Quote Originally Posted by Franglais
Personally I only use the camera manufacturer's tools to work on RAW. I have seen several tests where Photoshop does a worse conversion than the dedicated converted.
I've also seen cases where the manufacturer's RAW software is terrible. That was the case with my old Canon G2. Different RAW conversion will deliver different results. Generally, Adobe Camera Raw is excellent. I'm a Canon user and don't like the Canon software at all. However, it's the interface I don't like. I use BreezeBrowser for some conversions it just uses the Canon conversion software with a different GUI. Lately I've been using Pixmantec's Raw Shooter. For me, it's the best I've used yet. I like the options and the conversions look better than from any other software I've used. I also think it's sped up my workflow considerably.

Shooting RAW will open up a whole new world to you. It sounds like you're ready for it. We'll be here to answer more questions. And you'll definitely have more to ask