Nikon & RAW

[glamourfish]

What is the best (to buy) & the best free software for editing RAW images taken with Nikon Cameras? Is there software that would work for all camera types?

[dougj]

One of the recent issues of Shutterbug magazine did a review of RAW processors and found that most did a comparable job on the processing. If you are looking to process 100's of shots at a time, some have better preview, file selection, thumbnail generation, etc.

I don't shoot with Nikon, but I like Photoshop - good integrated RAW processing, file handling, etc. Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) is a plugin they provide that supports most RAW camera formats. This gets updated every 6 months or so for new cameras.

Pixmantec released a free RAW processor called Raw Shooter Essentials sometime back.

http://www.pixmantec.com/

They did this as a freebie, indicating they would release a pay-for pro version, which they did a couple of months ago. The freebie version has a limited feature set, I've used it and it's OK.

[vanderstouw]

I have seen files processed with different RAW processors and find Adobe CameraRAW personally unacceptable... I use PhaseOne's Capture One Pro (C1 Pro) - C1 Lite has the same algorythm...

I also really don't care for ACR's workflow...

[ilanphoto]

Take a look at RAW Magick lite (their spelling not mine)
It cost about 35$ but has superior control and excellent results
I use it for my mission critical images as it takes a long time to process (in the background) but the results are the best

HTH
Ilan