What is the best freeware camera software?

Alistair George · Dec 31, 2006

Hi. I tried the OEM software that came with my S6500fd camera and was pretty disappointed as it was quite limited, and accompanying software was installed which you have to pay for if wanted.

Have tried Cam2PC, FastStone, XNview, Photomeister 2 and preferred is Faststone
http://www.faststone.org/index.htm

However, like the other freeware programs it is not so good at managing files to/from the camera.

Any comments, or other alternatives?
Cheers,
Alistair.

Fonetik · Dec 31, 2006

Picasa from Google does a good job organizing. For editing, I think GIMP is top of the heap.

P_Schneider · Dec 31, 2006

You can check out VicMan software. They recently started offering their software for free.

http://www.vicman.net/

--
Paul

Ashok Karmokar · Dec 31, 2006

Fonetik said:
Picasa from Google does a good job organizing. For editing, I
think GIMP is top of the heap.

I agree with Fonetik. GIMP does very good job if you don't have Adobe Photoshop CS2. There are lots of Script-Fu available on the Web for doing various color corrections and enhancement, sharpening, etc automatically. I am happy with GIMP.

You can download GIMP from here:

http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/

or GIMPSHOP (GIMPSHOP has similar user interface as Photoshop) from here:

http://www.gimpshop.net/

and Script-Fu from here:

http://registry.gimp.org/index.jsp

For tutorials:

http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/
http://www.gimpguru.org/

Also you can process RAW by installing UFRAW (although not as good as ACR or s7raw):

http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/

--
Ashok

Alistair George · Dec 31, 2006

Alistair George said:
However, like the other freeware programs it is not so good at
managing files to/from the camera.

Any comments, or other alternatives?
Cheers,
Alistair.

Thanks for suggestions, particularly, what software manages to manipulate images to/from camera the best? Since I have a 1Gb card would like to manage the files on camera, but the only software so far is the Fujifilm one which is unsuitable for other features.

Fonetik · Dec 31, 2006

Well, you're going to hate my answer, but I download and sort my photos manually.

Whenever I go out and take pictures I place a new folder in my "photography" folder and dump the pictures from there into the folder with drag and drop. For example, I took a bunch of pics, downloaded all the originals to a new folder called "Christmas at Brian's" and then cleared the camera. Plus, you get faster file transfers!

For any sorting past that, as I said, I have Picasa2 loaded, but I don't actually use it very much.

Alistair George · Dec 31, 2006

Fonetik said:
Well, you're going to hate my answer, but I download and sort my
photos manually.

Whenever I go out and take pictures I place a new folder in my
"photography" folder and dump the pictures from there into the
folder with drag and drop. For example, I took a bunch of pics,
downloaded all the originals to a new folder called "Christmas at
Brian's" and then cleared the camera. Plus, you get faster file
transfers!

For any sorting past that, as I said, I have Picasa2 loaded, but I
don't actually use it very much.

No, appreciate your answer

I agree that method is good, and what I prefer, however, with the S6500 the camera appears in Explorer as an icon, and you can only copy files from it to HD. You cannot copy files to, or move them from, so its quite limiting.
Alistair.

Alistair George · Dec 31, 2006

The problem being that the Fuji is not assigned a drive letter as has been standard for previous digitals I owned.

Fonetik · Dec 31, 2006

Alistair George said:
The problem being that the Fuji is not assigned a drive letter as
has been standard for previous digitals I owned.

I know what you mean, and I agree. When I first plugged it in I sort of cocked my head to the side in confusion. Do you think it might be because of some drivers the Fuji software put on? I haven't tried my camera with any computers other than this one, but I can if needed. Anyway, yeah, it's a little weird and a little annoying but nothing too major.

Alistair George · Dec 31, 2006

Fonetik said:
I know what you mean, and I agree. When I first plugged it in I
sort of cocked my head to the side in confusion. Do you think it
might be because of some drivers the Fuji software put on? I
haven't tried my camera with any computers other than this one, but
I can if needed. Anyway, yeah, it's a little weird and a little
annoying but nothing too major.

