Basic Photoshop settings for RAW JPEG conversion.. EX2F?

Thank you very much for that. I went back and reshot the kitchen with better success. Wondering if indeed the ND filter had been on. Finished carefully shooting in Smart, Aperture priority RAW, and Shutter priority RAW. Forgot to switch to Jpeg for the S and A modes and neglected to zero the exp conpensation. But got informative results none the less. I'm getting a bit scatter shot here and ought to quit for the day, get some other things done, and get back to this tomorrow with a fresh mind.

First shot in Smart.

A bit dark but improving. 1/45.

RAW with minor noise, color, and white balance adjustments.

Best of four RAW shots. 2 each shutter and aperture priority.

Couple of questions direct to these shots now and I'll quit for the day.

Shutter priority would only get me to 1.6 @ 1/45. Faster and it rose to 1.4 and I was decided not to go there for these shots.

Aperture priority provided me 3.5 @ 1/45. All other settings equal. Sound right? Why is this? Shouldn't either priority begin at the same baseline working up/down from there?

Whoa!! The ceiling edge behind the fan and the foreground floor in the RAW image above. Barreling in RAW was noted in reviews and supposed to be corrected in the last firmware revision. 305224. I've installed that. I just confirmed the EXIF data on a shot. It is clearly more evident in the converted RAW image than in the Jpeg above it so even with a slightly different aperture setting there is definitely something amiss in RAW here. No?

Dunno. I'm getting few pics out of this that I'm liking. I can't be that far from getting this right in the images above. White balance is still eluding me. But I'm just not crazy about either one. And they probably are far better than what was coming out of the SL420. Maybe my expectations are just wrong here. These look too artificial, noisy (even with correction), and missing for want of better photo vernacular... realistic vitality. And if the barreling ends up being one more thing that needs post process for every image that alone will be a non starter for me. The camera will be returned or sold on confirmation of this.

I thought I'd read everything there was to know about this camera before purchase. But here, and elsewhere, I'm beginning to have some genuine (rather than the initial hastiness) remorse. Revisiting all of the EX2F threads here I'm reading them with a better gist between the lines and wonder if I should have heeded more cautions. I may have been lured by bells and whistles. The wifi, the 'super fast lens', the swivel 'super bright' OLED screen, etc. I'd given some thought to a few similarly priced, larger sensor compacts without all these extras, among them a 4/3 Olympus and the Canon eos-m aps-c with 22mm lens if I recall and wonder if I'd have been more satisfied. I seldom ever use zoom after all, but went for the EX2F finally.

I'll give it a rest and pick up again tomorrow night. Thanks so much again for all.