Windows Photo Gallery-Vista....Horrible?

[leanneqld]

Bought a new Desktop a few months ago..runs Vista.
When the photos from my K200d are uploaded and opened in windows photo gallery the photos look a bit odd-like the contrast and saturation have been given far too much extra boost. When I open them in photoshop they look a lot better.

I have tried adjusting the gamma and calibrating the monitor-everything looks good on the screen except the pics opened in photo gallery...
has anyone else noticed this?
Does anyone even use it? Is it just a bad program to bother even using?
I downloaded Picasa today and they look a bit better in that.

[Miaow]

All i can think of is the difference in abobe and sRGB - make sure the photoshop pics are set for the same as the other software?

[Kym]

What colour space?
Have you loaded the Pentax raw codec?

[Miaow]

software that came with the camera CD? Have you tried loading that and using rather than windows? Might look better?

[Kym]

Codec here: http://www.pentax.jp/english/support...dec_vista.html

[leanneqld]

hey cypher and miaow..thanks for the quick replies....
everything is set to sRGB
I have the pentax lab and browser installed..the pics look a bit better in this as well...its just the windows vista gallery that they look crap......i thought something was wrong with the camera -i was changing the settings cause i thought the camera was set too much for the contrast/sharpening and saturation..

Cypheroz....I rarely shoot RAW and when I do I use DNG.....I mostly shoot Jpeg so I dont think the codec would help.

[Analog6]

I use Fast Stone as my image viewer, does a nice job, you can just hit 'E' to swap to your photo editing program (once nominated), and it does batch resizes etc and it is FREE. Works in Vista.

[leanneqld]

THanks Analog..I have heard a few good reports over the years that fastone was good. May as wel give that a go too..LOL