EP-1 nice camera ...

[SmartWombat]

... shame about the software.

Like Canon's DPP software, it's appallingly s.l..o...w in operation.

I like Olympus Studio 2 - the results of the noise reduction are great, couple that with the False Colour Suppression and Isolated Point Removal it makes 1600 and 6500 ISO usable, but only with about 2 minutes processing per image, and then a minute to save it as TIF.

Not only that, but I can't see what I'm doing.
I don't know what magic controls the screen updates, but it's not related to what I do in the UI. What gets saved in the TIF is nothing at all like what is on the screen.
The thumbnail view top left seems never to update, and the main window seems to be one or two commands behind. Sometimes randomly I see the final converted image, but I can't rely on it.
There is something going on.

... 15 minutes head scratching later ...

I tried turning on the multiple processor "high CPU" option which requires a multi-cpu machine (check - 4 cores) and 1GB of memory (yep, I got 2G) and I'm not sure. Well it's slow anyway - but faster than it was before.

I tried the "Display preview without using cache" option too, and that doesn't make it quicker - but the screen update issue is solved while I was scrolling around to find that menu option.

I think that all it needs is a "WORKING" indicator, because I can see the 4 cores going to 100% while processing the image. Perhaps I need the other CPU so my machine has 8 cores

This is the first application that I've seen run across multiple cores and make a difference.
It's still not fast enough, I'm running 4x2.5GHz cores flat out and it still takes around 10 seconds to display the image.
But that's about the speed I get my large previews rendered in Lightroom - so it's comparable.

OK, I think I've cracked it - but I can't wait for Lightroom to support the EP-1 raw files.
I want to use just one application, if possible, not two.

I definitely don't want to have to go from 14M raw .orf files to 34M .tif files, just to save them as 800x600 jpegs for the web

Ah, the joys of new software.

[Atomic2]

Are you reading the images from your hard drive or from your camera [or a card reader]?

Because if you copy the images to your hard drive first, it will work A LOT faster. Otherwise you're limited to the speed of your card reader.

[Sushigaijin]

Just use ACR. Seriously.

I have a single core, 1.5 ghz AMD with 762 mb RAM.

[SmartWombat]

I've tried local hard drive and the house NAS.
Hard drive speed makes almost no difference.

It's the processing.
I can watch all 4 cores go to 100%, then back to about 50%, then idle.
As it goes idle, the image updates.
I can imagine with only one CPU it was taking so long I clicked on another image.

I see ACR as only a stopgap, a poor one compared to working with Canon files in LR.
Because I don't want two copies of everything.
I just got over that when I got Lightroom and I don't want to go back.

[Photo-John]

Just use ACR. Seriously.

I have a single core, 1.5 ghz AMD with 762 mb RAM.

Does ACR support the E-P1 yet? That would be a surprise to me. Also, I'm with Paul on this. ACR might get the job done, but I don't like using anything besides Lightroom for RAW conversions. Until Lightroom supports the E-P1, I'll just continue using the Olympus software. It is dog slow and the interface is lame. But it does make very nice conversions.

[SmartWombat]

But the kicker is that Olympus Studio has a limited term trial licence.
After that expires I'm not inclined to pay for it.
But I may be forced to, or slum it and shoot JPG only instead of raw.

But losing C-SF on 4/3 lenses and the lack of long micro 4/3 lenses adds to the early adopter pain.
I wanted more than a pocket camera (I have big enough pockets for the EP-1!) but it's not there yet.

[SmartWombat]

Does ACR support the E-P1 yet? That would be a surprise to me.

If ACR supported the E-P1 .ORF files, then Lightroom would too, within a very short time.

[Sushigaijin]

In my experience the Olympus software was best used as a coaster.

Why do you prefer LR over ACR?