Its called Picture Transfer Protocol. Meant to smarten up the transfer of data between devices but most of the software is written for device (eg assigned drive letter) so PTP is not really that useful, and in many cases a hindrance, IMHO.
Alistair.

tranworld · Dec 31, 2006

Actually I don't like it either, but if you have Windows XP it is quite simple, plug the camera in (with no software loaded) and Windows pop up and ask you where you want the picture to be stored, you can specify a folder as you wish. I think it is sleeker than a drive where it has to get the driver, installed (albeit automatically and for the 1st time only) then you locate th drive, open the multitude level of folder before seeing the pictures and then select them and then look for the folder that you wish to store them in (or having to prepare it first)

Alistair George · Jan 1, 2007

tranworld said:
Actually I don't like it either, but if you have Windows XP it is
quite simple, plug the camera in (with no software loaded) and
Windows pop up and ask you where you want the picture to be stored,
you can specify a folder as you wish. I think it is sleeker than a
drive where it has to get the driver, installed (albeit
automatically and for the 1st time only) then you locate th drive,
open the multitude level of folder before seeing the pictures and
then select them and then look for the folder that you wish to
store them in (or having to prepare it first)

Yes, but what Fuji has forgotten is software developers (like me) who find it a lot easier to work with drives rather than some new protocol which may not be supported with the particular programming language which we are using. Therefore you end up with many nice camera/graphics programs working with all cameras but those which use the new PTP system.

PTP does not allow you to move, delete unless the driver works with your own software api.

Here is a bottom line example; I have a 1Gb card in my camera, and want to store many photos on the camera which are sourced off my hard drive. Currently, I cannot transfer any of these files to the Fuji camera unless i use their own software, whereas using normal usb device type camera (drive allocation) no problem, uncle Arthur.
Alistair.
Al.

Alistair George · Jan 1, 2007

Alistair George said:
Here is a bottom line example; I have a 1Gb card in my camera, and
want to store many photos on the camera which are sourced off my
hard drive. Currently, I cannot transfer any of these files to the
Fuji camera unless i use their own software, whereas using normal
usb device type camera (drive allocation) no problem, uncle Arthur.
Alistair.
Al.

If Fuji was smart, they would have allowed for either USB or PTP transfer in camera menu under SETUP IMHO, that flexibility would make the camera much more useful IMHO.

tranworld · Jan 1, 2007

Alistair George said:
If Fuji was smart, they would have allowed for either USB or PTP
transfer in camera menu under SETUP IMHO, that flexibility would
make the camera much more useful IMHO.

If they were smart they would have used SD card in my opinion (but that's another subject altogether) and yes also have a choice of PTP of Drive in the setup menu as well

Copusmaximus · Jan 1, 2007

Faststone image viewer is very good at managing files from the F30 if you download using the download feature that Faststone image viewer has in the thumbnail mode..All you do is click on the card icon in the thumbnail viewer and Faststone recognises any removable drives, you click on the drive you want and image viewer will down load all images to the folder you specify and even gives the option to delete the originals from the card after... I use it all the time now..
--

If I have uploaded an image don't hesitate to de-noise it, correct the WB, clone out dust and dead pixels, saturation, USM, resize, print and send me the result..
Also advice and criticise.

Kind Rgds

Heath

(The Amateur amateur in training)
Latest addition the amazing Finepix F30
LX1
FZ30
S7000(in sons hands now(sometimes))
Tcon17
Raynox DCR 150 & DCR 250 Mcon40
Nikon SB24+omnibounce
Tripod
CamCane

Copusmaximus · Jan 1, 2007

Copusmaximus said:
Faststone image viewer is very good at managing files from the F30
if you download using the download feature that Faststone image
viewer has in the thumbnail mode..All you do is click on the card
icon in the thumbnail viewer and Faststone recognises any removable
drives, you click on the drive you want and image viewer will down
load all images to the folder you specify and even gives the option
to delete the originals from the card after... I use it all the
time now..

