the extra?

ACDSee Pro 8 : Best known as a file utility for images ACDSee now has a RAW processing module. Version tested 8.1

Adobe Photoshop CS2 / Photoshop Elements : Adobe Camera RAW is supplied with Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. ACR has fewer options in Elements but the module is the same for both.

Bibble : Well known for Nikon file processing. Latest version has built in noise reduction from Noise Ninja and “Perfectly Clear Technology” plus free color control plug-ins   . Version tested Bibble Lite 4.9

Capture One LE : Well established leading RAW conversion brand. Very popular with Canon users for it’s well thought out interface, and built in noise reduction. Version tested 3.7.4

RAWshooter Premium 2006 : Rawshooter is unfortunately no longer available. Adobe liked this so much they bought the technology, and the designers are now working on the Adobe Lightroom project.    

Silkypix Developer Studio v3 : Available as either an unrestricted full edition or a free edition with no batch processing and only JPEG output, Silkypix v3 is newly available in English, and although the Japanese publisher’s translation of some terms is quirky, the software is excellent, with an interface that shows lots of influences from both Capture One and RawShooter - no bad thing.