Linckinn wrote:
I guess a corallary question would be: if (a), which RAW converters make the best images?
Hi Linckinn. A lot of good answers have been posed to answer most of the questions. Let me attempt to give you some insight to the above question.
There are various articles written on the subject and a search on-line will bring up information with photos and examples of different conversion results.
I have done a lot of comparisons and different raw (no need for capital letters) file converters yield different results, that are visible on the screen. Additionally, the different raw converters work differently with different raw formats. So using Adobe on Canon raw may not yield the same result as if you were using a Nikon or an Olympus, etc. For example many people feel that Adobe's rendering of Nikon raw format is very flat, while Adobe's rendering of Canon raw format is much brighter.
Ultimately, which one is the "Best" is completely subjective.
The camera manufacturers raw converter usually does the best quality conversion, but the manufacturers software is often clunky and buggy and crash prone. Aftermarket software companies, like Adobe, Phase One, Et al., write software that is much less buggy and easier to use. However aftermarket companies must reverse engineer the raw conversion algorithm, because the raw formats are propriety and only the manufacturer has the "secret formula" for their raw file format.
My answer to "which is best?' is "the best raw converter is the one that makes the least amount of work for me in post". I shoot Nikon and for me, for now, that is Nikon's software.
Again which is best is subjective you may prefer something different. My suggestion, do some research, try a couple different converters, pick the one you like best.
One more thing, off topic but important. Are you using a calibrated monitor? If not I recommend that you get a calibration process in place, because if you are adjusting raw images on a screen that is off-cal you are basically wasting your time. The good news is most screens are pretty good but if you going through the trouble of editing raw then you obviously care about color and the way to assure consistent color is to adopt a color calibration process (a.k.a. color management process).