ACDSee Pro 2 and 2.5

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Support for Pentax K7

(19 posts)

  • Miles500
    Member

    Alas neither DNG or PEF files currently work in version 2.5 and this is sad for me as since I got the K7 I can only process JPEGs unless of course I upgrade to version 3 where I can at least use the DNG files but not yet the PEFs.  It is odd that 2.5 does not recognise DNGs when taken with the K7.  As Marc said in an earlier post - we should contact ACDSee directly on these matters and I would do so if only I could find a link on this website to do so.  The earlier post referred to a link - I think at the top of the page - but I can not see one!

    Posted On October 19, 2009 - 06:20 PM (1 month ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • Marc Sabatella
    Moderator

    At the very top of this page, I see "ACDSee Community".  Below that is what is essentially a menu bar: "Products Support Community Newsletter Partners".  Click Support, then the Support item on that menu.

    Posted On October 21, 2009 - 02:17 AM (1 month ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • Miles500
    Member

    Many thanks Marc - I have found the path in what is a veritable labyrinth - I suspect deliberately made less than straightforward to discourage too many support requests.

    Posted On October 21, 2009 - 09:55 AM (1 month ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • Miles500
    Member

    I have now received a reply from support which is very disappointing.  The gist is that there will be no further patches for 2.5 so we shall have to live with any instability problems.  There will almost certainly be no camera updates either for 2.5 and there is no guarantee that  K7 .pef files will be supported in version 3 but they may be at some indefinite time in the future.  I have now replied in the following terms:

    "'Thanks very much for your reply which is a clear one but also very disappointing.

    I can live with the instability of version 2.6, annoying though it is.

    Other software producers ( ie Adobe) continue to support their products for some years and Adobe Camera Raw is a case in point.  It had Pentax K7 support some months ago and updates are available to me as a user of Elements 6 even though this is no longer the current version.  I have only had ACDSee Pro 2.5 _since July 2009_ and it seems quite wrong that after so little use of the program I now find that I can not use RAW files on my Pentax K7 which effectively renders the program next to useless and all I can do is to convert to JPEG in another program if I want to apply the excellent features of ACDSee pro 2.5  The database is another excellent feature which is now useless for all new RAW files and therefore I not only have to look elsewhere for a comprehensive catalogue of my many thousands of photos but I have also wasted time and effort in organising and tagging these photos.

    I know that I can upgrade to version 3  which recognises .DNG files but even then you can not guarantee that there will be any support for .PEF files taken with the K7.  I know that as a user of 2.5 I am entitled to a concessionary price but this still amounts to rather more than I paid for 2.5 in the first place so I shall not consider an upgrade in these circumstances.  The obvious solution would be for you to offer a free ( or very much reduced cost upgrade) to 2.5 users who have registered say within the last 6 months.

    Acdsee pro is a great program which deserves to be more widely known and used, but it is difficult to have confidence in a company which neglects its customer support so badly in terms of upgrading its product to cater for new cameras which are constantly coming to market.  I am afraid that I am  now much more likely to spend my money on upgrading Adobe Elements which I know will be updated as often as necessary over a reasonable period of time.

    I would be grateful if you would bring this e-mail to the attention of your manager in the hope that someone in your company might realise that commercial success is linked to the trust placed in the company by its customers.  I trusted ACDSee when I bought 2.5 and feel very let down. "

    I am not really expecting a positive reply and so I guess I may have to reconcile myself to having 'bought a pup' as we say in the UK and direct any further investment in photo processing software in the Adobe direction!!

     

    Posted On October 23, 2009 - 03:28 PM (4 weeks ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • BrettB
    Member

    I think it would be a very disappointing if ACDSee cannot address this and if they are not supporting a program as recent as 2.5.

    It would be very worrying if they are not planning to support cameras such as the K7 in Pro 3. 

    I think you make your points about this very well.

    I am not likely to be affected by this in the near future, but who knows longer term? You do invest a lot in the database and I would expect it to be supported with all major models long term. I certainly wouldn't expect to have to check with ACDSee before I bought a new camera.

