Raw converters - editors

[dirk]

@RuleOfThirds

I just ordered the Sigma 85/1.4 DG DN Art, because I want to see the differences to other lenses before I sell them.

I have currently still my Lumix 85/1.8 and Sigma 90/2.8. I do have also the Fuji XF56/1.2 with XPro2 (24 MP) and XT5.

Theoretically I could do also a comparison with my MFT GX9 (I plan to sell that too) and the Lumix 42,5/1.2 and the Lumix 42,5/1.7. But the GX9 has only 20 MP and this could already be the difference in image quality.

Since my S5ii has 24MP I will then do some comparison shots with zhe XPro2 if the weather is good enough.

I have also still the Nikon Z 85/1.8, but no Nikon Z body anymore, since I leave the Nikon system completely.

Maybe these shots help you to see, that it was the right move from Fuji to LMount.

 

[Pete_W]

@dirk @Pete_W I also looked at PhotoMechanic, and be aware that they are going to have a subscription model as wel. The version they have now is not optimised for Apple Silicon at the moment, and they will not support the software once a non-compatible OS update/upgrade comes out. At that point you are forced to choose to run an outdated OS with working PhotoMechanic, or keep your OS up to date, and buy a subscription.

Thanks , yes I saw the article about this on their website. It is unfortunately the way of things these days, even for small apps on iPhones.

 

[RuleOfThirds]

@RuleOfThirds

Maybe these shots help you to see, that it was the right move from Fuji to LMount.

Camera wise I know it is the right one for me. How it works, controls, noise etc. I just have to find out which lenses work for me.

 

[RuleOfThirds]

|'ve been playing with Lighrooom (simple version) with 1TB, and frankly, I LOVE IT. Those €12,79/month are ok. Now I have an extra offline backup for my photo's as well. At home I have a 1Gbit glassfiber internet connection (up & down) so uploading large amounts of data is no problem at all. Using my iPad on the couch works exactly the same, which is fun too.

 

[Markuswelder]

Big fan of Silkypix Developer Studio Pro myself. Does everything I need, easily, & seems to manage to pull just that little bit more detail & sharpness out of ordinary lenses. I buy the Panasonic only version/s, cheap as chips. It does a very very faithful replication of Panasonic colours, as it's the official raw converter that Panasonic supplies with their cameras. Tried other converters such as Lightroom, but absolutely refuse to get sucked into the drip feed tax. And I just keep coming back to Silkypix. I also have no need for online storage, as I've built myself an internet connected NAS, so have my own personal cloud, available anywhere in the world where an internet connection is available

 

[Nevyn72]

I Use Affinity Photo 2. For a long time it didn't support the S5ii(X) (was a problem for me, although I hardly make any photos, mostly video so I kept waiting), and the GH6/G9ii (no problem for me because a don't have any m43).
But the latest version also support the newer Panasonics, and I'm very trilled with it. Works a charm, for an incredible low price.

 

[Miker]

If you are on a Mac, Nitro, which just got released a couple days ago is well worth checking out. It is an update from Raw Power and adds a number of important new features. I really like it so far. It can be purchased as a subscription or outright, your choice. I also use Affinity Photo for more extensive editing, but have difficulty getting it to do what I like for raw editing and some of the lens profiles aren’t the best. Nitro can use both Apple Photos for image management and or manage file on its own providing more flexibility, and gets around some of the file format issues with Photos when editing with other apps.

 

[RuleOfThirds]

Big fan of Silkypix Developer Studio Pro myself. Does everything I need, easily, & seems to manage to pull just that little bit more detail & sharpness out of ordinary lenses. I buy the Panasonic only version/s, cheap as chips. It does a very very faithful replication of Panasonic colours, as it's the official raw converter that Panasonic supplies with their cameras. Tried other converters such as Lightroom, but absolutely refuse to get sucked into the drip feed tax. And I just keep coming back to Silkypix. I also have no need for online storage, as I've built myself an internet connected NAS, so have my own personal cloud, available anywhere in the world where an internet connection is available

Maybe I look into Silkypix for fun. On the Panasonic website there was a free converter which was horrible slow. Be aware though, I had a QNAP nas connected to the internet, completely up to date, but still got hacked. Software bug from QNAP with somewhere a hardcoded password in the binary. Luckily I could extract the password by dumping the memory while it still was busy. I’m a professional software engineer and network specialist and knew what to do. Right now I only expose a WireGuard vpn port to the internet, which is in a DMZ….

 

[Markuswelder]

Maybe I look into Silkypix for fun. On the Panasonic website there was a free converter which was horrible slow. Be aware though, I had a QNAP nas connected to the internet, completely up to date, but still got hacked. Software bug from QNAP with somewhere a hardcoded password in the binary. Luckily I could extract the password by dumping the memory while it still was busy. I’m a professional software engineer and network specialist and knew what to do. Right now I only expose a WireGuard vpn port to the internet, which is in a DMZ….

