RawShooter conversion tool in the making...

[ThomasH]

The web page of Pixmantec has vanished, the Borg cube has arrived and placed tractor beam. Assimilation has begun, refugees gather at the soon to be discarded RawShooter forum, once presided by Michael Tapes. There is much to be said about this issue, and there are some good news. As determined Adobe is to uphold their termination and assimilation, they seem to hold on to their promise to provide us with a conversion tool for the *.rws files:

http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bc32eb1/0?@251.NRilg2mq2aP@

And this is, as much it hurts me to say, a noble action by Adobe. It hurts me because I am a deep believer that corporate predation should be outlawed. I know people in person, who lost their existences due to such development...

By the way, should you have seen the LR videos here, in the chapter about the "ah so necessary" Import function, note that Michael made a crucial mistake. As he listed many, many, many browser like applications, he skipped to mention the RawShooter. I would have! At ease, its a freedom of speech here and RawShooter has not been declared unword in the dictionary. And the above link come from Outback Photo web page, where in Photo Espresso edition you can also read about the use and interface of RawShooter.

My story "Losing 10Gig of data in no time" with the ah so necessary Import function of LR is here: http://www.pbase.com/phototalk_thh/lightroom_v1_critique Pay attention during the import, and... make backup!

[MichaelT]

I did not mention RS as a "browser" simply because I cannot use it as one because ot does not handle one of my cameras, the Canon 400D. So for me, unfortunately it has fallen off the radar. The omission was not an Adobe conspiracy (not that you said it was).

I hate the fact that photos must be imported into LR.

Also according to Adobe the Pixmantec site will stay active until the end of 2007, AFAIK.

And the web is full of RS info like here. (http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2007/02/lightroom_faq_f.html)

And yes, one must be careful to only "import from current location", so that the RAW files are not touched in Write mode or deleted. I am not aware of problems in import (destructive problems) when importing from current location. Sorry about your problem, and thanks for the valid warning..