New to RAW w/ Paint Shop Pro

I'm using PSP v. 8.10, and I everytime I try to open a RAW file from my card reader, the program just shuts down. Do I have to do something to my files first before I can put them into PSP? The file extensions are .CR2 if that helps.

I'm pretty new to digital photography, so the simpler the explanation the better

Thanks in advance.

Jay

P.S. switching to Photoshop isn't an option.....don't want to drop any more $$$ at this time.

This is just a guess, but maybe PSP does not recognize CR2. I believe I have seen posts on POTN involving use of PSP for CRW files, but it may be that they don't support CR2.
I don't see any info about that version of PSP at Corel's Web site, but I do see that when you buy PSP X, that they throw in RAW Shooter Essentials. That suggests that if you just go get RSE as a free download, you have as good or better chance of getting the CR2 files to work.

Edit:
The version I have is 1.1.3, and I think that is the latest available for free from Pixmantec.

Version 8 of PSP does not support RAW files. That started with verson 9.
But the RAW converter in PSP 9 was/is pretty anemic.
Grab RawShooter Essentials free:
www.pixmantec.com

Jack

I have PSP X now, but my PSP 8 would also crash when browsing folders with .cr2 files. I finally deselected the file format association in PaintShop (under File/Preferences) and it just ignored the files instead of crashing.

Jack W. wrote:
Version 8 of PSP does not support RAW files. That started with verson 9.
But the RAW converter in PSP 9 was/is pretty anemic.
Grab RawShooter Essentials free:
www.pixmantec.com

Jack

That seemed to work. I downloaded RSE for free, and it "batch processes" the RAW files into JPEG's and opens them in PSP. I guess what I need to figure out now is how much editing or what type of editing should I do in RSE vs. how much I should do is PSP?

You can set RSE to convert to .jpg or .tif, and also designate a folder where you want the converted images to be saved. In my case, I have a folder labeled "RAW Shooter Converted" on my second hard drive.
You can also choose NOT to open the converted image in PSP (or another program). I prefer not to have it open when the conversion is done.
As for what you should do in RSE vs. PSP, I'd suggest experimenting. PSP has a noise reduction tool which isn't bad, but I've found that RSE is excellent (as are the other tools). I bought RAW Shooter Premium and their Color Engine, and I'm really pleased with the results I get.
Again, experiment and see what works for you.
That, to me, is half the fun!
Jack