Photoshop Elements/Camera Raw and the K7

I've had the K7 for a few weeks and the other day I got round to editing the RAW (PEF) photos I had taken. BUT Camera Raw would not recognise PEF whereas my K10D had no problem with PEF. But DNG worked fine with the K7 and Camera RAW.
I was stumped for a while as it did not seem logical that PEF could be recognised for the K10D and not the K7. I did think of trying this forum but I don't like to be beaten and after some hard/lateral(!!) thinking I hit on the fact that my version of Camera RAW was 5.3 - was there a newer version for the K7? Sure enough after some ferreting around the Adobe website I found Version 5.4, downloaded it and lo and behold it worked with my K7...phew. What a relief.
Cheers...John

Every RAW format is exclusive to a particular model, so all PEF files from different cameras will be different. Hence the need for contant updating from Adobe.

This applies to all marques by the way.

It's one thing that makes DNG more attractive.

You can download the PEF codec for windows vista from Pentax HERE which will allow you to preview PEF files in windows explorer, very handy especially if you view extra large thumbnails.
But I'm not sure if is used by any raw converter you may have & these may need to be updated seperately as you have already done.

While the subject of RAW files is out in the open once more can anyone put my mind at rest. I shoot all my stuff, mainly weddings, in RAW DNG format. The K-7 appears to produce significantly smaller DNG file size than the K20D. What's that all about? Compression that doesn't happen in the K20?

Actually to be precise all PEF files from different cameras should be the same (in terms of file format), as PEF is used by Pentax cameras, so it is only Pentax cameras can make PEF file, so all should have the same format* .
Of course file format for RAW files produced by cameras will differ from brand to brand.

* there may be different versions of the PEF format.

By the way - this error message heeps appearing when I open a PEF file into Elements. I click 'OK', the message disappears and Camera Raw/Elements works perfectly.

I'd like to get rid of this message - any ideas on what I should do??





Cheers John

ACR version 5.3 cannot handle Pentax K7 Raw files. You should install ACR version 5.4:

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4524

and your Pentax K7 raw files can be processed.

Hi Hythloday..in fact I had already downloaded ACR v. 5.4 - see my first post on this thread. I've now done some 'lateral' (sort of) thinking and have managed to solve the problem.

The error message referred to 'win64' which was a folder in the "Programs/Adobe/Photoshop Elements/Plug-Ins/File Format" folder. It had another copy of Camera Raw 8bi and as it was in a folder called 'Win64' I assumed this was for 64 bit processors - mine is 32 bit.

Being cautious I did not delete this folder but dragged it to the desk top and then started Elements

a) from the short-cut on my desktop
b) Opening a RAW photo via Elements
c) Going to 'My Photos' on the desktop and opening a photo with Elements.

All worked perfectly and the error message does not appear.

So I'm pleased on 2 counts. I've solved the problem and my old btain cells still work (sometimes).

Cheers

John