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CHDK for A590IS and RAW processing

Started Nov 1, 2012 | Discussions
JV Price Junior Member • Posts: 49
CHDK for A590IS and RAW processing

For the past two days I have worked hard to learn about CHDK for my A590IS.  I'm learning some and becoming more impressed with the capabilities.  I am trying to figure out how to work with the RAW files.  Initially, I discovered the difficulties with processing the CRW files.  I couuld not import CRW into Adobe.  Since I use GIMP,  I first tried UFRaw but was disappointed in not having sharpening correction and it was not perfectly stable as an input to GIMP. I experimented with having CHDK save the raw files as DNG, but the 4 second or longer wait time to complete the process is a bit disconcerting.  Today I downloaded and installed Rawtherapee.  Initially, I am amazed at the variety of controls, sliders and options.  Is this program really this good?  Is processing the CRW file in Rawtherapee yielding a JPEG file as good as getting a DNG file from CHDK into Adobe Camera Raw?  Also, is Rawtherapee so complete that one never needs to send the jpeg result into GIMP, Photoshop, or whatever?

 JV Price's gear list:JV Price's gear list
Canon PowerShot A590 IS Olympus PEN E-P3 Olympus PEN E-PM1 Olympus OM-D E-M5
I2K4
I2K4 Senior Member • Posts: 1,441
Re: CHDK for A590IS and RAW processing

Not sure if  there are many who have your model and also want to avoid CHDK's DNG conversion.  You don't mention your version of RT:

http://rawtherapee.com/blog/documentation

I've been using v4 beta without any problems.  You'll see you have a choice of demosaicizing algorithms in whichever RT.  I can't say more than the obvious of trying them out against the same shot taken with the in camera DNG conversion in your model.  You can also preset WB, sharpening and other basics for all your conversions in RT.

I've found the in-camera DNG conversion only adds incrementally to the much longer delay for the CHDK RAW process.  DNG doesn't change my use of CHDK RAW - I either have time for it or not between shots - and it adds greatly to the availability of software.

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