Horrible Sony PC software (DSC-R1)! Alternatives?

I've got a drawerful of lenses etc. for 35mm film work which I haven't
opened since getting a compact digital snapper. The convenience of
digital and a good 2nd hand price finally persuaded me to get a Sony
DSC-R1 as a digital camera capable of semi-professional picture
quality.

So far the lens and camera have greatly impressed me, but the PC
application program Sony supply for downloading and playing with your
photo files is too horrible. It doesn't even seem to be able to delete
photographs on file in the PC, let alone in the camera, and I can't
find out how to choose what to download.

I tried an unregistered version of Adobe's camera software (you get to
use it 24 times for free), and it seems to be fast, well featured, and
easy to use. But one handy thing it doesn't do which the Sony s/w does
is note all the technical shooting details of the photo.

Any recommendations for some good free (or inexpensive) software for
managing my photo files getting stuff into and out of the Sony DSC-R1?
I do like to be able to put stuff back in as well as take it out of
the camera, because it lets me carry around specific pictures to show
to people.

It would be handy if it was also capable of handling other sources of
digitial photos, such as the compact snapper I often carry in my
pocket, or the mobile phone which sometimes happens to be the only
"camera" to hand. The Adobe s/w claims to be able to do that.

Chris Malcolm

On 12 Apr 2007 01:49:19 -0700, "Chris Malcolm"
<malcolm.chris DeleteThis @gmail.com> wrote:

>I've got a drawerful of lenses etc. for 35mm film work which I haven't
>opened since getting a compact digital snapper. The convenience of
>digital and a good 2nd hand price finally persuaded me to get a Sony
>DSC-R1 as a digital camera capable of semi-professional picture
>quality.
>
>So far the lens and camera have greatly impressed me, but the PC
>application program Sony supply for downloading and playing with your
>photo files is too horrible. It doesn't even seem to be able to delete
>photographs on file in the PC, let alone in the camera, and I can't
>find out how to choose what to download.
>
>I tried an unregistered version of Adobe's camera software (you get to
>use it 24 times for free), and it seems to be fast, well featured, and
>easy to use. But one handy thing it doesn't do which the Sony s/w does
>is note all the technical shooting details of the photo.
>
>Any recommendations for some good free (or inexpensive) software for
>managing my photo files getting stuff into and out of the Sony DSC-R1?
>I do like to be able to put stuff back in as well as take it out of
>the camera, because it lets me carry around specific pictures to show
>to people.
>
>It would be handy if it was also capable of handling other sources of
>digitial photos, such as the compact snapper I often carry in my
>pocket, or the mobile phone which sometimes happens to be the only
>"camera" to hand. The Adobe s/w claims to be able to do that.
>
>Chris Malcolm

There is always free Irfanview (www.irafanview.com); make sure you D/L
the add-ins, too.
Using a card reader is the real solution to the problem of getting the
photos from and to the card; a USB reader on ME or better shows up as
a drive, just like your hard drives.
Faststone Image Viewer (http://www.faststone.org/) is a viewer that I
like bettere than Irfanview for most things. Also free.
Both will view any JPEGs, and do light editing.

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