urban ku # 88 ~ busy crossing, and, I break radio silence once again
Tuesday, July 31, 2007 at 11:29AM 
This must be a very busy crosswalk • click to embiggenWhy an eating place would want to use a symbol that signifies rats and child abduction is somewhat beyond my comprehension. But, in any event, I found a bit of humor in the seemingly well placed crosswalk sign.
Breaking radio silence - once again, I want to give credit where credit is due and perhaps be of some help to those who shoot RAW and are on the Mac platform.
Close to 2 months ago I mentioned that I was very pleased with my new Olympus E-510. Since that time I have been more and more impressed with the camera's performance, albeit a qualified appraisal. The fly in the ointment was due to the fact that the only RAW conversion software available that supported the camera was Olympus' own software (which was only available in a 'trial/demo' version). The software was full-feature but rather clunky and the results, while very good ... well ... let's just say that I wanted some basis for comparison.
Now I have it in Raw Developer, a powerful RAW image conversion application designed and optimized specifically for Mac OS X. The output of this software simply blows away the results I get from Aperture/Lightroom/ACR. Period. (comparison based on Oly E-500 files since none support the 510 yet) Elsewhere (Photo District News), the output has been described as film-like and I emphatically agree.
What I really like about Raw Developer (aside from its stunning output) is that it is a single purpose software - it's a raw processing/conversion software and nothing else. It's lean and mean - it loads large folders really fast; processing effects are immediately displayed in the preview; it's simple and intuitive. Add to that frequent upgrades for new cameras and, get this, send them an email asking for a new feature or support and, voila, a magic fairy appears and your wish is granted (a little poetic license, perhaps).
I have encounterd only a single glitch - the nagging fact that I should go back and reprocess every single Oly RAW file in my ku series.
So, that's it. No noise about noise, sharpening, features, etc. - lean and mean, just like Raw Developer.
PS - a free full-featured demo version is available. No matter what camera you use, you owe it to yourself to give a try.
Reader Comments (3)
Hello? Hello? Anyone Hear Me? Am I all alone? Some national holiday that I may not be aware of?
As for the photo, what is the story of rats and child abduction?
Is it because of what I think is the Pied Piper?
Jim, you got it - the Pied Piper it is