I've never paid much attention to the time it takes to do the Raw conversion. The topic has come up again in this thread.
After returning from a visit to the local zoo I thought I'd keep track of the conversion process. So, for my three year old Dell, here are the times for 164 Raw files from two CF cards. These were shot with the D. Copying the files from both cards, including a minute to create the new folder took just under 15 minutes. Running the Raw to DNG converter took another 15 minutes. At this point, I started up Adobe's Camera Raw and took a quick look at the images. While doing this I rotated any portrait style shots. I spent another 10 minutes admiring my work. At this point I created a set of JPGs. I started up the Image Processor function that calls up Photoshop to do a batch DNG to JPG conversion. This took 40 minutes. Normally, I don't hang around for this. It's about exciting as watching grass grow. Here's where I kicked off an unscheduled backup job that copies everything new to another disk drive. According to the log, this took 17 minutes. So, the whole process took a bit over an hour and a half. Most of which, I don't need to be present. If I were shooting straight JPGs the process of copying from the cards, doing the quick image review and backing up would take about 30 minutes. >From my point of view shooting Raw added about an hour to the processing time and uses quite a bit more disk space. For my hobby photography It's worth it. If I were shooting on a tight deadline, I'd shoot JPGs or use a Canon or Nikon that let's me shoot both at the same time. If I were doing weddings, there is no way I'd shoot anything other than Raw. As far as organization is concerned, I have my methods. But anyone that's trying to figure out their own approach should get a copy of "The DAM Book" by Peter Krogh See you later, gs <http://georgesphotos.net>
