I’ve been using the free version of Pixmantec’s RAW conversion software for a while now and I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of the permium edition that hit the shelves earlier this week.

If you use a digital SLR you need to try the RAW mode of your camera and see for yourself the quality difference it can make over using the normal JPEG setting. RAW files are the digital equivalent of film negatives - they contain all the original information captured by the sensor which can later be manipulated on the PC (”developed” in the old world) without any loss of quality. Once you’ve got a CF card full of RAW images you’ll need to convert them into some useable format like TIFF or JPEG and that’s where Rawshooter comes in.

The free version of pixmantec’s converter, RawShooter Essentials, does a very nice job of converting RAW images into JPEG or TIFF output. You get a lot of control over the colour, exposure, and sharpness of the final image and a nice workflow for quickly dealing with batches of hundreds of photos. Pixmantec know their target audience!

The premium version adds the ability to rotate and crop images - often that’s the only edit that needs doing which means that many photos can be processed in the one package without needing to resort to further editing. You also get much more sophisticated colour management and editing options, the ability to do high res comparisons of similar pictures and the option to resize your converted images.

The free software is a must-have and the premium addition compares very favourably in price to the competition.

More information from www.pixmantec.com