[dcstep]

Canadian wildlife photographer, Christopher Dodds, clued me to FastRawViewer a couple of days ago. Here's a link:

https://www.fastrawviewer.com/

Wildlife photographers take many images, particularly when shooting birds in flight. For example, I shot around 3,000 images in the last 24-hours, with my Sony a9 and a7RIII. Both Chris and I have used PhotoMechanic to cull our Raw files, prior to discovering FRV.

PM is fine softwares. It's quick and flexible, but the preview that it shows you is from the JPG embedded in the Raw file, not a Preview generated from the Raw file and converted to DNG or some other format for viewing. Sony, in particular and maybe others, embeds a rather small JPG in their Raw files, so when viewing full-screen, you don't see anywhere near full-resolution. The preview histogram is also derived from the embedded file. Hence, the dynamic range shown in the histogram is not accurate.

Without taking any more time, FRV converts the Raw file, unchanged generating full resolution images and histograms for use in reviewing. It seems just as fast and flexible as PM. I open the images on the SD card, using a card reader to connect to my desktop or, when traveling, my laptop. On opening, FRV displays 40 preview images on my 27" monitor. Using my up-down-left-right arrows, I navigate, with no delays on my 4mHz, 64-bit, Windows 10 PC. I can select any image to fit to screen and then use shortcut "Z" to toggle between fit to screen and 100%. I hit Shift-C to copy those that I chose to process to a designated Folder.

It's under 30-bucks in the US. The bargain of the century. They offer a 30-day free trial.

If you already use PhotoMechanic, you'll want to try FRV to see it's advantages, particularly if you shoot Sony or a brand that embeds a small JPG in the Raw file. If you shoot lots of pictures and then cull them, then you'll do yourself a favor by trying FRV.

Previewing and culling right off the SD or CF card saves lots of computing power and, potentially, space on your hard drives.

Dave