Software for K5

Hi,
I am new to this forum and have just bought my first Pentax camera. My qustion to all you experienced Pentax users is which software do you use for best results for comversion of RAW PEF files to Jpeg? I have CS2 and Lightroom 2 but I am unable to open the RAW file as it is not recognised. If I need to upgrade which do you suggest or is the software that comes with the camera the one to get to know and use? Many thanks for any help I may recieve.

Hi,
Welcome to the forum.
When you have Lightroom 2 today, then I think you should upgrade to Lightroom 3.

You do not write which Pentax you have bought, but you will probably be able to shoot RAW DNG instead of PEF. If you do, you can open the RAW files in LR2 as well.

Nevertheless, I would still upgrade to LR3 because this version do an amazing job regarding noise handling etc. You can shoot at higher ISO and still get a almost noiseless result with LR3 compared to LR2.

Seconded - if you shoot in DNG RAW format rather than PEF RAW format, you will be able to open your images in LR2 (and I think CS2 also, though not tried it). However CS2 is pretty old - the Raw Converter in LR2 will be much more recent and flexible.
And as Svein says, LR3 is a worthwhile upgrade (and not too expensive compared to the cost of an upgrade from CS2 to CS"whatever we are on these days").
Cheers
Paul

I'd suggest upgrading your Lightroom to version 3, especially if you are already familiar with the workflow.

Lightroom 3 is much better. It's image procesing is better and the noise reduction is a huge amount better.

better, better, better!!


Did I say better? I'm not sure... just in case.... it's better.


Oh you also get a bunch of Pentax lens profiles wit LR3.4

I'm a brand new Pentax user too, and really pleased how LR3 handles both Pentax files, Raw DNG and Jpegs.
Change your raw output type to DNG, use LR2 to be sure it fit for your purpose, then upgrade to LR3.
Some people preferred to stick with LR2 because it has a better slideshow module than LR3 (easier to play music with the show), others me included upgraded to LR3 because of the improved noise reduction.

As a tip for lightroom. make sure you have any file indexing services disabled in windows. Explorer search, Microsoft office and Nero all have them running.

As light room is database based it's conastantly accessing files.

I've really speeded Lightroom up disabling these services.