Mass RAW batch conversion

[Shadytree]

I've started taking my pictures RAW+S , basically RAW plus a small JPEG.
Makes scanning the photos a lot easier before deciding which RAW files to process.
Far easier than waiting for huge RAW files to open on Vista.

On another card I only shot RAW files, some 600 odd. Is there a quick and easy way of converting 600 .CR2 (Canon RAW files) to JPEG?

[ThatPhilBrettGuy]

I've been using Lightroom to do this, and to be honest most other small editing tasks. Export can be slow, but you just start it going and carry on with other photo jobs.

[VxDuncan]

Is the idea that you can then view them to decide which to process manually? Will photoshops contact sheet open and raw files? Might be the easiest way, only prob is it keeps the contact sheets open so after a couple of hundred might strat to run out of ram.

[Shadytree]

VxDuncan said:

Is the idea that you can then view them to decide which to process manually? Will photoshops contact sheet open and raw files? Might be the easiest way, only prob is it keeps the contact sheets open so after a couple of hundred might strat to run out of ram.

yes a quick scan, so i can delete the crap ones. Trouble at the moment each RAW file is 12mb and Vista takes forever, then generally crashes out of explorer.

[rustyspit]

This is exactly what Lightroom, Capture One, Bibble etc are designed for. I think they all have downloadable free trials - give them a go.

[furtive]

I use FastStone Image Viewer:

http://www.faststone.org/

It's free, and pretty quick

[AndWhy]

Picasa? RAW viewer and batch editing/ conversions.

Not amazingly powerful in terms of touching up but ok for simple lighting and contrast tweaks. Free, from Google.

[911newbie]

RawTherapee has the facility to save a set of actions, and apply them to a batch of Raw or other files.
It's also free and powerfull.

There is a .cr2 reader called UFRaw for Gimp2.4 which works well. Again you can save a set of actions and batch process (I think, I mainly use RawTherapee).

Gnu Image Manipulation Program (Gimp) is free, powerfull, immensley adaptable, and if you know what you
are doing you can write some code to do it and share it with everyone else.

Chris

[Stigmundfreud]

if you shoot canon you have the tool right there, digital photo professional 3.0

though I might buy lightroom from the states...

[andyquantum]

furtive said:

I use FastStone Image Viewer:

http://www.faststone.org/

It's free, and pretty quick

I just downloaded that and looks pretty good. Thanks for the link

[outnumbered]

Another vote for Canon Digital Photo Professional (DPP). It's supposed to give the best results of all the raw converters from canon files, and has a batch mode so you can convert all your images in a couple of clicks.

Also... it's free !