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ACD See Pro 9 RAW Converter now supports X-Trans files!


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have played a round for a few hours. Find the default colour rendering pretty decent -- not very different from Provia JPEGs -- and so far see no major issues with the demosaicing. Speed is acceptable. As for sharpening, as with LR, some adjustments need to be made to default settings. Put the detail slider all the way to 100 and the radius up slightly to around 4. Amount then according to taste but in general a bit more than default 25. The main issue I find is that the programme is a dog's breakfast with sliders not always doing what you expect and not too well thought out. Highlight enhancement alters other tones as well and is not one of the better ones around for recovery --LR certainly better here. Fill light also brightens lighter areas --why? What on earth is the point of "strength" in white balance? Exposure only +/- 2?? And so it goes on. The "edit" tab appears to duplicate many of the "develop" tab ones (though I think the former is more designed for JPEG editing. Also a number crash my graphics card.

 

I find that ACDSee does a pretty good job with general conversion with certainly fewer issues than LR in the general demosaicing. As a whole though, it doesn't seem to have been very well designed from the ground up. There are no film simulations. Still, the price is reasonable and is worth trying out for those already convinced  by the DAM (which do NOT require a catalogue unlike LR) or other  features which are far more numerous than with a "pure" RAW developer such as Photo Ninja or Irident. Personally, I'll likely stick with LR overall and check out PN, Raw Therapee or OOC JPEGs if I need a second opinion.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have been using ACDSee Pro since my Fujifilm S6000fd days and have always enjoyed the fact that it uses the Native Windows filesystem adding an "originals" folders whenever you modify a file. Because everything stays in it's place I know exactly what to back up and I never loose an edited file. The batch functions also respect the original folder structure and for example add "resized" to the name. I have been most of my quick adjustments and file managing in ACDSee for years but for editing I also use PhotoShop, Corel PhotoPaint PaintShop Pro and Draw, and my favorite Text generator is still U-lead Photo Impact (now Corel).

 

I have SilkyPix set as the default RAW processor and it also places the picture in the same folder where it found it after development, thank you!

 

The ACDSee does a very nice job of generation/reading the preview jpg and it shows the added tonal range realistically, and the colors are likewise good with the preview being flatter (wider DR) and slightly less saturated. It does not however show the possible resolution improvement but the scrolling speed is Lights Years ahead of Light (Dark) Room.

 

The GUI is not that good for "mousers" - you cannot always get sliders back to zero with the mouse - but you can with the Keyboard Arrow keys - so thats what I use.

 

The jury is out on the development functionality - the output is not better than the in-camera jpgs except for the recovery potential.

 

But if you use ACDSee Pro9 with SilkyPix 2 (now version 4 engine) you can kick out a tiff easily and use the much more flexible and user friendly interface in ACDSee for all the adjustments.

 

This is ACDSee's first version of X-Trans functionality and it is not at all a poor entry. I am hugely pleased with the efficient PreView and since I usually set my camera to produce good jpgs it allows me quickly pick photos to send to a better developer when the potential is worth the time without jumping around between programs.

 

I paid $79 for the ACD upgrade and I have a paid-for fully licensed version of LR which it is very good for making slide shows, but LR will not my first choise in dancing partner when I have the choice of a willing, fleet of foot partner in ACDSee Pro.

 

I can post a couple items for comparison later but have to sign out for now.

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