Digital Photographer's Software Guide - Bertemes - Net

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The Digital Photographer's Software Guide
Silverfast DCPro
Vendor: LaserSoft Imaging
Purpose: RAW conversion and image enhancement for all major digital cameras
Description
Silverfast DCPro is a RAW conversion suite with sorting capabilities and image processing.
It has three applications within it:
■ Virtual light table
■ Development
■ Print processing
On the light table you can browse through your folders, sort the images into groups,
tag them with keywords, and place them in queues for batch processing. The development
facilities offer many controls for exposure correction, sharpening, and two types
of noise reduction. It has what the vendor calls “Selective Color Correction,” enabling
you to identify a specific color in the image and change it. The print processing module
contains several templates together with facilities to create your own.
Silverfast DCPro is an adaptation of the vendor’s well-known scanner software, and, as
such, it comes with scanner-type features. “Adaptive Color Restoration” automatically
brings back faded colors, while another function eliminates grain. These features have
limited appeal to the digital photographer but are useful to photo restorers. The development
user interface is somewhat cluttered with floating windows rather than the sliding
panels of the latest purpose-built processors.
Comments
In side-by-side tests with other RAW converters, Silverfast DCPro has scored high for
resolution, sharpening, and exposure quality; poorly for speed, features, and value for
money. Discussion among digital enthusiasts on dpreview.com tended toward negativity,
many people being unhappy with its image quality and most people disliking its
slowness. However, its color tools are first-rate and it may well have just the features
required by certain users.
Version: Silverfast DCPro 6.5 (2008)
OS: Windows 2000 with SP2, XP with SP4; Mac OS X 10.8 and higher recommended
RAM: 256MB
Supported file formats: Reads major RAW formats, TIFF, and JPEG; writes JPEG, TIFF, PDF,
and EPS
Price level: Approx. $300
Address: LaserSoft Imaging AG (Germany), Luisenweg 6-8, 24105 Kiel, Germany