$59.00 OCTOBER ONLY!

Copenhagen, October 28th 2005: Danish digital imaging software specialists Pixmantec announce the release of the latest addition to their Photographers’ Toolbox applications for the camera RAW format, RawShooter | premium 2006. Building on the incredible success of the FREE RawShooter | essentials 2005 product (now with several hundred thousand copies installed worldwide), RawShooter | premium 2006 provides unsurpassed RAW workflow functionality and professional image quality at an unbeatable competitive price. In addition to a state of the art feature set, RawShooter | premium 2006 adds camera RAW support for several new DSLRs including the Canon EOS 5D and Canon EOS 1D II N.

The ethic of RawShooter | premium 2006 is to allow any photographer, no matter what their level of expertise, to get the most from their RAW workflow. This is achieved by:

• Removing the need to have several different products for a photographer’s workflow by seamlessly integrating individual workflow functions within the existing and familiar user interface of RawShooter | premium 2006.
• Allowing the photographer to have complete control of how their RAW images are displayed by allowing them to create and save a Personalized Appearance. This could be to match a favourite high saturation slide film, to create perfect skin tones for portrait photography or to correct for a DSLR that always tends to over / under expose. This level of personalization, a unique feature to RawShooter | premium 2006, will save photographers valuable time, a vital consideration in these times of constant family and work pressures.
• By packing RawShooter | premium 2006 with state of the art image correction tools that use our Scene Adaptive Technology (patent pending) to work “under the covers” and make subtle changes to image contrast and other parameters. For instance, the new Vibrance tool progressively enhances colors in areas that need it. Intelligent, easy to use tools that give the maximum quality output with the simplest single keystroke.

RawShooter | premium 2006 is packed with features; here are some of the highlights:

• RAW vs. RAW comparison – a DSLR encourages the photographer to take many similar images, which causes a time delay during the editing stage of any workflow. The new RAW vs. RAW comparison tool removes this headache by allowing 2, 3 or 4 RAW images to be compared on the same screen. Using the fully integrated zoom and navigation functions of RawShooter | premium 2006 all of the images can be magnified to 800% simultaneously for the ultimate in sharpness evaluation. Once the best image in the sequence has been identified it can be prioritised for further processing; the others can be marked for immediate deletion.
• Integrated Downloader – getting RAW files onto the workstation from either an external card reader or portable downloader has never been easier than with the fully integrated RawShooter | premium 2006 downloader. Using a single keystroke the integral downloader will take the strain out of the downloading process, flattening all source directories into one target directory on the PC and automatically creating previews for viewing and colour correction.
• Image Formatting Toolbox – RawShooter | premium 2006 provides a great new toolbox to help the digital photographer format their images. The amazing new Horizon Straighten tool allows skewed horizons to be corrected quickly and simply using an on-screen guide. The Image Rotation tool allows arbitrary rotation as required. Both of these tools work in conjunction with the new Crop Tool which allows cropping of an image either to set aspect ratios or completely freeform. These tools are the most sophisticated to have ever been included in any RAW workflow application and are seamlessly integrated into the RawShooter | Premium 2006 application.
• Personalized Appearance - this great new function allows the user to save away a combination of corrections as a personalized appearance. One obvious example is to match the output of high saturation slide films, something which DSLRs have struggled to do, to date.
• FastProof – allows creation of email sized JPEGs at blazing speed; great for busy professionals to get their work to clients and for the hobby photographer to send to family and friends, create galleries etc. Simple to use, with options for resizing, sharpening and attaching an ICC profile too.
• Curves / Levels – support for both Curves and Levels adjustment of an image including the ability to fix points and pick the shadow / highlight points. Also included is the ability to save a custom curve for future use. This is a much requested feature on the Pixmantec support forums, clearly showing that Pixmantec listen to their customer’s needs.
• Sophisticated Correction Tools – several powerful, intelligent new tools have been added to the RawShooter | premium 2006 workflow. Vibrance is an intelligent saturation tool that creates the visual impact (the “punch”) of high saturation slide films by applying saturation only to areas where it is needed. Colour Balance allows a colour caste to be applied to an image and produces the same effect as using a filter on a lens.
• Interpolation – using proprietary algorithms, RawShooter | premium 2006 now provides the capability for re-sizing an image up to 200% of its default value. This allows even more capability to be performed at the RAW stage of a workflow, which results in images of the utmost quality.
• Magnifier – this tool allows a small section of an image to be magnified on screen, providing a simple, quick method of determining sharpness for a single image. It is also used to quickly assess the effect of corrections such as noise suppression and sharpening on small areas of the image.
• New Noise Suppression tool – the new Hot Pixel / Pattern noise suppression tool has a dual purpose. The hot pixel suppression combats the effect seen by photographers who take long-exposures (landscape photographers for example). The pattern noise suppression assists those users who have budget DSLRs or compacts to reduce the noise generated in their RAW images.
• FastBrowse – a new option which allows RawShooter | premium 2006 to act as a browser for large numbers of RAW thumbnails without degrading the performance of the host PC. This feature is useful if file management operations such as move / copy need to be carried out on a large directory of RAW files using the powerful drag & drop capabilities of the user interface.
• Batch Renaming – features the ability to rename groups of RAW images either at the download stage or after editing. Options allow the user to specify their own renaming format and a sequence number if required. This sequence number is updated with the last number in the renaming sequence and saved across product closure. When the batch rename feature is next used the new value of the sequence number is displayed thus saving the user having to remember it.
• Extended Colour Support – the colour profiles for several DSLRs have been fine tuned to provide even more accurate colour rendition and shadow detail.
• RAW Workflow Guide – written by professional wildlife photographer Andy Rouse, this guide takes the novice user through a logical workflow to maximize their usage of RawShooter | premium 2006. Available free to all registered users.
• Additional Camera RAW Support – support for several new cameras has been added including the Canon EOS 5D and Canon EOS 1D II N.
• Extra features – location specific RGB data for each image, customizable thumbnail display to show EXIF information and new support for RAW + JPEG.

