K20d without the Pentax software?

I'm surprised anything works on 64 bit Vista.

RawShooterEssentials (RSE) is now very old and has been replaced by Adobe's Lightroom product. Adobe bought Pixmantec, the authors of RSE. No further development of RSE has happened in the last several years.

PhaseOne's CaptureOne is very good too and somebody on here might have a spare licence key from a Sandisk memory card kicking around. It was given away free with Sandisk's cards at one time.

Not sure about that in terms of PEF files; I'll have to try it with the K200D, which should be the same format. It used to work with PEFs from my IstDL2, but the program hasn't been updated since Adobe bought the company that made it in 2006 link

However, DNG files should be fine!

No, I use it too.

Thanks Pentaxophile for the 2006 link. FastStone looks a good alternative to RawShooterEssentials. Anybody using this?

Dave

That is correct. There isn't support for any camera introduced since Adobe took over Pixmantec on June 26, 2006.
A few things of RSE were implemented in Adobes Lightroom.

HIH,
Martin.

Now I'm confused. I started this thread (which seems to have taken on a life of its own ) because I was considering buying a used K20D which didn't have the Pentax software CDs with it. I wasn't sure whether they were essential for interfacing with the camera or not and hence whether the lack of them would render the camera useless.

I have been assured by several people that you don't need them, and there are perfectly acceptable generic programs available to handle the RAW and JPEG files and so on.

Yet now I hear that RawShooterEssentials doesn't 'support' the K10D or any camera after Adobe took them over. What is there to 'support'? Are the files they create not industry standard? Surely RAW and JPEG files are the same regardless of the camera? Am I now hearing that you do in fact need specialist Pentax software to 'support' your K10D, K20D or whatever?

Could someone clarify the position for me please? (I know some knowledgeable and experienced pentaxian will)

Sure.....K10D files are supported. Just buy Lightroom (Adobe) and you get all the support you need.

Seriously, you don't need Pentax software to process your K10D files.
All the big companies make raw converters to process your raw files.
But for most of them, you have to pay.

There are a few free ones. Picassa (from google), or dcraw for windows beiing two of them.

The big players in the Non Free field are:
1# ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) found in Programs like Lightroom,Photoshop CS or PS Elements.
2# Capture one.
3# Silkypix
4# Lightzone
5# Bibble Pro

Maybe there are more, but these are the most known and used. It all comes down to personal taste and willingness to splash a certain amount of money.

Hope it clarifies a bit,
Martin.

Panic not bodyheat. You don't need Pentax specialist software. You can use Photoshop Elements, Silkypix, Lightroom or freebies such as FastStone. And plenty of others I don't know about ...

Dave

JPEG is a universal format, but RAW can be specific to a camera.

The K10D can produce two types of RAW file: PEF and DNG. DNG is supposed to be a universally supported format (though I'm not sure it is quite really). PEF is specific to Pentax - so needs a program designed for that format (along with other formats).

It's not something to worry about because there are many good programs that are compatible with Pentax's PEF and DNG formats.

PEFs are smaller than Pentax-generated DNGs, so take up less space on your memory card. PEF can be converted to DNG anyway - with Adobe's free DNG Converter, for example.

Cameras from most other makes produce their own proprietary RAW formats too. Some do DNG as well or instead, but not all.

£55 is the cheapest I've found it for in the UK.

http://www.cameraworld.co.uk/ViewProdDetails.asp?prod_code=PON08K000046&Prod_nam...

Duncan