Photo editor advice please

[Thornton]

I am about to upgrade my laptop, an old 32 bit Dell running Windows Vista. I would appreciate some advice.
I have been using an old version of Photoshop Elements and shoot in raw format. I have a Canon 70D and a Fuji X100. I currently use Canon DPP 32 bit to convert my Canon raw files. I use Fuji (Silkypix) to convert the X100 raws.

My questions are:

1) Will the 32 bit Silkypix work OK still with 64 bit Windows 10? (I’ve always rather liked this raw converter).
2) I’m hoping to be able to use Canon DPP 64 bit, which should be an improvement on the version I’ve been using.
3) I have been reading about Serif Affinity Photo. Is it worth getting and would the inbuilt raw converter be able to replace the above named programs? (I had Serif Photo Plus years ago and the raw converter was awful).

Thanks,
T
(Sorry, I can see that I should really have posted this in the Image Processing section).

[Geoff F]

I had used Serif Photo Plus until version X14 which wasn't a great success for me and yes I found their Raw converter useless at that time; so I did my initial processing with Raw Therapee. Their Affinity software gets good reviews although I haven't personally used it.

Previously I tried Photoshop Elements but found it was far too basic for me, so I switched from Photo Plus to Adobe CS5 and then on to Photoshop CC. There is a cost element to consider with CC but it would do everything that you could possibly require and more besides. If you update your editing software every couple of years the comparative cost of CC doesn't appear quite so bad.

And with the integrated ACR for raw editing everything works very smoothly. I use the additional free extra of Bridge for viewing and sorting images so never use Lightroom, which comes with the CC package.

I did once try the Silkypics converter but preferred Adobe ACR.

[Manfred M]

I would suggest to try your software on your new machine to see if it runs. I run one piece of 32-bit software that came out in 2000 on my 64-bit Windows 10 machine. If it works for you, why not keep on using it. You have nothing to lose.

Serif Affinity is essentially "Photoshop Lite" and does many of the things Photoshop does for a fraction of the price. It's built in raw convertor is not getting particularly great reviews and I find it slow.

[Thornton]

Many thanks for your replies. I will see if Silkypix still works and will also download the latest DPP. If the results aren’t satisfactory I will have to consider Photoshop. I actually got on well with PSE, though I never used the simple “do it with assistance” stuff. On the other hand I don’t do anything too advanced in the printing line. I find Silkypix quite easy to get on with, though I know I seem to be in a minority. If I can’t get it to work on my new machine it would probably make sense to bite the bullet and go for CC in view of the caveats re Affinity Photo’s raw limitations. Pity, because in many ways it the Serif offering sounds tempting.

T

[pschlute]

I would have thought that your old software will work on Win 10. Try it and see. When you install 32 bit software on a 64 bit machine the software should automatically install in "program files (x86)" folder. This is where 32 bit programs should be installed to.

if you do get issues running it you can run the compatibility wizard and win10 will attempt to run the program simulating Vista

[Thornton]

Thank you for the reply. I have discovered that my new laptop doesn’t have a CD/DVD drive, which is a pain, so I’ll have to put the program files onto an SD card and hope to get them onto the laptop this way. Fortunately I have managed to download the latest version of DPP but I need to get some raws into the new laptop too, before I can have a play.

T

[Geoff F]

Some modern laptops will work with an external DVD unit which then plugs in via a usb connection. But, of course, it requires more money !

[Thornton]

Some modern laptops will work with an external DVD unit which then plugs in via a usb connection. But, of course, it requires more money !

Thanks. In fact I’ve managed to download the Fuji raw converter from their site. I must say that I hadn’t appreciated that CD/DVD drives had been sacrificed to make laptops thinner. The size of my laptop isn’t an issue as lond as it can go under the settee. I don’t carry it around. Fortunately my old laptop still works fine. The only problem was it was just too old.

T

[Manfred M]

I hadn’t appreciated that CD/DVD drives had been sacrificed to make laptops thinner.

I would suggest the reason that they are no longer installed in laptops is that the technology is obsolete. The ability to make the devices thinner is just an added bonus. Virtually all of my software purchases have been using software downloads rather than physical media for years now.

[JohnRostron]

You should try out Affinity Photo. You can download the free trial and use it for ten days. True, the raw processing has come in for criticism, but it really depends on the raw type. Try it with your camera raw file. I have no problem at all with my rather old Sony AWR files.

There is a beta version of the newest update (1.7) with many improvements, but this only available once you have purchased the current version (1.6).

Affinity also supports many Photoshop 8bf plugins.

John

[Thornton]

Thanks for the tips,

T