New Raw Processor

[Mike Farley]

Following a delay, ON1 has finally released its new Raw processor for which they are promising great things. Not the least of which is much faster rendering of images than Lightroom. From my point of view, one of the more interesting functions is limited support for Sigma cameras with Foveon sensors. At present, processing those Raw files is a right pain as there is virtually no support by other Raw applications. It does not help that Sigma's own software leaves much to be desired. The caveat is that most of the Sigma cameras are listed as being in "Tier 2", which relies on the Raw conversion engine built into the operating system. I'll be taking advantage of the free trial to find out more.

Purchases before the end of a year qualify for a discounted price and a number of bundled freebies.

http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/20 ... 7-launches

[Mike Farley]

I downloaded the application yesterday to see if it was worthwhile taking advantage of the introductory discount, which expired yesterday. My testing did not get very far. Viewing Raw files from Canon and Olympus cameras was OK, but the software could not handle those from Fuji's X-Trans sensor. When zooming in to check detail, the software repeatedly froze. That is something of a drawback when that is the camera system I use for most of my work these days.

One of the attractions of the software is the promise of faster rendering of Raw files, something at which Lightroom is not especially quick. Admittedly the CPU in my desktop computer is now a few years old and ON1 recommends the use of a fast processor, but it should still be possible to compare the speed of the two applications. ON1 does get an image displayed very quickly, but it takes a while before it is rendered fully and there are a couple of intermediate stages before it completes. I did not do any timings, but subjectively it seems to be on a par with Lightroom.

Overall, it feels as though the application is not really ready and would benefit from further development, especially given the instability I encountered with Fuji Raw files. Adobe should be looking over its shoulder, but does not have too much to worry about yet.