Any downside to Silkypix?

[Dick Bowman]

Last time I went through the "which RAW processor to use?" I settled on RawShooter - which was fine until Adobe decided to buy the company and stop development.

Which was recoverable because they gave Lightroom 1 to registered Rawshooter users. Happyish with the processing options that Lightroom gives, but don't care for Adobe as a company, and really dislike all the cataloguing nonsense (quite capable of organising that for myself thankyou).

Now here comes Lightroom 2 as a paid-for upgrade (I know I don't have to upgrade, but past experience tells me that older versions of Adobe stuff get left high-and-dry). For whatever reason I can't reach the Adobe website this week.

So I looked around again, mostly at Silkypix because it was a near miss last time I paid for PP software - Version 3 seems a step up from Version 2. Started a trial, like the results. Takes a bit of adjusting to, but I think I'm mostly there.

But, are there any bears lurking in the undergrowth that would make me regret?

In the interim I've looked casually at most of the alternatives - haven't been much tempted. But if anyone knows something that's "streets ahead" that would be interesting.

[StephenL]

Re: Any downside to Silkypix?

I'm going through exactly the same angst, and for much the same reasons. Studio 2.2 isn't at all bad. I tried Silkypix a couple of years back but was frustrated by the interface (perhaps I wasn't patient enough!). Rawtherapee is OKish and free but somehow I can't quite get the "bite" that Rawshooter used to give me on Canon files.

[andym]

Re: Any downside to Silkypix?

Last time I went through the "which RAW processor to use?" I settled on RawShooter - which was fine until Adobe decided to buy the company and stop development.

Which was recoverable because they gave Lightroom 1 to registered Rawshooter users. Happyish with the processing options that Lightroom gives, but don't care for Adobe as a company, and really dislike all the cataloguing nonsense (quite capable of organising that for myself thankyou).

Now here comes Lightroom 2 as a paid-for upgrade (I know I don't have to upgrade, but past experience tells me that older versions of Adobe stuff get left high-and-dry). For whatever reason I can't reach the Adobe website this week.

So I looked around again, mostly at Silkypix because it was a near miss last time I paid for PP software - Version 3 seems a step up from Version 2. Started a trial, like the results. Takes a bit of adjusting to, but I think I'm mostly there.

But, are there any bears lurking in the undergrowth that would make me regret?

In the interim I've looked casually at most of the alternatives - haven't been much tempted. But if anyone knows something that's "streets ahead" that would be interesting.

I use Silkypix as my main raw developer.I work my way down the five main settings on the left hand side.
I dont find it hard to use at all.
I like the way you can save parameters and recall them.For my general pictures I load film colour version 1 and start from there.Also I think the noise reduction is very good with lots of fine adjustment.

[OlyPaul]

Re: Any downside to Silkypix?

Silkypix can be a little hard to get your head around initially due to the terminology used,even magazine reviewers have said it does not have features that it does and that it does not do batchwork well (it does when you know how) but it really is a program that rewards the effort of learning it.

As Andy pointed out there are the five main adujustments in the main side bar.
But eight more can be brought up from the icons at the bottom of it.

[Dick Bowman]

Re: Any downside to Silkypix?

Partly answering my own question...

One downside appears to be a very restrictive/paranoid licensing policy. It seems that the licence is strictly for one machine - there may be a supplemental licence fee payable if people want to use Silkypix occasionally on a travelling laptop. It's also not clear whether the licence can be transferred onto replacement machines at end of hardware life. I'm asking Silkypix/Shortcut to clarify here.

As for the interface - yes, it's "different" - but that doesn't have to be a bad thing.

[jdal]

Re: Any downside to Silkypix?

From Shortcut Inc, who license Silkypix these days: "Yes we do offer licenses for a 2nd computer. They are 29$ only if your second computer is running the same operating system." (from their forum).

hmm.. not very good really. I have version 2 on the laptop, which wasn't so restrictive, and run version 3 on my home PC but I haven't used the laptop recently and V2 may not suppprt the E3.

The program itself I find to be very good. I like it's resizing, perspective correction & rotating functionality particularly. The Oly colours are very good. and in general there is shed loads of functionality.


ps my virus checker thinks that the homepage of www dot shortcutinc dot com has a virus. It may well have, so be careful.