I’m not saying ONLY Camera Raw, Lightroom, or Aperture… just applications LIKE those. Capture NX is a nice tool… I’ve dabbled with it. I really like Nik software’s tools and I too shoot with a D300.

The point is, that tool also gives you the speed benefits of Raw.

With that said, both Adobe and Apple are in the business of making competitive software (which means innovation as well as fixing flaws). Post to them directly, they do listen and might be able to make changes you’d desire.

bottom line and to my total disappointment, i find myself restricted to Capture NX, a software I despise but at least gets me the right colors.
I looooove LR, I loooove PS but what can I do if they don’t get the RAW colors right ….hopeless

Quick responses (sorry so brief… going on stage in 10 minutes)

To Walter Chin – Check out Other World Computing… they have a RAM Finder. From memory (joke intended) that computer tops out at 1 GB. Its about $100 to do so.

To Chris – To Each their own…. just my opinions… You can technically use Camera Raw with JPEGs now too….

To Terry – That’s a GREAT Tip

To Zsolti – Double click an actions name and a pop-up window comes up.. you pick the f-Key and modifiers there.

To goDonato -I always buy non Apple RAM but leave the pre-installed in there when possible, or swap out if needed. BUT some third party stuff is apple certified.

TO Jon Haverstick – I use that too…. that makes us geeks! Good tip… others if you like Image processor…. go there!

Gotta run…. keep the comments flowing guys.

=)

-Rich

RE: Image Processor… I recommend to my students that they use the FREE Dr. Brown’s Services scripts (whichever version applies to their version of Photoshop) as in addition to all the functionality of Photoshop’s Image Processor, it also gives you the option to resize pixel dimensions and resolution, and convert the colorspace. It’s great for batch processing images for the web when you want to convert to sRGB (I shoot Adobe 1998, which looks pretty flat on the web). And it can be invoked from Bridge by selecting the thumbnails of the images you want to process, choosing Tools > Photoshop > Dr. Brown’s 1-2-3 Process.

How can you map an action to a function key?

Zsolti

Totally agree with the working faster especially with hot keys. I teach a lot of software and as soon as I start the workflow in any software, I start telling them to remember the hot keys. But, now I’m starting to look into that workspace custom fitting to my needs. But a huge problem with the action scripts for me, is that I did start to create some but started to forget the step of my scripts. So, I avoid scripts or action you call it, because then it forces me to remember the hotkeys and where to find them.

Chris, as you mention taking 700 photos for a sporting event would be enormous data. I agree with getting it right in the first place. With the RAW files being so big but being so full of information, what to do. I would have to say that I’m one of those “RAW aholic”, and maybe that is why LaCie really likes my addiction, with 5 external hardrive at my feet, I never get cold feet!!! But it all depends on what you want to do in post production and for me I need the RAW data but if you don’t need, why even bother!
“I get annoyed when JPG-only shooters get pilloried.” I don’t thing that Rich was trying to do that, I think that if you have the need and the space for it, why not. That is how I see it.

Cheers

To Walter:

If I were you I wouldn’t buy anything but a new computer, I would have an newer computer before I bought any software, especially if I owned a G4, you can even get a new(er) iMac that won’t set you back too much compared to a new tower. I would say get an Intel chip computer because apparently the new “Snow leoaprd” OS won’t even support a G5 anymore, not to mention that my dual G5 with 8GB of ram is already starting to see the downsides of performance with CS4 how certain things are becoming slower than my Intel Laptop with 1GB of ram, and it’s only going to get worse when CS5 comes out!!! The computer world is fast moving, and if you want to play, you need to keep up unfortunately. Here are some places online were you can purchase used Macs at a pretty decent price. Good luck.

http://www.macofalltrades.com/

http://www.powermax.com/