Panasonic GH1 raw conversion options (with CS3)

[Lisa]

I've been reading this m4/3 forum and thinking about jumping into The World of M4/3 for about a year now, and finally went and got a Panasonic GH1 with the 14-140 kit lens (as a possible frequent replacement for my larger & heavier Nikon D300 with the 18-200 VR lens). My question is...

I'm still using CS3, and waiting until CS5 comes out to upgrade. I'm accustomed to using ACR as my raw converter. However, I can't figure out any way to use it for the GH1. The CS3 version of ACR is too old to know how to read the raws. The CS4 version of ACR doesn't work with CS3. I tried converting the raws to DNGs with the latest version of Adobe's DNG converter, but then my older ACR can't seem to read the newer DNGs. I tried converting the raws with the older (CS3-age) version of the DNG converter, but it couldn't seem to read the raws. I think I'm stuck. If there any alternative I'm missing???

The camera came with a full version of Silkypix, but I'd hate to have to learn yet another raw converter only to go back to ACR when CS5 comes out (which may be pretty soon, according to net rumors).

Any other suggestions? Is Silkypix better than ACR for converting GH1 raws anyway, so I should just use it?

Thanks,
Lisa

P.S. I skimmed a tutorial on Silkypix, and some of the names for things and the translations seem completely off the wall... "tastes"? "cloakroom"?

 

[f6cvalkyrie]

Is Silkypix better than ACR for converting GH1 raws anyway, so I should just use it?

I skimmed a tutorial on Silkypix, and some of the names for things and the translations seem completely off the wall... "tastes"? "cloakroom"?

Hi, Lisa,

I cannot compare Silkypix to ACR or CS3 because I only use Silkypix.
IMHO, it's a good RAWconvertor.
I'm sure you could find your way around in Silkypix in no time.

"tastes" are like presets, I use them all the time ...
You can either make and save them yourself once you have found a process for a particular kind of pic, or you can even buy (for very little money) sets of "tastes" made by other people. I was quite surprised in the beginning to see how the pictures came out using other peoples tastes. Very interesting ....

"cloakroom" I have not encountered yet, where did you see that ?

The UK distributor for Silkypix has a very interesting site for tutorials, ebooks and "tastes". I just checked and found that 2 sets of tastes called "ISL Art Taste Collection" and "ISL Cine Taste Collection" are now available for free download. Give them a try, I would say !

http://www.silkypixuk.com/

I am in no way linked professionally or otherwise with these people, but their site is of great help !

If you have specific questions about Silkypix, do not hesitate to ask here !

C U
Rafael

 

[Diane B]

Lisa, bide your time a bit. There are others using CS3 (me included but I use Lightroom 2.6 which reads the m4/3fds and I can do 'round trips' to CS3) with the dng conversion. Since I haven't done it I won't say anything, but someone will jump in here and give you the better directions as to how.

Diane

 

[Jonas]

My experience from the G1 is that you can convert the raw files with DNG converter v 5.2 and then open them in Adobe Bridge CS3 (incl the matching ACR of course). Maybe that can be done with the GH1 raw files as well?

The drawback is that images taken with Panasonic lenses will be big as DNG converter 5.2 came out prior to Adobe's solution on how to embed the Camera Maker Notes with regards to distortion and CA settings and compress the files (or if it is a part of EXIF).

Images taken with legacy lenses will be compressed.

/Jonas

 

[Lisa]

Thanks, Jonas, that pointed me in the right direction! In the DNG converter v5.2, I just had to go into Preferences and change "Compatibility" from "5.4 and later" to "4.6 and later", and then CS3's Bridge and ACR could recognize it. Thanks!

Lisa

P.S. My first quickie attempt at processing a photo from the GH1 with ACR:

We headed up to Yosemite last weekend, when they were forecasting a two-day break in the storms that had been dumping fresh snow on the park, just to see it with all the fresh snow. Gorgeous!

 

[DHart]

Lisa... congrats on that break-thru process! I've been in the same boat (using CS3 and awaiting CS5), but I use Lightroom extensively and it easily converts my GF1 files. If you haven't considered using Lightroom, may I offer a suggestion that you check it out. It is a phenemonal image editing program that I rely heavily on in my professional work.... would never want to be without it!

Your Yosemite image is stunning... obviously made the trip in the sno so very worth it! Nice.