Question about Panasonic Silkypix developer

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steveblade

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Hi all, Ive been on TP a few weeks now just lurking when I get a chance and picking up info as much as possible as I'm quite the newbie to photography. There is so much to trawl through, always something interesting to read :)

Ok so just before Xmas I bought what I thought to be a midrange DSLR micro 4/3 camera. I'm pleased with it and don't know if I bought smart or not really but I will say its better than any other camera Ive owned, I only ever had compact digital cameras before, a Panasonic DMC-G3 if your wondering.
It came bundled with silkypix developer 3 software which seems Ok all though a bit complicated for me at the min.
Ive started taking all my shots in RAW so I can play with PP software, (see I'm even learning all the abbreviations).

Is it worth upgrading to silkypix developer 5 pro for about £26? The first advantage here is I can install it to my fastest drive ssd or a ramdisk where as the bundled software will only go on my C:, drive no other option.

Or should I wait and put the money to something better?

I don't want to be able to add layers and objects etc Any Panasonic user have advice?
 
I've not really heard if silky pix, most people look at Lightroom/aperture 3

Then for more in depth editing photoshop/photoshop elements/gimp.

Lightroom/aperture 3 are both good places to start
 
I've tried SP developer 5 pro. It produces better results from raw files than the V3 produces. Personally, I didn't like the flow of developing an image in it. I think I'd much prefer Photoshop Elements (I use lightroom which is different again - although I haven't used Elements for about 3 years now so it may have changed). Given that you can ONLY use Panasonic cameras with that version, I'd save my money and go with something more mainstream.
 
Thanks for the info Andy and Shaun, Ive downloaded gimp to give it a whirl. I might give the pro 5 version of silkypix a go when the months pay arrives but I'll have to see what trials are out for photoshop/photoshop elements first, no rush with silkypix upgrade as its available cheap till April.

Someone on another thread seemed to think the Panasonic software would be best as it was designed around there own Panasonic RW2 file type but that remains to be seen I guess. I think my number 1 requirement is ease of use as I understand the basics or some of them and I don't want be stuck with too steep a learning curve or I'll just struggle to learn anything from it. Ill post my findings when Ive had a play, if anyone else has anything to recommend please fire away.
 
All processing software has a learning curve with it.....
 
steveblade said:
Someone on another thread seemed to think the Panasonic software would be best as it was designed around there own Panasonic RW2 file type but that remains to be seen I guess. .
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That's complete tosh Steve, the same silkypix software is bundled with the Pentax K-30 which only shoots Adobe DNG Raw files.:)
 
I dont know Paul, I think there may be different versions because the cheap upgrade I looked at is Panasonic specific.

Gimp doesn't open the raw files, I just tried to install the codec but its for 32bit only :o( nothings simple is it.
 
craftysnapper said:
That's complete tosh Steve, the same silkypix software is bundled with the Pentax K-30 which only shoots Adobe DNG Raw files.:)
Click to expand...
There is a cheap version which appears to have a better RAW processor than the bundled versions which is built specifically for Panny cameras. The bundled versions are V3 software, the one at £25is is V5.
 
The bundled version is Silkypix 3.1SE - SE versions are locked to one specific brand and are bundled with cameras, other than that it's identical to the standalone software. It's NOT Panasonic software, never has been.

SPDS5 has a very useful HDR function which is great for getting out maximum detail from a raw file, well as much detail as SP can manage anyway. If maximum recovery of data is what you want then look to Adobe, you can push things further with Lightroom or Photoshop CS.

HOWEVER! If you are mainly shooting people, stick with SP, The name of the software says it all, you can get a wonderful smooth image from SP that isn't possible with Adobe products that is ideal for portraiture. Noise reduction is MUCH more effective and natural than anything Adobe have made or any of the plugins too, but it does come at the expense of detail sharpening, hence more suited to portraiture than anything else, but it does work on other stuff as long as you like natural rendering.

I personally prefer version 4. Noise and sharpening was altered with version 5 and I don't find it works as well as previous versions.

How are you getting version 5 for £26? I paid over £100 for v4.
 
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