I sense there is some mistrust amongst people of programs that offer to 'catalogue' your photo collection, certainly those that perform theses functions automatically and seemingly at their own will. I've certainly had bad experiences when downloading something that on first running launches into a complete takeover of the computer and tries to find and catalogue every image it can find and refuses to stop until you kill the computer!

The ideal cataloging program would allow you to designate both specific folders (which it can 'watch', (or not)) as well as individual files that might be 'imported' from any directory. If this program is also an editor (like Lightroom) then it should be able to 'save out' to any alternative directory and folder as well. All of this should be able to be controlled entirely manually. Of course, Lightroom would surely provide all of this, I am confident of that.

I did not find the Elements Organiser this flexible, so I don't use it. The Elements Organiser and Lightroom catalogue are maintained via an internal database, so you need to be careful about the backup processes for these and ensure you have every file component required.

There are alternative and very flexible options - for example, I use imatch (photools.com) which uses a different system. It provides a database file entirely separate from the main program, which you can save and copy (backup) anywhere. This file has a unique extension and stores the thumbnails, all the metadata associated with each image as well as detailed user assigned categories for easy searching and organizing. You create each database uniquely, and each one has your own category assignments as you create - so you can create different databases for different workflows, say professional or personal for example.

On the K7 at least, this only concerns highlight correction, which when active will restrict the lowest iso to 200 - (guess it's to do with the total extent of visible dynamic range.) Shadow correction shouldn't matter. But, in any case, these auto iso limits only apply to green mode I think.

I know we have 'Program Line', which I think relates to the relationship between aperture and shutter speed - this can also be set in the control panel. Not sure if this will affect the iso set in P mode though?

I think we're talking about the 'auto-iso' range range - that is , the lower and upper limits the camera can automatically set when shooting in Green mode.

Indeed, on my K7, this is accessed from the Control Panel (press Info button - the panel appears on the rear LCD). You scroll to the auto iso item, press Ok to select it, then rotate the front e-dial to set the lower limit and the rear dial for the upper limit.

Once you have defined these limits,then you choose the shooting algorithm bias to be used - slow, standard and fast. Honestly, this is not relevant unless you use green mode. I imagine most of us use P or Av mostly, but green mode can be useful for times when there's not time to think much, or you give your camera to to a beginner.

Yes, don't stop me now - I'm just getting on a roll I've talked about layers in two posts so far, and your need (or not) for this functionality would be a key determinant for using both LR & PS (but as I've also been saying for most of us now, the much cheaper Elements would be plenty).

I wonder if its to do with the menu setups on the cameras.? As I've posted above, PDCU is laid out to mimic the in-camera processing controls offered on the DSLRs, with a few extra offerings, but essentially it offers computer based application of those settings that can be applied on the cameras to output JPEGs directly.

Maybe the menus on these other cameras are significantly different, and they have not asked Silkypix to write new software specific for these cameras (why not??) so they are just bundling a generic offering. ?? Just a thought.

If there was any move to merge LR and PS in to one coagulated offering, it won't be long before the shelves in Waterstones are groaning under the weight of all the new tomes running to 1000 pages or so, instead of the only 400-500 pages we see now.

I can't agree that such a monstrosity would render all the competition redundant. There are other good, efficient quality editors out there - they do take a bit of hunting out and seeking advice for sure.

I do accept that Adobe have a good coverage of the market, and their products are increasingly dividing into more distinct target audiences - full PS is no longer at all obligatory for semi-pro / enthusiast, or indeed any person working exclusively in the photographic medium - more required now for commercial print / design aspects of the market.

PS Elements is a viable option for the serious photographer, as is Lightroom. Personally I would say that most would want more sophistication in the RAW develop section than Elements ACR provides, so another standalone RAW converter would be a good investment.

