the worst

[martano]

I'm a Mac user and I installed the Sylkipix SE software that came with the camera. Horrible!!
I use Lightroom and Aperture for Pana RAW files at the same time trying to decide myself what is better for me.

[Ian]

Originally Posted by martano

I'm a Mac user and I installed the Sylkipix SE software that came with the camera. Horrible!!
I use Lightroom and Aperture for Pana RAW files at the same time trying to decide myself what is better for me.

I've heard a lot of good comments about this software - what is it that you don't like about it? Is it the interface or the results?

Ian

[N/A]

Hi there

The Silkypix Developer Studio SE software came bundled with my wife's Lumix L1 and I loaded onto my MacBook out of curiousity. We are big users of Adobe Photoshop CS3 and I was already using the Adobe RAW conversion software to convert the DNG format RAW images off my Digilux 3. Although the Lumix L1 is essentially the same camera as the Digilux 3 it uses a completely different RAW format.

I found the Silkypix software a delight to use and would have been tempted to keep using it had it also been able to convert the Digilux Raw files too. In the end I unistalled it on the grounds that we were both familiar with CS3 and it does both RAW formats so why introduce more complexity. Plus I guess in the end we would have needed to upgrade to the full version of Silkypix from the supplied SE version and I did not want the extra expense (CS3 cost me quite enough at its UK price already; thank you for nothing Adobe)

So, like Ian, Iam intrigued to know what martano did not like about it.

[Malakor]

I also read that Panasonic owners were unhappy with Silkypix.

[yyshiu]

Noted from dpreview that the colour tonal from raw conversation of Silkypix is different from the Panasonic LI's own JPEG colour tone. I am thinking whehter I should buy a L10 or E-510 body.

(a) When using Silkypix, would the colour tone from a real photo print out say 8R be worsened (less true-to-life) as compared to the JPEG format.

(b) Also would Olympus E-510 produce the same true-to-life colour tone. I mean a real comparison from a 8R print, but not just visual image from PC.

I used to shoot negatives with Zeiss system. I weight overall tonal quality the most important factor for a colour print. I planned to go to 4/3 system as it is supported by Leica lenses and I see Panasonic's latest compact FX-100 could already produced a very true to life tonal quality on a 8R print where my friend's 400D plus its Canon lens seems cannot produce the same level of tonal quality from his sample print. I don't know it is because of the Leica lens + Venus III engine. Therefore, I raised the above question as I would shoot in RAW format.

I like trying new software. I regularly use Lightroom, Aperture, Capture one and RPP. Each one does something different which at times can make a difference. So I was really looking forward to testing out silky-pix over the course of a month or two.

I stopped using it however after just one day. I think the interface has promise, although it is quite unique. But it give the user a large range of options. However all that is for no good with the speed of the program. On a three year old Mac Pro, Silky pix takes several seconds for each picture to render out a preview. But each time one changes the parameters the same rendering happens. Perhaps I'm overlooking some setting?

And on my one year old 17" powerbook, the performance is a bit slower. So if I can't find a way to change the speed of use - I unfortunately have to agree with the poster. The program seems to have potential - that I don't have the patience to wait for.

Does the program run fairly quickly for any of you? I'd be happy to try it furter and it is quite possible that perhaps I've got some setting off.

My main machine is a quad 2.6 with 5 gig of ram and five fast hard drives. Video card however is the so so GeForce 7300. I'm considering upgrading it but as far as I can guess only Aperture depends heavily on the GPU.

The laptop is a dual core 2.6 with a 512 meg GeForce 8600 card in it and I've added a second internal drive. Seems even slower.

[Paul]

I use Silkypix Developer Studio Pro and before that Silkpix 3.

From scratch when opening a new folder of raw files it takes no more than a second to generate a preview, any adjustments happen in real time with hardly no delay except for altering sharpening pre-sets at 100% veiwing, this takes about 3 to 5 seconds on a 12Mb raw file.

I own LR2.6, and Capture One 5, and Silky pix is still my favourite raw converter.

Well, I'm going to give it more of a shot. Its easy to fall into the trap of coming to conclusions too early, so I'm going to take the time to learn this software and hopefully I can get it to run a good speeds.