SilkyPix

According to the news items, the new K100D & K110D will ship with SilkyPix3.

www.isl.co.jp/SILKYPIX/english

I've just searched it out and given it a quick run. Not sure if there'll be other differences between what's shipped with the Pentax and what's currently available on the web, but I thought you might be interested to know:

* The output quality is very nice indeed. Free of artifacts (that RawShooter produces for instance). Very "silky". They have built in noise reduction which seems to do the job very well.

* There's not the degree of professional profile control that Capture One provides, but they do have several contrast styles and colour styles which can give very pleasing results (e.g. Tone = "a little low contrast", Color = "a little light", Color mode = "Portrait color 2" produces a nice output for wedding shots)

* It has lens adjustments for vignetting, distortion and CA

* The screen update can be a little slow, but it's passable.

* It can output to any size - so you can upsize without any trouble

* There's a curve editor, and fine colour controls

* You can copy and paste parameters from one shot to another, but it's not as quick as C1 at applying a whole batch. They also have a "Cloakroom" facility where you can save the parameters and recall them at will onto another image (there are 4 "rooms"

* Unlike C1 you can't work on another image while the processing is going on, but the developing into TIFF or JPG is reasonably fast.

* Output is to either sRGB or AdobeRGB, in 8-bit or 16-bit. (No extra colourspaces though).

There's a two week trial, and a "free" mode (there's a list on their website). But it looks quite a capable program, and definitely worth investigating if you're starting out with RAW.

It's about the same price as Capture One LE... but I still prefer C1 for speed of development. But this is the first serious contender I've seen for image quality, IMO. So, I'm going to sit and wait to see what happens when the K1x0D ship...

Matt

I too downloaded the software yesterday am and tried it out...duly impressed. except that I'll have to pay for it of course......I'm going to find out if it plays nicely with Apples Automator and Applescript (I'm somewhat inept with applscript), and I'll let ya know if I can get a decent workflow going.

I've looked at it, too. It's pretty good for a free program (when shipped with the K100D), and streets ahead of Pentax Photo Lab. I think it's quite new, too, so it will no doubt get better.

Good move, Pentax.

G