    I hope you'll keep us up to date on this.

    Brett

    Posted On October 23, 2009 - 03:44 PM (4 weeks ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • sfmillburn
    Member

    What makes this even more disappointing is that the Pentax K7 flavor of DNG no longer works. Since DNG is supposed to be a standard, it makes lack of support a bug and not just lack of support for a new camera.

    Posted On October 23, 2009 - 10:23 PM (4 weeks ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • Miles500
    Member

    I have had a reply to my last message (see my last post) to the effect that it has been passed on within the company.  I shall be pleasantly surprised if I hear any more.  However it is not really that much to ask that a newly purchased program be properly supported for 6 months and if they can not do this, then the decent thing would be to allow a free upgrade - they only have to send a key/code to those who have recently acquired the program and have registered it within a certain timespan.

    sfmilburn has a good point.  I thought that dng was a universally accepted format and 2.5 recognises the dngs produced by my Ricoh GX100.  With this in mind I was confident that 2.5 would work with my Pentax K7 especially as it had worked satisfactorily with my Pentax K200D.  Having switched from pef files to dng I was really surprised that they do not work in 2.5 although they do so in version 3.  Proper dng functionality in 2.5 would be welcome even though I really prefer pef which comes out at a much reduced file size.

    Could I suggest to sfmilburn that he/she does as I have done and raises a ticket with Support on this issue.

    Posted On October 24, 2009 - 10:11 AM (4 weeks ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • sfmillburn
    Member

    OK. Will do.

    Posted On October 24, 2009 - 07:04 PM (3 weeks ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • Marc Sabatella
    Moderator

    Miles500 said:

    sfmilburn has a good point.  I thought that dng was a universally accepted format and 2.5 recognises the dngs produced by my Ricoh GX100.  With this in mind I was confident that 2.5 would work with my Pentax K7 especially as it had worked satisfactorily with my Pentax K200D.  Having switched from pef files to dng I was really surprised that they do not work in 2.5 although they do so in version 3.  Proper dng functionality in 2.5 would be welcome even though I really prefer pef which comes out at a much reduced file size

    Are you really finding DNG coming out larger on the K-7?  I thought the K-7 compressed those as well? Anyhow, you can always shoot PEF then convert to DNG using the free Adobe DNG Converter to get compressed DNG files from any camera.  It's also possible using that method will allow 2.5 to work with the K-7 (although I don't know this for a fact).  I suspect the K-7 is using some new DNG compression options that didn't exist when 2.5 was released, or something along those lines.

    Posted On October 25, 2009 - 02:30 PM (3 weeks ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • Miles500
    Member

    My Dng files come out at anything up to 18mb whereas the Pef ones rarely exceed 10mb, so there is quite a difference at least in my experience.  Shooting PEF will maximise storage on the SD card of course but conversion to DNG has implications for hard disk space.  Yes I know that is much cheaper than it used to be but it is all extra expense in the long run when ACDSEE pro 2.5 really ought to support new cameras for a reasonable period.  After all the K7 has been around for a few months now and I imagine that there will be users of other recent cameras who find that they are in the same boat as myself..  The more I think about it, the more outrageous it seems to me that a company will sell a product without any intention of supporting it for new cameras and without any warning that it would not do so.  I will look into the adobe dng converter that you mention, but  it is really not the answer as even if it does convert pentax dng to a fomat acceptable to 2.5, it is a very unwelcome further stage in the workflow. I am really wondering whether to put any further effort into developing my

    ACDSee database.

    Posted On October 25, 2009 - 06:19 PM (3 weeks ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • Miles500
    Member

    Please disregard the file sizes for dng as opposed to pef quoted in last post.  Yes dng files from the K7 are in the range of 14-18 mb approx taken at the maximum 14 megapixels.  I forgot that all my pef files taken with my earlier K200d were taken at that camera's max of 10 mp.  I have yet to check the size of pef files but as they are compressed to some extent I believe that they will be smaller than dng files as was the case with the K200d.  Sorry about that!

