Canon's Two RAW Convertors.

[GovtLawyer]

I am interested if anyone knows why Canon has two different RAW conversion options in its software package? The have the Canon Raw Image Task and DPP. Without involving the other available convertors, of which I have a few, I am curious as to why Canon provided two, and which if any is preferred.

Does Canon have a preference of one over the other? Which is preferred by users on this forum.

I also have RAW Shooter Essentials and Adobe Camera Raw 3.1 in Elements 3.0. I still haven't decided which I will use on a consistent basis. I am tending to gravitate toward RSE; however, I'm still evaluating. I can't for the life of me figure out Canon's decision to include two competing programs. Unless, I am missing something.

[Longwatcher]

I am speculating here, but originally DPP was designed to fulfill professional users needs for RAW processor, while the other (which changes names every new camera) was designed for consumers. So my guess is that Canon just has not given up the consumer version yet, because the DPP version may require a bit more thought process then the consumer would like to put into their camera software, but the consumer heard that RAW was better so they shoot in RAW not fully understanding it.

Until I got PS 7.0 I used Canon Raw converter (which was slower then dirt, but it worked), namely because DPP was not available with D60 or 10D at the time (only 1D and 1Ds), somewhere along the way they decided (rightly so) that a lot of professionals were buying the 10D and now 20D because they could not afford the 1D series cameras. So Canon gave at least all of the DSLR shooters DPP from that point on.

But at least they are free so pick which ever one works best for you and thank Canon for not selling their not as good as 3rd party software like another camera company who's software is also not well liked (Noink) by most users. At least both Camera company's software works for some people so it can't be all bad.

I should point out I actually like DPP better then PS ACR converter (at least in 7 and CS) and with the 1.6 upgrade to DPP it added my #1 most desired feature to the software, so now I can do 95% of my photography in DPP instead of about 85% (or so). PS takes care of the remainder.

Just my speculation and guesses.

[EOSAddict]

I understand DPP only comes with 350s and 20s - any way to get it if you have a 300?? Is there a download option?

[Jesper]

DPP comes with the 350D and 20D, but if you have another Canon DSLR, you can download it here: http://www.canon-europe.com/Support/Patches/dpp/

It works for all Canon DSLRs back to the D60 (not for the D30).

[PhotosGuy]

When I used Canons utilities I was always annoyed that it would say it "cannot save the settings". RSE does & it's the only one I use now.

[tzalman]

I think Canon's s/w policy is akin to their having the basic and "creative" modes in the cameras. (Does anybody use basic, spending a thousand bucks for a P&S?) ZB is supposed to be "RAW For Dummies", although it does do a decent job. I prefer DPP because I like its Faithful Settings color rendition and because of the option to convert to Wide Gamut color space.
BTW, in DPP you can save the settings either within the RAW metadata (so the file will open the next time with the new settings) or as a separate file that can be applied to other images.