dcraw

right, after getting my 350d, would like to start to shoot in raw. however I do not have cs2 ($$$), and after reading around about conversion techniques, dcraw seems to be the best option. I've managed to get it into Irfanview as a plugin...but from what I gather thats just to view it? How do I actually convert the thing properly?

I mean I suppose you could save to a tiff or whatnot using irfan, but then where are all the colour temperature and exposure controls etc? I thought they were a big part of the advantage of shooting raw?

damn all this proprietaryness.

Don't forget that you have both ZoomBrowser (which contains Raw Image Task) and Digital Photo Professional on the CDs you got with your camera. That gives you two RAW converters to choose from. Once you've installed those, you can upgrade your software to EOS Utility 1.0.4, ZoomBrowser 5.6.0 and Digital Photo Professional 2.1.1, which are the latest versions available from the Canon web site.

If you use Windows, you can also use the free Pixmantec Raw Shooter Essentials, though be aware that Adobe has taken over Pixmantec, there won't be any further updates and the product will eventually disappear.

Finally, Photoshop Elements 3 or 4 includes Adobe Camera Raw 3, though some of the more advanced functionality, such as Curves, is only available when you're using Adobe Camera Raw 3 with Photoshop CS2. With any of these, upgrade to Adobe Camera Raw 3.4 - you'll need at least 3.1 to support your 350D, and 3.3 and higher has improved demosaicing.

David

http://www.aim-dtp.net/aim/digicam/dc​raw/index.htm hence the not wanting to use the canon bundle.

That's a very old comparison - the D60 was the generation before the 10D/300D, which was the generation before the 20D/350D, and there's been numerous changes in both sensor and RAW converter technology since then.

I just downloaded the RAW file of the horse on that site and looked at the horse's neck at 100% in both DPP 2.1.1 and ACR 3.4 (under Photoshop CS2). I'm seeing results, if anything, better than the DCRAW results shown there, even when I turn the preview sharpening off in ACR. DCRAW has moved on too, I'm sure, but from a workflow point of view alone, I'm sticking with the RAW converters I'm using.

David

RAWShooter Essential is also free, and probably much easier to use if DCRaw doesn't have a graphical interface.