Question about Canon 450D supplied software

[Nic076]

Hi guys

No I have not crossed to the darkside , but have a friend who just purchased a new 450D. We loaded the software on his computer but I am after a few hints and tips for him about which programs to use. It seems he has the following programs installed on the desktop after running the CD :

Digital Photo Prof
EOS Utility
Picture Style Editor
Zoom Browser

I mentioned to him that possibly a lot of users would not use the canon software but opt for Photoshop

Any help on what the programs do & what he should use would be wonderful.

Thanks

Nic

[Tannin]

Hi Nic.

Zoom Browser is a competent image viewer, perfectly OK to use for reviewing and light-duty editing, but most people will prefer a best-of-breed 3rd-party one such as PMView, XNView, ThumbsPlus, Irfanview, or etc. Nevertheless, Zoom Browser is fine if that's all you have.

The Picture Style Editor is .... well ... I've never quite worked out what you would use it for.

The EOS Utility has that typically clunky old-school feel to the interface that manufacturer-supplied software so often does, and it can be a bit difficult to find the function you want in it sometimes, but it does a surprisingly wide range of tasks, mostly special-purpose stuff. The only thing I have ever used it for is to set the camera clocks to the computer clock so that all my bodies are synchronised with each other, but it does a heap of other stuff too if you happen to need a particular function.

Digital Photo Professional (DPP) is by far the most useful software in the Canon pack: it's a full-featured raw converter. Do not be misled by the old-school look and clunky feel: DPP is as powerful a raw converter as any on the market today. Quite a few Canon users reckon that DPP's results are better than those of any other converter. Certainly, it is unmatched for accurate colour rendering. It is also the only raw converter which can, if you wish, give you exactly what you would have got if you'd used the in-camera JPG engine instead. DPP is also the only raw converter which always fully understands Canon raw file format, including any new features introduced with a new model, for example Highlight Tone Priority. (Contrast this with, e.g., Adobe Camera Raw or Bibble.) Best of all, it's free, and if you own any version of it (i.e., if you have ever bought a Canon camera), you can download and use the latest version as often as you like. I mostly use Camera Raw. (Because, believe it or not, I like the user interface better - and I can't believe I just said that about an Adobe product ... I mean, Adobe are the world champions of broken, counter-intuitive, clumsy, and otherwise unfriendly user interfaces, so how come they didn't mess Camera Raw up like all their other products?) Whatever: the DPP interface is clunky, verging on the primitive, but it's quite fast, much more flexible than you think when you first try it, and produces beautiful results.

None of the Canon free software items re Photoshop replacements, but they are all usable and useful in some way, and DPP is well worth having.

[SpaceJunk]

Thanks for a great explanation Tony, I tried to like DPP but agree with your comments about the interface and feel of it, but I'm learning slowly and may just give it another go, I was happy enough with RSE until Adobe inhaled it as the basis for Lightroom.

[Nic076]

Thanks Tony I will pass on the info. Really appreciate your in depth answer. Cheers again

[phild]

Quite a few Canon users reckon that DPP's results are better than those of any other converter

I've found that to be the case, DPP will produce sharper images with cleaner noise than Adobe ACR. I do all my raw processing in DPP and finish off with PS or Lightroom if necessary.