Raw conversion recommendations?

Now that I finally have a digi that makes raw files, I'm curious what people like for processing the camera raw files into tiff
My photoshop is CS2 and it can't read the Canon G9's files, I have the Canon software installed, but it seems clunky.
So what do people like, Lightroom, Aperture, a newer version of PS?
Also, I'm running on a PowerPC Mac, so I cannot use current versions of anything. I can go up to PS CS4, not sure on the others.

Thanks

Lightroom is probably your best bet but I'm not an Apple person so can't comment on which version if any will run on your computer. You might just have to develop a love affair with the Canon software until you can upgrade your hardware/software. Or baring that, buy a good bottle of scotch and find a photographer buddy with the latest Adobe stuff and spend an evening sipping scotch and processing images.

I like Lightroom 4, but it doesn't support the PowerPC processor. I think version 2 did, but it wasn't nearly as good as version 4. It looks like you can use Camera Raw or at least the DNG converter 6.4 to read your files (I imagine it can read the G9 files). DNG Converter 6.4 last to support PowerPC Mac Systems Lightroom Journal

Of course you could also buy a new Mac. Even a Mac Mini is a pretty good machine for not too much money (in Apple terms).

If you have a geek streak a hackintosh that is as powerfull as a current Mac pro can be built for the price of mac mini.

Hackintosh Instructions, Hackintosh How To Guides @ Hackintosh.com

With Thunderbolt:
Build a Mountain Lion Hackintosh w/ Thunderbolt That’s Faster Than a Mac Pro — for Half the Price - NoFilmSchool

if you are not married to apple os a very competent win 7 machine can be built or bought for ~600.00 plus monitor.

There's a free software package called Raw Therapee that appears to get good reviews. I've not tried it, but maybe you can get it to work on your older Mac.

Thanks for the input everyone.
Older/compatible versions of both Lightroom and Aperture appear to be plentiful on the auction site. I'd like a newer machine, but not too interested in spending the money right now, and the PPC box does most everything I need it to.
I'm no stranger to geek stuff and dealing with Windows machines is my day job, the Hackintosh site looks interesting, a diy mac would be nice.

let us know what you do and how it works out as I doubt you are alone.

I've used rawtherapee and can attest it is a great program. Should be used on a 64bit OS however as it is a real hog.

I downloaded a copy of the Adobe DNG converter, it gets me Adobe based raw conversion that's compatible with PS CS2, thank you Larry.

I did look at rawtherapee's site, but they don't have a version that can run on a PPC mac.

The latest Lightroom with PPC compatibility is Lightroom 2, this is true for Aperture also. I've ended up with a copy of Aperture 2 that I got from the auction site, both are available there, at various prices, but the Aperture copy is what I found first, for the best price.
I do appreciate and value the suggestions. I may still look into Lightroom, though I think Aperture will cover my needs for now, hopefully its cataloging is more stable than iPhoto.

TheRawTherapee is excellent as is UFraw - which is what*I use. UFRaw should work on your Mac - you can complile the source code if all else fails.

Or you could run*Linux on your Mac and get easy to install and use uptodate software. See here for sources of Linux to run on a PPC*Mac.

This is also a good one that works on PPC -

RAW Developer
Iridient Digital - RAW Developer Download

while not free, its far cheaper than most @ $75

bdial said:

Now that I finally have a digi that makes raw files, I'm curious what people like for processing the camera raw files into tiff
My photoshop is CS2 and it can't read the Canon G9's files, I have the Canon software installed, but it seems clunky.
So what do people like, Lightroom, Aperture, a newer version of PS?
Also, I'm running on a PowerPC Mac, so I cannot use current versions of anything. I can go up to PS CS4, not sure on the others.

Thanks

Click to expand...

You may already be able to do it.
Have you tried opening in Preview and saving to tiff? Adobe depends on an updated camera raw file the Mac OS doesn't.Previe willopen just about any camera's raw file.

ralphlambrecht said:

You may already be able to do it.
Have you tried opening in Preview and saving to tiff? Adobe depends on an updated camera raw file the Mac OS doesn't.Previe willopen just about any camera's raw file.

Click to expand...

TIFF is not the same as RAW and also are much larger files... If he/she is working in RAW for the first time on an old computer, the speed will already be reduced and Lossless TIFF will be larger and slower and not necessarily retain all the data... Better to just get a new computer and run Lightroom 4 or 5 and not mess yourself up. Or convert them to DNG (Adobe Digital Negative) files with adobe's free DNG converter, I'm sure there's still a version out there that will run on your old clunker

Personally I've kept all of my RAW files as the original Canon RAW, I never converted them to DNG, I was just always afraid of some kind of error or loss in information when converting, and Adobe will support Canon for a long time to come and I'm sure if they ever stop, I'll somehow be able to convert them THEN to the best DNG available at that time.

But if they aren't working, DNG is the most lossless and universal way to go.