    Posted On October 25, 2009 - 11:57 PM (3 weeks ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • sfmillburn
    Member

    Interesting. I tried Marc's suggestion and installed the latest version of Adobe DNG Converter. By default, it produces DNG files that are readable by Photoshop CS4 and version 5 of ACR. However, you can set it for ACR 4.6 compatibility. I did that and had it convert the DNG files themselves from the Pentax K7. The output is readable just fine by ACDSee Pro 2.5. I have not tried other combinations of settings, including the default settings, to fully characterize the issue.

    I guess that provides a workaround for the problem. Still, it would be quite the honorable thing to do to provide some support for this.

    Thanks, Marc.

    Posted On October 27, 2009 - 01:12 AM (3 weeks ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • Miles500
    Member

    I have downloaded the converter but could not find any means of setting for ACR 4.6 compatibility.  I have looked carefully and can not see how you do this.

    Posted On October 27, 2009 - 11:44 AM (3 weeks ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • sfmillburn
    Member

    I'm writing this from work, not home where the software is installed, so I'm trusting my memory. I believe there is a button on the main dialog box that says Options. Click that and there is a drop-down box where you set the compatibility.

     

    Posted On October 27, 2009 - 03:50 PM (3 weeks ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • Miles500
    Member

    I am afraid that there is nowhere any options box and I have clicked on everything within sight.  I am wondering whether I have downloaded the same program as you. I have version 5.3.0.21

    Posted On October 27, 2009 - 04:05 PM (3 weeks ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • sfmillburn
    Member

    I'm home now so I'm opening the software. The DNG Converter version is 5.5.0.97 and I d'led it yesterday. The program opens one dialog box, divided into 4 panels. The bottom one (panel 4) has a button called "Change Preferences". That's where you go. I'd go onto the Adobe site and grab this one.

    Posted On October 27, 2009 - 10:30 PM (3 weeks ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • Miles500
    Member

    Thanks - somehow I followed a link which gave me an outdated version.  I now have the latest one and can now find the compatibility tab.  I will try it out tomorrow!

    Posted On October 28, 2009 - 12:03 AM (3 weeks ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • Miles500
    Member

    I have to recant on the size of DNGs as opposed to PEFs .  When I converted my PEFs to DNGs and compared size,s much to my surprise the DNGs came out very slightly smaller.  I am now in a position to use Version 2.5  providing I use DNG.  The DNg conversion does overwrite the original image number which I do not like but can live with as it seems to preserve the rest of the EXIF data.  Having contemplated a move back to the photoshop elements database, I still find the ACDSee one to be far superior in terms of an easy workflow so I may just stick with it despite my annoyance at not being able to use PEF and having to run new images through DNG converter to make them readable.  I shall not contemplate upgrading to version 3 unless there is an update for the Pentax K7.  I had one crash with my trial of version 3 when I tried to burn a DVD and the familiar message came up -" ACDSee has encountered a problem and will close etc".  Otherwise I found no problems with this version, but do not feel that I have used it intensively enough to be certain whether it really is more stable than 2.5, which can often perform faultlessly on some occasions - only to crash repeatedly on others.  Needless to say nothing further has been heard from ACDsee.  Communication does not seem to be their strong point.

    Posted On November 4, 2009 - 09:38 PM (2 weeks ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • Melanie Wood
    Community Manager

    Hello all,

    While the new Pentax K7 is not currently supported, it is one of the models on the list for the next RAW update for Pro 3. That update is currently with the Quality Assurance team for testing and is scheduled for release in the coming months.

    Support for the Pentax K7 is still being tested. While we are confident that it will meet our Quality Assurance standards, we cannot at this time guarantee that this camera model will be included in the final, released update.

    Melanie

    Posted On November 4, 2009 - 11:07 PM (2 weeks ago) (Permalink to this post)

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