Scott Kelby in his latest Digital Photography Book Volume 3 mentioned a free jpg from raw extractor. ; You can download it from the fine folks at Raw Workflow. ; It is a nice configurable utility that virtually eliminates the need to ever shoot Raw + jpeg again. ; Download it now.
Not compatible with Snow Leopard. Doesn't matter since the RAW files of most cameras are built into the OS, so you can preview them in the OS....
can't help you there.... ; the canon 5d mk2's files are not compatible with XP, not that i have found as of yet. ; nevertheless, i really enjoy this fine and free utility.
Here's my quick review of the Windows version. ; Your opinion may be different, so try it out for yourself. Pros: ; It's FAST! ; Extracting 100 files (30 10 Mb files and 70 5 Mb files) and creating both full size and 1000 pixel JPGs, it says it averaged .54 seconds per file. Cons: ; It's a context menu plugin for Windows Explorer, not a standalone program; you right-click on the file(s) and select Instant JPEG from RAW. It only copies a subset of EXIF data. You can't tell it where to put the JPG files; they are put in an "extracted_jpegs" subdirectory. It always creates a full-size JPG, and optionally creates a smaller one; the size of the smaller one is set by you, from 100 to 1000 pixels on the longer side. I doubt that I'll use it much, but I'll keep it installed in case I need a quick conversion.
the folder that it puts the extracted jpegs is always inside of the folder that the original raws reside. ; i think it's the perfect solution if someone just wants a quick jpeg conversion to send to someone or make a quick print without sucking down extra space on a cf card. ; further, the jpegs will render MUCH faster than the raws so if you are using a netbook or similar device, you can quickly flick through your pics to see where the winners and losers are.
I've changed my opinion of this program; I think it will become a standard tool for me. After I download my photos onto my PC, I create JPEG copies of all of my RAW files for quick viewing, sized so that the long edge is 1200 pixels. ; To do this, I use the batch conversion/rename function of IrfanView, since it has many features that I like. ; Unfortunately, it's also slow, taking about 20 seconds per shot. ; (I've also tried using Nikon's free ViewNX program, but it's no faster.) ; Finally, I use ExifTool and ExifToolGUI to copy the EXIF data from the RAW files to the JPEGs, since IrfanView does not preserve it during the conversion. With Instant JPEG from RAW taking only half a second per shot, I can extract full-size JPEGs very quickly. ; Then I use IrfanView to resize the JPEGs, which only takes a second or two each. ; I still have to use ExifTool and ExifToolGUI to copy the EXIF data, and I now also use it to set the file date/time to match the EXIF DateTimeOriginal values. Even with the additional steps, I can now do everything while sitting at the computer rather than going away for an hour or so while the batch conversion runs. Here is a list of the programs mentioned above, all of which are freeware. ; Click on each one to go to its web page: IrfanView ExifTool (available for Windows, Mac and Linux) ExifToolGUI Nikon ViewNX
