good RAW editor?

[wmmk]

I bought a few DP books today (PSE 4, shooting RAW with PS CS2/PSE, and editing landscapes in PS) and noticed that Camera Raw CS2 is a bit more sophisticated than the PSE 4 version. This led me to thinking about the fact that I'm really not capitalizing on the advantages of RAW right now. Sure, ACR does WB and exposure, but Pentax Lab did a lot more than that. The only problem is that I want to use DNG from start to finish, and I hate the UI of the Pentax/silkypix apps. also, I don't need a great cataloging/DAM solution, just RAW editing.
thanks,
wmmk

 

[compuwar]

I bought a few DP books today (PSE 4, shooting RAW with PS CS2/PSE, and editing landscapes in PS) and noticed that Camera Raw CS2 is a bit more sophisticated than the PSE 4 version. This led me to thinking about the fact that I'm really not capitalizing on the advantages of RAW right now. Sure, ACR does WB and exposure, but Pentax Lab did a lot more than that. The only problem is that I want to use DNG from start to finish, and I hate the UI of the Pentax/silkypix apps. also, I don't need a great cataloging/DAM solution, just RAW editing.
thanks,
wmmk

Typically, the camera manufacturer's converter will give the best results. I haven't done any comparisons between ACR in CS3 and Nikon's Capture NX yet- I really liked the old ACR interface, and I think the CS3 version is a heck of an improvement. Workflow-wise it'll probably win for me unless I get Capture One.

If you've got CS2, you really owe it to yourself to download the CS3 beta.

 

[wmmk]

Typically, the camera manufacturer's converter will give the best results. I haven't done any comparisons between ACR in CS3 and Nikon's Capture NX yet- I really liked the old ACR interface, and I think the CS3 version is a heck of an improvement. Workflow-wise it'll probably win for me unless I get Capture One.

If you've got CS2, you really owe it to yourself to download the CS3 beta.

unfortunately, I only have PSE 4, but I'll get PS when I have the money and I feel that I know all the ins and outs of PSE. As I said, the Pentax software is fairly capable, but something about it irritates me to the point that I find it unusable.