PS

once the files are downloaded image viewer then opens the folder in its thumbnail viewer so you can view/edit each file.. up until Faststone implemented this feature in the later versions I allways used the standard windows auto open feature for upload..

Copusmaximus said:
--
If I have uploaded an image don't hesitate to de-noise it, correct
the WB, clone out dust and dead pixels, saturation, USM, resize,
print and send me the result..
Also advice and criticise.

Kind Rgds

Heath

(The Amateur amateur in training)
Latest addition the amazing Finepix F30
LX1
FZ30
S7000(in sons hands now(sometimes))
Tcon17
Raynox DCR 150 & DCR 250 Mcon40
Nikon SB24+omnibounce
Tripod
CamCane

--

If I have uploaded an image don't hesitate to de-noise it, correct the WB, clone out dust and dead pixels, saturation, USM, resize, print and send me the result..
Also advice and criticise.

Kind Rgds

Heath

(The Amateur amateur in training)
Latest addition the amazing Finepix F30
LX1
FZ30
S7000(in sons hands now(sometimes))
Tcon17
Raynox DCR 150 & DCR 250 Mcon40
Nikon SB24+omnibounce
Tripod
CamCane

Torch · Jan 1, 2007

I know exactly what you mean. (Morpheous?)

There is an update to the RAW converter.
http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital/download/02/index.html#raw

HS-V2 is supposed to be for the s6500fd.
http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital/compat_hyper.html
http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital/download/hsv2_3/index.html

I haven't downloaded anything to sort it out yet. Why HS-V2 isn't more clear to be in the box or to downoad rather than update I don't know. Update suggests you already have a copy? I also don't see a full download for trial.

Alistair George said:
Hi. I tried the OEM software that came with my S6500fd camera and
was pretty disappointed as it was quite limited, and accompanying
software was installed which you have to pay for if wanted.

Have tried Cam2PC, FastStone, XNview, Photomeister 2 and preferred
is Faststone
http://www.faststone.org/index.htm

However, like the other freeware programs it is not so good at
managing files to/from the camera.

Any comments, or other alternatives?
Cheers,
Alistair.

--
Torch

Ben Herrmann · Jan 1, 2007

It's called PhotoFiltre. You can download at:

http://www.photofiltre.com

I am amazed that for free software it goes quite in depth.
--
Have a great day!

Kim Letkeman · Jan 1, 2007

Alistair George said:
Thanks for suggestions, particularly, what software manages to
manipulate images to/from camera the best? Since I have a 1Gb card
would like to manage the files on camera, but the only software so
far is the Fujifilm one which is unsuitable for other features.

Safest way is to pull from camera to a back up device as soon as possible. Ideally, you travel with one of those photo banks in the field. Most don't (I don't) ...

But when you get home, import the photos to your "My Photos" folder using whatever technology you like (drag them all into a new folder works fine.) I have a huge USB drive (dirt cheap at Tiger Direct) to which I have Allway Sync automatically copy a backup within 10 minutes of any change to anything in "My Pictures" ... so I always have two hard drive copies of every photo.

After that, you can manipulate away ... I use CS2 (CS3 beta now) and really like it. Elements 5 is much less expensive and very comprehensive.

As mentioned by someone else, Picasa 2 has excellent sorting features and a great timeline. And it has decent rudimentary editing. If you are only into snapshots, it is perfect. If you want to get creative, I recommend Elements 5 or CS2. Paint Shopt Pro is another excellent package.

The only powerful freebee is GIMP. It comes close in several areas to the big guns ... but does not equal them.

--
http://letkeman.net/Photos

John Wales255927 · Jan 1, 2007

Irfan view is pretty good.
http://www.irfanview.com/

Make sure you download the plug ins a well. Install Irfanview first then open the plug ins EXE which will install itself.
Regards-John

What is the best freeware camera software?

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