This collection of RAW converters starts out to suit the ORF files of the Olympus community, most of the software also works of course with all brands of camera's RAW files, except for the Olympus software listed.

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List of RAW converters        Converter Details       Misc info

The list is mainly of interest to Olympus DSLR users but other general purpose RAW converters are also listed. In Olympus land the E-1 can output an excellent jpeg and there's sometimes no need to use the RAW format and its accompanying large file size and need to convert. The E-300, E-500 and maybe the E-330 all do benefit from using RAW as the source of images as the in-camera jpeg engine is maybe not so good for critical use. 

When I finally get around to the big shootout with pixel peeping examples and evaluation of printed examples, the basic comparison for me will be with the default SHQ jpeg file out of my E-300. If using the RAW format turns out to be more work than it's worth for me then I will happily drop back to jpegs and maybe only use RAW+jpeg for those few shots that I recognise may need further work or be suitable for large prints.

I can safely say right now that my shootout will not find a "best" converter, only maybe find one or two that are easier than others to obtain a result that I like. And that may be different from the result that YOU like. In any case it's wise to have, say, maybe 3 RAW converter programs available for use, that way some difficult images may prove to be easier to fix on one RAW converter compared to another. One example is that I have a sample C-5060 RAW image that is way underexposed and the default jpeg conversion leaves it nearly totally black. Some converters can get a recognisable almost usable image, others just cannot manage to get much out of the image at all. So hopefully I will also feed all the converters problem images as well as good ones to see how they all manage.

All this will take some time to do properly within the limited trial times I have on some of the software, plus right now there are family health problems occupying my time and I can't guarantee a continuous run of maybe 5 days of my time to do the monster comparison I want to do. Meanwhile I'll start the bare bones chart here now and gradually fill in details as I find them and later of course fill in pixel peeping results and comparison charts in some form yet to be devised. Just be patient, please. No, shootout never happened, I just maintain this page in a bit by bit fashion as I feel like it. I still like Silkypix best and bought the real version.

Converters

The list of RAW converters to be investigated, click on links to see more table of more details of each one. The lists are hopefully alphabetic in order. Additions to this list are welcome, so even if my conclusions are haywire at least the list may be a complete guide to finding RAW converters. Many converters have started to grow into full edit programs, and many full edit programs have grown to include RAW conversion - it's a confusing world out there.

Some, like the free to download plugins, require a host program like Photoshop, which of course costs. As people tell me of Mac specific converters I will add them into the list, but I never will test them myself. Some/many of the converters listed here for PC also have Mac versions, I have not yet sorted that feature out yet in the list.

Details (under construction!)

Here's the above list expanded with more details on each converter. The price is the the price for the no frills versions and some more features may be in costlier versions. You will need to visit the sites to see which version you need and find the prices. Prices rounded to nearest dollar. Blank cells mean data not fully sorted out yet. I welcome emails to tell me of mistakes and omissions. Later links will appear to pixel peeping results etc. List in no particular order.

 Guy Parsons - June 2008