Old Paint Shop Pro 7 HELP

[thewoodster]

I was wondering if my Paint Shop Pro 7 can process canon raw images. I have the original Canon software, but it is minimal in functionality. I would also like to know if there is a good forum for photographers. I enjoy it so much, and to communicate to other photographers more experienced than I would be great!

[df]

PSP 7 is pretty old. I have PSP 9, PSP X, and PSP X3. Of the three X3 is the only one that I have that can work with Canon RAW files, and it's even less useful than Canon's DPP. Question: Do you have the latest version of DPP and what about it do you not like? If nothing else you can use DPP to convert your RAW files to 16 bit Tiffs, even having the files transfer directly to PSP if you want to set it up.

Even if 7 did work with Canon RAW files, it would be limited to the cameras that weren't brand new at the time (i.e. 10D, D30, D60, 1D). Do you have a pretty old camera?

[thewoodster]

I have a fairly new Canon G11 and the one thing that I don't like about the DPP, is that, unlike other programs such as Jasc, My canon software has pixelation in it after i download my photos. I have already talked with Canon support and they have the same issue; they tell me that the software is limited, that I could use Photo Shop but I can't afford 600 dollars. I just want to be able to use the zooming feature and RAW conversion for my detail work in photography...When I zoom only 200%, the image really is bad, unlike the other programs I use to view them with...Does that give you the info you need to help me? Thanks a lot for your help, Woody

[df]

In DPP check into your settings. Tools > Preferences. On the General tab make sure that the High Quality setting is checked. On the Color Management tab make sure that the default workspace is either sRGB or Adobe RGB (unless you really have a reason to set it otherwise), color matching should be sRGB, and Printing profile and CMYK profile should be None.

Those are my settings and it seems to work well for me. I don't have a G series camera (wish I did) so you may need to tweak these settings a bit or it may not be as effective for you. The Printing and CMYK profiles really look horrible on my computers if it's anything other than None.

But again, you could open DPP and proceed to batch process straight to a 16 bit Tiff file and you SHOULD have a file that's better than the Jpeg straight out of camera.

The next time you talk to Canon and they tell you to do something in Photoshop ask them which cameras come with Photoshop bundled with it. I hate it when they assume everyone is going to spring for the program, or that they assume that you have the latest upgrade.

[coneill]

Raw processing was not added to PSP until PSP9. PSP7 does not even read or save EXIF information so probably not the best editor choice for today's digital photographer.

[Tim Morrison]

I was wondering if my Paint Shop Pro 7 can process canon raw images.

No, PSP 7 can't process any raw files.
There is actually no such thing as "Canon raw images". Partly this is because a raw file isn't an image. It records the output of the array of pixels in the camera sensor, but that needs to go through a process called "demosaicing" to turn the raw data into an image.
The second reason is that although the raw files from most Canon cameras these days use CR2 as the file format extension, the files from two different cameras aren't similar enough to be treated as the same file format by image editing software. So the image editor treats the raw file from every different model as a different file format. PSPP X3 can read the raw files from dozens of Canon cameras, but if Canon releases a new camera today, X3 won't be able to read that camera's raw files. It would need Corel to release a patch for X3 that contains the new camera's raw format specifications before X3 could read them.
The reason for this is that the data contained in a raw file is different for each camera. Not only is the number of pixels and the aspect ratio of their array different, there are different camera sensor technologies and different sensor patterns. The raw file also contains a file header that records all the camera settings for things like colour temperature, tint, saturation, sharpening, colour space and so on. An image editor needs to understand all these, to know they exist, to know what value in the file header reflects what setting on the camera, and to know how that setting should influence the appearance of the image, before it can attempt to make an image from the raw data that accurately represents what the photographer shot.
I'm not sure if there were any cameras that recorded a raw file when the last patch for PSP 7 was released about ten years ago, but even if PSP 7 did read raw files, it would only work for the handful of old cameras that it understood.