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DIGITAL CAMERA RAW CONVERTER COMPARISONS
with Canon 1Ds Mk II and 20D RAW images
Adobe's ACR (Photoshop CS3 & Lightroom), Bibble Pro, BreezeBrowser Pro, Capture One,
Canon's Digital Photo Pro, SilverFast DC Pro / DC VLT and Silkypix Developer Studio

Canon Digital Photo Professional 3.0
overview

Digital Photo Pro (DPP) comes in the software bundle included with all current Canon DSLRs. DPP is a very capable image browser, Canon RAW file converter and image editing tool. It has two basic GUIs. The first is the browser window and the second is the 'Edit image' window.

Changes from Digital Photo Professional 2.0.3 1:
"1.EOS 30D was added as a supported model. 2. A tone curve assist function was added. Images specified by users will be analyzed, and based on the outcome, the RGB tone curve will be automatically corrected to produce optimal images. 3. A contact sheet printing function and detailed settings printing function were added. 4. In addition to the previous false color mitigation function, chrominance noise reduction and luminance noise (jaggy) reduction functions can be selected."

The browser will decode and thumbnail JPEG and TIFF (TIFF at both 8 & 16 bit) and Canon RAW files. You can right click a thumbnail and see quite a few useful image action choices including; open in edit window, delete, cut, copy, info (EXIF data) and save recipe to file. DPP's recipe feature allows you to save current image adjustment settings to a file and apply them later to a another file or selected group of files. You can also drag and drop thumbnails to other folders for a copy or move action. DPP has very basic printing capabilities. DPP took less than 8 seconds to thumbnail a folder containing 50 1Ds Mark II RAW files. DPP is a great RAW image browser since it takes so little time to thumbnail a folder of RAW images and it only takes a couple of seconds to view a RAW image at full resolution.

The 'Edit image' window has two tool tabs. One is for RAW file conversion tools like white balance, brightness, dynamic range and color adjustment with hue and saturation sliders. The other tool tab is for editing other image file types like TIFF, JPEG. DPP's image edit window has 4 levels of image view magnification available between 'fit in window' to 200% image magnification. The first tool tab in the 'Edit image' window is the RAW tool tab. Using the RAW tool tab you can color pick the white balance from a 'white' or neutral gray area of your image or you can select from a preset including actual color temperature or you can tune white balance with a color wheel tool. The RAW dynamic range tool is basically a levels tool that allows you to set white and black point. There is no mid point or gamma setting with this tool. The tone curve tool sets image contrast.

The second tab on in the Edit image window is the RGB image tool set. The RGB toolset includes a very nice 3 channel curves tool, separate brightness and contrast adjustment sliders and adjustment sliders for both hue and saturation. The RGB tool set allows you to work on JPEG or TIFF (8 or 16 bit) as well as RAW files. The RAW tool set is only available when you are working on RAW files. Digital Photo Pro was the only RAW converter available when I first got my Canon 1Ds Mark II. I found myself using DPP's nice 3 channel curves tool and the RGB editing tool panel for almost all of the corrections or adjustments I made to my RAW files. I never did find the RAW tool panel to be of any great value on a regular basis since there was so much redundancy in the two tool panels. If you make adjustments to any of your RAW images, when you exit DPP it will ask you if you want to 'save the changes' to those images. If you reply yes, DPP saves those tools settings and next time you open that image the tools are set to where they were the last time you edited that image. DPP's non-searchable PDF help file lags way behind the help files in all the other RAW converters.

DPP did quite well in the image comparison sections of this article. DPP's default settings nearly always produced proper exposure and good color balance.

DPP is about mid pack in the speed race at about 13 (20D) and 21 (1Ds Mark II) seconds to convert and save a RAW file to a 16 bit TIFF file.

 

Digital Photo Pro's Browser GUI (Graphical User Interface)

 

Digital Photo Pro's Edit Image GUI (Graphical User Interface)

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LINKS:
Introduction, comments on RAW and features comparison chart
Adobe ACR 4 (Photoshop CS3 & Lightroom) overview
Bibble Pro overview
BreezeBrowser Pro overview
Capture One Pro overview
Silky Pix Developer Studio overview
SilverFast DC Pro / DC VLT overview
comparison examples - color renditions
comparison examples - landscapes
comparison examples - artifacts & sharpening
comparison examples - tungsten and florescent white balance at ISO 1600
comparison examples - studio lights and custom white balance
comparison examples - studio lights with Kelvin white balance
comparison examples - digital noise at ISO 1600
EXIF and IPTC information

WEB SITE LINKS
Steve Hoffmann's Nature and Landscape Photography - Gallery Index & News

PHOTOGRAPHY AND DIGITAL IMAGING INFORMATION
Beginners Level Digital Darkroom Slide Show Tutorial
Digital Darkroom Imaging and Printing Tech Tips
Photography Tech Tips
A Practical Guide to Interpreting RGB Histograms
Digital Camera Raw Converter Comparisons
Digital SLR vs. Film Scans
DSLR Sensor Size and Pixel Density
Aftermarket Scanner Control Software
My Photo Equipment
Building Your First Web Site Mini Tutorial

LEGACY* EQUIPMENT REVIEWS
Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED Film Scanner Review
Nikon LS2000 Film Scanner Review
HP S20 Film Scanner Review
HP PhotoSmart 1100 Printer Review
HP Original PhotoSmart Printer and Scanner Review

Comments or Questions

*legacy = not the manufacturer's current product