Silkypix Free Version

This is probably going to be a candidate for "dumbest question of the week" award, but there it is.

I want to give SP a try. I downloaded and installed it a couple of months ago, but didn't get round to using it. Of course, the trial period has expired, and now it won't run (even if I uninstall it and reinstall it, as is the way with these things).

I can't find a separate download for the free version on the SP web site, and I can't run the version I've got.

Any clues as to the, presumably blindingly obvious, thing I'm missing here?

See if this works,
http://shortcutinc.com/silkypix/win/SILKYPIX_WIN.EXE

The free version is quite limited in my opinion.
the full version has been one of the best software investments ever for me, together with Artizen HDR.

I have to agree. From the free version, I was almost turned off by the program's limitations. But there was so much being said about how good the program was I bought it anyway... and not sorry I did.

Their tech support has been quite helpful as well.
If the new download doesnt' help, I'd send them a support request through their support page.

Thanks for this.

It appears to be the same file as the one I downloaded - at least the size in bytes is identical.

Sadly, however, whether I uninstall the version I have first or not, it still just tells me that the trial licence has expired, and won't run.

Having time-limited trials is a right pain, IMO. It isn't always convenient to do all the evaluation you need within a short time. A 'number of runs' limited trial would make a lot more sense.

I'll probably give this a go, thanks.

Chris,

Just pay the money and get the full version. It's the best RAW convertor out there, and although the interface takes a bit of getting used to, once you're familiar with it you won't be able to imagine life without it.

People have mentioned that it's slow. Well, a good computer helps, but in practice it's fast enough, and when it's time to convert, go off and do something else.

The manual is a great way to keep your brain excercised, too.

G

I tried the trial version of adobe lightroom, now that is a piece of software which was unworkable slow on my PC... (4 year old Pentium-4 3,06GHz with 2GB RAM).

I was in contact with the SilkyPix tech support and they allso say that the software is optimized for dual and quad-core processors. The end of this year will be upgrade time for me, I am going to build myself a nice quad-core system...

When you use the programs unistall feature, it leave behind the registry entry with the date you first installed. Do an uninstall, find all the registry entries and then re-install. Alternatively just pay for the full version and save all the time and effort.

Kim

Interesting... I'm running the trial on an AMD Sempron 1.7, with 768MB RAM, and it's fine to work with.

I Really like lightroom, it seems much simpler than Silkypix with some nice automatic settings, but with a $299 US pricetag over Silkypix's $149, I might have to learn to use silkypix properly

I own PS CS3, Lightroom, Silkypix and Capture One. I have to say Capture One is the best RAW converter I've ever used. Silkypix would be my third choice, but does sometimes come in handy for difficult conversions (like others, I often find that a difficult RAW file is best tried in several converters).

I use Photoshop Elements which is fine for 99% of my needs, but does have a limited raw converter.

I understand the Pentax software that ships with the camera is provided by Silkypix. Is the raw converter in the paid-for version of Silkypix much more advanced than the version that comes with the camera ?

Yes it is MUCH more advanced. Just download the free version and look at all the greyed out settings... You can do so much with Silkypix that at first you can get swamped by the number of settings. After a while and after reading the excellent guide from Matt it is a very comfortable RAW converter to use.

Another positive feature of Silkypix is that it can open JPEG and TIFF files as if they were RAW files. I once had a batch of JPEG's which had the wrong whitebalance set (this was before I started shooting in RAW only mode). I tried a lot of things in Photoshop (I even posted a desperate message in this forum ). But the results were never acceptable for me. When I loaded the JPEG's in Silkypix I used the auto whitebalance on them and the results were quite nice (ISO 800 JPEG's will never be really good offcourse). So Silkypix rescued that shoot for me.

Nearly.
Yup

To expand: the Pentax converter uses the Silkypix v2 "engine". It'll give very fine results indeed.
The paid version (v3) includes features such as:
* Colour choices - e.g. Velvia, Provia, etc
* Fine tuning of colour (using a colour wheel). Very powerful
* Full curves
* Noise reduction
* Excellent sharpening options
* Barrel & vignetting distortion correction
* Upsizing (so you can output absolutely massive size images)
* Tastes (preset functions)

There's more too...

The Free Silkypix may give better results compared to the Pentax converter. However, the Pentax one will read all the camera settings and allow an automatic output of JPG - which is useful if you're in a hurry.

It's definitely worth the money... it's just whether you'll use the features
Matt

MattMatic

I have had a good read through your other post on Silkypix......I think I will get it.

As I already have my photos catalogued in Photoshop Elements, I guess it would be simple to process raw files in Silkypix, and still be able to catalogue them in Elements.

Peter,
Yes, you can use two applications. I use Picasa for quick location of images, and Silkypix for my RAW conversion. (You can see how I organise things in my Silkypix guide, IIRC.)

Silkypix is definitely worth persisting with - and I think you'll find you do far less messing around in Photoshop (Elements)
Matt