Linux image apps roundup

Roundup of several Linux image software with a small description, don't know how useful but it might be interesting to read what's out there.

link

Thanks, Stefan - very useful. As I'm beginning to use Linux tools with my new Pentax DSLR, I was pleased to find some of my preferences confirmed: 'we like the KDE and GNOME defaults of digiKam and Shotwell (respectively) along with gThumb. But digiKam stands out as the most attractive option.' (Actually, I'm using all of these in Ubuntu, never mind the gnomes.) Of course, that doesn't make it easy to grasp what all the options are for...

I can't help wondering about a statement in the introduction. The author claims 'there are literally tons of [applications] available' - but how did he weigh the software? How heavy is a download?

Thanks

I must update UFRAW as my current versions (0.13 ubder Linux and 0.17 under Windows) don't support K5 PEFs.

K5 DNGs don't seem to be handled properly, but that might apply to all DNGs (never checked).

I still have the new Linux mint on the USB stick, never came around to try that one maybe i should give it a go

Nice list, thanks for posting.

But digging around last nite I discovered a couple of promising Workflow products. Well only 1 really as the other is Canonikon specific at the moment - developer doesn't have any buddies with a Pentax apparently!

The other is Darktable and uses libdraw which is based on the source code of dcraw ( ah, the joys of F/LOSS ) so already boasts support for RAW from cameras as new as 645D, K-r & K5!

It is not in Ubuntu's repositories, but you can add the launchpad PPA to your sources and then install in the usual way. No unusual dependences, mine just installed libdraw, every other dependency was already up-to-date.

Interface is shall we say unique, and will take me a bit of getting used to, but the feature set sounds appealing. ( I'm happy editing in GIMP, but managing the folders of originals, mods, resizes, etc., can get old pretty quick. )

More info here: http://darktable.sourceforge.net/

Link to page with downloadable video intro to Darktable - top left of page - a couple or 3 revs out of date.

Link to draft manual (pdf) - 1 rev out of date.

Terminal commands to install Darktable in a recent release of Ubuntu:

sudo apt-add-repository ppamjdebruijn/darktable-release
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install darktable

If you don't understand what that's about, a) don't worry about it, and b) don't - please - use it!

@layingback
Thanks for finding darktable

Thanks for those instructions as well. I did not (100%) understand what it's about but did install it

Recent (2011/02/15) update of darktable (DARKroom + lightTABLE not dissimilar to Adobe's LIGHTtable + darkROOM - Pun was intended) has transformed the product.

Previously I felt it was too slow to invest the time into full figuring it out as I've not use Lightroom (hey, last time I bought an app was 2001). But this version is bordering on snappy. Uses the new rawspeed library, a new fast reader of RAW images. Claims to support 75% of latest cameras, with rest covered by DNG. Here's the relevant part of the list from the xml file:

Camera make="PENTAX Corporation" model="PENTAX K100D"
Camera make="PENTAX" model="PENTAX K100D"
Camera make="PENTAX Corporation" model="PENTAX K10D"
Camera make="PENTAX Corporation" model="PENTAX K20D"
Camera make="PENTAX" model="PENTAX K20D"
Camera make="PENTAX Corporation" model="PENTAX K200D"
Camera make="PENTAX" model="PENTAX K-5"
Camera make="PENTAX" model="PENTAX K-7"
Camera make="PENTAX" model="PENTAX K-m"
Camera make="PENTAX" model="PENTAX K-x"
Camera make="PENTAX" model="PENTAX K-r"
Camera make="PENTAX" model="PENTAX K200D"
Camera make="PENTAX" model="PENTAX K2000"

The capabilities seem awesome to me, and this is still only 0.8, meaning more to come before it is considered "Released". I may well have to start shooting RAW! (Although darktable will work with jpgs. It still doesn't modify source image at all, but now uses XMP sidecar files. And can now export to flickr as well as picassa (and email, and of course hard drive).

There is an overview screencast here, and in-depth screencasts by one of the development team here. They are for 0.7, but it's not hard to follow with 0.8.

(Install instructions and other links 2 posts up this thread.)

Oh, and it's free as in speech as well as free as in beer.

DNG is an Adobe 'open' standard for digital negatives (RAW files). The resolution is unimportant as any DNG software can handle any DNG. No need for specific versions, and that is the whole point. You never need to worry about compatibility if a new camera supports DNG.

I know it's open, I know it's not supposed to matter.

I used PEF files on the K10D and the K100D. As I stated earlier, my versions of UFRAW did not support the K5 PEFs. So I switched to DNG on the K5. And below is the result of the conversion in UFRAW.




Clearly visible is a pinkish band on top; there is also a small black band at the bottom. There are some other funnies

The jpg from the camera is 4928x3664 pixels (according to spec)
The dng is 4992x3284 in UFRAW and 4950x3284 in darktable.

What I was trying to indicate with the latter part of the sentence is that I did not test DNG on the other cameras; UFRAW might show the same behaviour with those (or not).

I think the pink band is part of the NR process and the black is unrecorded pixels. Because even though it is the same 16MP Sony sensor as in the D7000 it has a slightly different sized image.

Clever the way the prog has removed the purple fringing from the image and placed it at the top.

G

I'll take two!