I'm running two factor authentication on mine (Synology) and haven't had any issues as yet. I've also got mine set that after 5 incorrect attempts to log in, it Black bans that IP address. Guess that doesn't help if there's a back door software bug, but it's worked for me so far. In the event that it did get hacked, I'd just wipe it completely, and start again with my back-up. I'm no computer expert, there's probably huge holes in my strategy, but I'll worry about it only if it actually happens. I read the log-in logs every now and then, nothing at all suspicious to my eye pops out. I'm in the steel fabrication industry, like I said, not a computer expert in the slightest

 

[RuleOfThirds]

I'm running two factor authentication on mine (Synology) and haven't had any issues as yet. I've also got mine set that after 5 incorrect attempts to log in, it Black bans that IP address. Guess that doesn't help if there's a back door software bug, but it's worked for me so far. In the event that it did get hacked, I'd just wipe it completely, and start again with my back-up. I'm no computer expert, there's probably huge holes in my strategy, but I'll worry about it only if it actually happens. I read the log-in logs every now and then, nothing at all suspicious to my eye pops out. I'm in the steel fabrication industry, like I said, not a computer expert in the slightest

Just be sure to only open the ports on your modem you really need. I had 2-factor authentication as well. They don't try to log on, they exploit a bug in the software which are listening on your openend ports. I have one port open, a WireGuard VPN, which I keep uo to date which is on a raspberry pi. One of the safest vpn software available. Free and opensource. I just connect to my network via vpn first and then communicate with my nas. So no port open, but I can still reach it if I need to.

Tip: Create a new Administrator account and use that one if you need to configure your nas, and disable the default admin account. Create a limited user account for your self to access stuf on it do not use your admin account for everything.

 

[Markuswelder]

Just be sure to only open the ports on your modem you really need. I had 2-factor authentication as well. They don't try to log on, they exploit a bug in the software which are listening on your openend ports. I have one port open, a WireGuard VPN, which I keep uo to date which is on a raspberry pi. One of the safest vpn software available. Free and opensource. I just connect to my network via vpn first and then communicate with my nas. So no port open, but I can still reach it if I need to.

Is that a bug in the NAS software, or in the Modem software?

 

[RuleOfThirds]

My last post is ment to be advice, not a bug. When I got hacked it was a bug in the backup software of qnap. Nothing I could have done to prevent it except not forwarding the port to the nas from the modem. Everything was up-to-date, 2factor etc.

Port Forwarding is normally something you do on your modem and you add that info manually. If you did not do that manually then UPnP is probably activated on modem and nas. A protocol for automatic port forwarding, where you allow the nas to tell the modem which ports to open. My advice is to disable it on both devices and set it up manually so that you know exactly what you expose to the internet.

What those hacker group do is for a specific ip-range, I.e. ip’s owned by your provider, to scan all those IP-addresses for all open ports. If they find an open port with known software bugs they try to exploit that. And it is all automated for them. They buy that hacking software on the dark web and only click “start”. Very sad practice, they encrypt your stuff and leave a text file how to pay in bitcoins to get the password. It’s not that qnap or Synology is better or worse. Both have been attacked several times.

 

[Nevyn72]

I Use Affinity Photo 2. For a long time it didn't support the S5ii(X) (was a problem for me, although I hardly make any photos, mostly video so I kept waiting), and the GH6/G9ii (no problem for me because a don't have any m43).
But the latest version also support the newer Panasonics, and I'm very trilled with it. Works a charm, for an incredible low price.

Affinity is just bought bij Canva... So on the long term i'm afraid that they will also go to a subscription model... The V2 versions are probably safe, but won't get a lot of updates anymore...

 

[kbouk]

They will continue Affinity as a standalone product suite

Look Canva’s yesterday announcement

 

[Nevyn72]

They will continue Affinity as a standalone product suite

Look Canva’s yesterday announcement

Yeeah I saw... We will see if this is a good or bad take over in the future. The good thing: the money to compete against Adobe is now definitely there. I expect a Lightroom like product will be coming next.

 

[Markuswelder]

My last post is ment to be advice, not a bug. When I got hacked it was a bug in the backup software of qnap. Nothing I could have done to prevent it except not forwarding the port to the nas from the modem. Everything was up-to-date, 2factor etc.

Port Forwarding is normally something you do on your modem and you add that info manually. If you did not do that manually then UPnP is probably activated on modem and nas. A protocol for automatic port forwarding, where you allow the nas to tell the modem which ports to open. My advice is to disable it on both devices and set it up manually so that you know exactly what you expose to the internet.

What those hacker group do is for a specific ip-range, I.e. ip’s owned by your provider, to scan all those IP-addresses for all open ports. If they find an open port with known software bugs they try to exploit that. And it is all automated for them. They buy that hacking software on the dark web and only click “start”. Very sad practice, they encrypt your stuff and leave a text file how to pay in bitcoins to get the password. It’s not that qnap or Synology is better or worse. Both have been attacked several times.

Never had an attempt to hack into my Synology, and I don't recall ever hearing about a successful attempt either. Other than dumb people with really sh!t passwords etc.
Anyway, I'm playing around with mine, to get it to WOL. I might need a UPS to do that, but the documentation isn't super clear. No need for it (the NAS) to run 24/7, only when I'm at home, or occasionally a few minutes here or there during the week. I can get it to shut down after a pre-determined time, just got to figure out how to add devices to wake it up