Canon DPP Software

[Robyn Kord]

I have photoshop and lightroom but has anyone ever used Canon's DPP Software. It's the cd that comes with the camera. I was reading David Ziser's blog and he mentioned that it helped his RAW images vs. lightroom, etc.

I have gone through DPP's tutorials and it's set up similar to lightroom but does the Canon software really know our camera settings better than lightroom?

I want the film days back so I don't have to make so many software decisions

Last and not on the same subject...
I'm tired of Quickbooks and I can't afford ShootQ at the moment. Does anyone know an easy solution for keeping my data together that I don't have to read the all Dummy books?

[Kaelaria]

Yes, the OEM software does do the technically best job of developing RAWS, simply because they are the ONLY programs that have the true algorithms of the camera. Adobe has to reverse engineer them to provide support in their products like Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw. While often very, very close, the OEM software is technically better.

Now better to USE is another story.

Personally I stick with Adobe all the way, the difference is often imperceptible under actual viewing conditions.

[Robyn Kord]

Thank you Kaelaria...I will more than likely stick to photoshop.

Do you have an accounting software that you use? I have used quickbooks for the past three years but I feel that I'm all over my computer for one client. I can't afford Successware or ShootQ at the moment...someone has mentioned Photobyte in another forum but not sure about that one either. Any suggestions?

[Kaelaria]

I have a friend that loves ShootQ, frankly I don't have the volume to justify anything but my Quickbooks right now.

[Josh V]

I'm using GnuCash for accounting. It's a free, open-source platform, like OpenOffice. I read the tutorial, and picked it up okay. It's not photography specific in any way, but has some small business features (I think there are vendor and client databases), which I haven't really used. I think if you wanted something to handle all that really well, you'd want something more like ShootQ.

[Robyn Kord]

I talked with my accountant who thought that my reports were just fine and was wondering why I wanted to mess with a good thing. I told him that I do just enough to get by with Quickbooks and it makes me nervous that I'm missing something.

Anyway, I will continue to seek another solution and just keep up with my QB until then.
I will look up GnuCash to see if it is usable.

On the other hand, I've been thinking about taking business courses. I know owning a photography business is more than creating great shots, so I might as well get the education I need.

Thanks for responding...

[Shannon]

Studio Cloud has a free version. It's similar to shootq, but not nearly as feature packed.

As far as raw workflow goes, I switched from DPP to BibblePro long ago. Bibble is faster, and (IMHO) produces better results. Yes, better than OEM software.

Shan

[Robyn Kord]

I looked at Studiocloud and it looks user friendly...may give it a try.

thanks