# Best software to process RAW files from Canon 5D Mark II??



## gandhi (Jul 18, 2012)

Can some one advice me on the Best software to process RAW files from Canon 5D Mark II??. I have been using LR 3.0, but I have been browsing on this topic and some body suggested that Canon software is the best for 5D series.
Any inputs?


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## RLPhoto (Jul 18, 2012)

Lightroom or Aperture if your on a mac. Both are good software but DPP isn't very intuitive to my tastes.


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## neuroanatomist (Jul 18, 2012)

I use DxO for RAW conversions, Aperture 3 for library management.

Since DxO doesn't yet handle 1D X RAW files, I'm temporarily using DPP - ugh. I agree that DPP has among the worst user interfaces I've used across all software, ever (and I go back to WordStar...DPP is only slightly better than SAP  ). Even if all I want to do is crop an image, why do I have to switch the drop-down menu to 3:2 vs. 2:3? Would it be so hard to have it default to the shot orientation as the base for the crop frame?!? Etc...


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## gandhi (Jul 18, 2012)

What do you think of LR?


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## RLPhoto (Jul 18, 2012)

gandhi said:


> What do you think of LR?



LR3 + CS3 = Best Image processing Ever.

LR4 I can't use yet.


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## gandhi (Jul 18, 2012)

Does CS3 has the ability to process RAW images?


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## RLPhoto (Jul 18, 2012)

gandhi said:


> Does CS3 has the ability to process RAW images?



I wouldnt buy CS3 as its ancient already. Yes it does process RAW files but its ACR converter is outdated already.

You might want to look into CS6 for processing RAW files in photoshop. Its more trouble some and expensive that just using LR for RAW processing.

I use CS3 after I export my RAWs into PSD's for further editing in photoshop.

Camera Raw files -----> Lightroom 3 --------> CS3 ----------> Final Image.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Jul 18, 2012)

There is no right or wrong answer, its the software that you like to use.
DPP is free
LR is good, and excells at organizing your images
DXO renders excellent images without you needing to tweak them
Phase one is very good
Aperture is very good
Photoshop is very good
Many love Gimp
Many love ACDSee
Sorry if I missed any, but these companies would not be producing software unless they had many faithful users, so best is a very relative and subjective term.


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## gary (Jul 19, 2012)

I have and use??? LR4, I am still having speed problems even though I have a Mac with Intel 7 and 8gb, the drag on the sliders is really annoying. I recently downloaded for trial Capture one and so far so good. Its a 60day trial version and gives ample time to try it out.


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## skitron (Jul 19, 2012)

+1 for Capture One for RAW processing, very fast workflow, fantastic results.

I don't need much in the way of a destructive editor so use Photoshop Elements to host a couple of Red Giant plugins (Knoll Light Factory and Looks) that I use for doctoring advertising shots.


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## brianleighty (Jul 24, 2012)

This is just me personally but I had horrible troubles with white balance with anything other than DPP. I used to hate it but the more I've learned it the more I realize you can do a lot of things in it, it's just not always obvious how you do it.

It is free (unlike Nikons) and you always know it's going to have the quickest update for new cameras if that matters. Maybe at some point I'll test the others again but it makes sense that Canon's software would do a better job since unless I'm wrong, all the other companies have to reverse engineer the RAW files since they don't have access to Canon's code. The only thing I hate is no auto-save and it does occasionally crash but as with every program, command-s is your best friend.


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