Okay, I'll answer the why first. I'm eagerly awaiting the release of the replacement for the Canon 1Ds Mark II, presumably the 1Ds3. But I can't afford to buy the new camera body AND a new computer (hopefully a Mac next time). Sure, I could upgrade the old one to Windoze XP and then I could also use Lightroom in addition to Photoshop CS3. But I'm a curmudgeon when it comes to computers and I like the way my system works just fine now, as does my wife (and who among us doesn't do computer support for the significant other?). The upgrade process is anything but clean and simple (tried it, and backed out to a Ghost image taken right before the upgrade), so I want to stand pat on my computer. The rub is that I presumed I couldn't use newer revisions of ACR required for new camera bodies with Win2k and Photoshop CS2. But then Adobe released ACR 4.0 and DNG Converter 4.0. The standalone DNG converter runs just fine on Win2k, so I should be just fine using DNG files in my workflow. Now if Canon would just release the 1Ds3 so I could have one in my hands before my Grand Canyon trip the first week of July...
Okay, there are other alternatives. But I gave up on DxO since they refuse to make their v4 software run if you're not logged in as "Administrator" on Windows, which worked just fine in version 3.5. I also have Capture One LE, which will probably work just fine, too. I'd mourn the loss of RawShooter, but then Jeff Schewe would give us another dose of his attitude so I'll abstain. I've heard that Canon DPP is better than it used to be, but I despised it enough before not to bother again. Did I mention that I'm a curmudgeon when it comes to computers?... maybe I'll just skip the 1Ds3 and buy a 600mm f/4L IS instead, or a new motorcycle , or some new bedroom furniture, or ...