The OP was clearly concerned about layers - I use great software that eliminates the needs for managing layers upfront, but still find for particularly fine selective control or very fiddly tidying up, that layers as per the PS / Elements model are the best way to go, so well worth learning. Elements 11 will now offer almost all the degrees of control and flexibility in these areas that a photographer would need, without such a hefty learning curve (and the books are only about 300 pages!!)

I am still puzzled by what we are hearing about some of these latest cameras - ie they are coming with what appears to be an earlier version of Silkypix. It is quite obviously a completely different program to PDCU. It would be good to know what are the file type compatibilities between the two - eg does PDCU4 open RAW files from a K30? This is still a DSLR isn't it, so I would have thought it would record into the normal .pef / .dng as the other DSLRs. ??

Obviously the other cameras you list are a different category - I know the Q models are basically CSC types, not sure about the K-01 - is that a DSLR? Maybe they are recording to a different file type not compatible with PDCU. The K-30 remains a mystery though.

ASAIK the most recent update to PDCU, 4.4, includes support for specific features of the new K5-11 /s. So PDCU is continuing for this line of cameras at least.

I should have made these points early on in the guide, but its an evolving project, so I can slot it in when its updated. There is often debate, here and on the US forum, concerning the relative merits of PDCU and other RAW converter products (more often focussing on the 'lack of merits' of PDCU!) It is often seen to be lacking in some key functionalities or offers an unintuitive and offputting interface.

One key point to be appreciated is that PDCU is not designed along the lines of alternative products that offer generic RAW conversion - ie can work with every camera brand RAW format. PDCU is actually specifically designed to mimic (and expand on) the In-Camera processing controls - so in many respects its structure follows the In Camera control layouts.

For example, contrast controls - why would there be no contrast controls on the main panel, like every other RAW program? These programs have to provide generic sliders that apply to any image. PDCU is actually designed to mimic the in-camera processing controls provided by Pentax, and accessed via the LCD screen. So the tabs sort of follow the patterns of camera control on the DSLRs.

There are obviously a number of important additions and extensions to the controls offered on the cameras, (like the Colour Fine Tune, or the detailed control over Highlights for example), but many of the other features in the program are duplicates of camera controls, such as the custom parameters.

There is a logic I guess to the contrast controls being located here - I mean, no camera has a 'contrast' setting to make when you're shooting (like a WB setting, or EV compensation), but if we were choosing to output a JPEG and we wanted to produce that as a 'finished' photo, then we would need fine contrast control - and the camera has these in the custom parameters page (right button on the four-way-controller), and likewise this is where we have these sliders in PDCU, becasue this is where we take control of fine tuning our JPEG output from the camera - so PDCU is structured the same way!

I think this has often been offputting to new users - often they run scared and go to another more generic RAW converter. Pity though, because PDCU can work wonders on our Pentax RAW files.

I think it is easy to imagine that this sort of operation is rather fiddly on the camera, and of course you only have a 3 inch screen to work with. But there are a good number of fine controls to apply. There are obvious 'in the field' situations when it may be a great convenience to produce a JPEG output and do without a computer, but in general most of us probably imagine that working with an image is easier on a beg screen.

How did you find the controls on the camera, and did it take long to make the conversions?

But you'll still need a computer eventually to store the images. But some people may actually find they prefer manipulating the controls on the camera rather than dealing with complex PC / Mac operating systems and sophisticated conversion programmes.

Try opening ACR (by selecting a RAW file) - the current ACR version number is printed in the top left corner of the ACR window (as in the screenshot above). As I emphasised earlier, the Elements version will have fewer of the tabs on the right hand side, so fewer of the more sophisticated or multi step adjustment options. It wll have the 'Basic' section (with the key single-slider parameters, and then a noise reduction tab etc.

One useful tip - on the bar labled 'basic' there is a tiny right pointing arow on the right end - click here and a dropdown will offer a few choices to compare the current settings with the unedited version, and a couple of others I think - useful for seeing how your changes have affected the overall shot as you go.