Should I Install the Canon Software?

[NicoleScraps]

It got a Canon T1i a couple of months ago. It came with three disks and I have never put any of them into my computer.
The reason behind that is that I really don't know what they do and I don't want their software over-riding how I prefer to import pics off my camera. We have multiple cameras of different brands in our household and I prefer to use the import method that is built it. You know, just plug the cable in, turn the camera on, a little box pops up, click import photos and videos, select where I want them to go on my drive, tag them, and then they go into their own nice little folder. Yeah, I like that. It works with all of our cameras.
So can I tell you what disks I got and maybe someone will know if one of them is going to mess up my importing. Or maybe someone can tell me if I really need the software. I already have PSE 7 which I am very comfortable with, so I don't feel that I need an editing program.

Okay.
1 disk- Canon EOS Digital Solution Disk. Canon Utilities: Digital Photo Professional 3.8, Zoom BrowserEX 6.5, EOS Utility 2.8, Photostitch 3.1, Original Data Security Tools 1.8, Picture Style Editor 1.7, and WTF Utility 3.5

2 Disk-Canon EOS Digital Software Instruction Manual-is this another copy of my written camera manual on disk, or a manual for the above software?

3 Disk-Canon Step Up Photography- Accessories to enhance your creativity. Not sure what this is?

Thanks in advance.

[Michael_2010]

I like the way Z-Browser imports the files and lets me look through them quickly. From there I can choose to process a raw file or edit a jpg with my chosen editor. Before I started using the Canon software to process raw files, I couldn't figure out why I should even bother with those things.

[tinton14]

I currenly have the T1i as well and did install those softwares on the computer. The only time I actually use it would be to edit my RAW files since I get all the options there, I'm not sure how things work with PSE7 since I do not use it. I usually use the canon software then any other editing that I need through Photoshop cs4/5. I know you could also use it to take images so that they go directly onto your computer, if that is something you would find useful then I would say try it. I'm not that familiar with the software since I haven't found reasons to look around their software enough, but those are the two uses I have seen for it.

[Swisstony10]

Right up until I was converted to Lightroom 3, I was using Canon's Digital Photo Professional to do initial RAW tweaking and conversion. The thing I liked best about that was the ability to do batch edits - it made doing those kind of things really really easy and quick. Well, I say quick - it meant I could leave the computer processing a few hundred images, maybe converting them to Tiff or Jpeg, while I went off and did something else (like taking more pictures).

It's a pretty good RAW converter and although I do prefer ACR, up until I switched to Lightroom, the editor that I use on my laptop (The GIMP) wouldn't open RAW files. I have a feeling there are RAW conversion plugins for GIMP now, but to be honest, I find I can do most of what I want to do in Lightroom..

I don't use any of the other Canon software though. Oh, apart from the EOS Utilities thing, which comes into action if I'm shooting tethered (that said, Lightroom handles tethered shooting too now, so next time I'm shooting tethered, I'll give a try and see if it's as smooth as the Canon stuff.)

[sk66]

IMO the biggest advantage to using the OEM software is that if you are shooting RAW and you have picture profiles set on the camera (i.e. sharpening/saturation/contrast etc) the OEM software should read that info and display the RAW file just as it appears on the camera's LCD. Other programs will probably only display the base RAW file initially.

[wal]

PS7 and the canon s/w are compatible with each other and can be used together, However, since PS7 can do the same thing as the canon s/w, and even bettter, I see there is no need to right.?

[vsa]

I don't see any need to have them other than the EOS Utility which might be required if you want to update camera firmware. Might be possible without. I don't remember. And other thing is the tethered option but Lightroom can handle that also.

Lulz at the WTF Utility. :D