In addition to these new enhanced functions, RawShooter | premium 2006 contains all the existing features, functionality and camera support (including the Adobe DNG format) that has made RawShooter | essentials 2005 such a roaring success. With an updated workflow orientated User Guide, RawShooter | premium 2006 is the ultimate workflow tool for all photographers no matter what their level of expertise.

CEO Kenneth Laerke adds "With the launch of RawShooter | premium 2006 we have clearly demonstrated our intent to supply state of the art digital photo imaging software applications of the highest quality available. We feel very confident that the level of features and functionality provided in this new release is superior to products available in the market today. This is only the beginning, we expect, by maintaining the same effectiveness since our launch of RawShooter | essentials 2005 in February this year, to be able to announce groundbreaking new software applications within the next 18 months that will dramatically enhance the workflow of any digital photographer"

Michael Johnson, Pixmantec’s Chief Technology Officer, says "It has been the goal of Pixmantec to combine leading edge technology with speed and ease of use in order to optimize the workflow of the digital photographer. With RawShooter | premium 2006 we are offering the most user-friendly tool for RAW image editing, correction and conversion targeting digital photographers at all levels of expertise.

Award winning professional wildlife photographer Andy Rouse has been testing RawShooter | premium 2006 and says “I used this new software to process the images of Grizzly Bears that I took in Alaska during early September. The new integrated image downloader saved me time and hassle by loading all images onto my PC ready for me to edit. Using the new RAW vs. RAW comparison tool, I cut down my 4400 RAW images to a more manageable 720 in just a couple of hours. That same day I had converted the 90 best images and the following morning they appeared live on my website ready for clients to download and use. RawShooter | premium 2006 allowed me to get high quality images in front of clients far quicker than I have ever been able too before, a vital consideration in the competitive professional market”.

RawShooter | premium 2006 will be sold initially as an electronic download from the Pixmantec website at the competitive price of $99.00 Until the end of October 2005 it will be available for the incredible discounted price of $59.00!! RawShooter | premium 2006 has a trial period of 15 days and licensed via a product key. This means that the premium product can be installed on a PC without any internet access, a vital consideration in the war against internet viruses.

RawShooter | essentials 2005 will be shortly updated with the latest camera support and released as RawShooter essentials 2006; it will continue to be available as a freeware product and will continue to be supported alongside RawShooter | premium 2006.

Pixmantec – The Story So Far
Building on years of experience at the forefront of the imaging industry, RawShooter | essentials 2005 was the first of its genre to offer a complete workflow management solution for the digital RAW format. Since its release at PMA on February 20th 2005, RawShooter | essentials 2005 has seen an unprecedented number of downloads since it is a FREE download and free forevermore. User feedback has been extremely positive with the majority of users supporting the claim that the software produces the best quality output on the market today at the quickest speed and workflow. Media reviews have agreed with several “Five Star” ratings - including the American PHOTO Magazine Editors Choice 2005 award and favorable reviews from leading technology experts.

RawShooter | essentials 2006 (soon to be released) and RawShooter | premium 2006 are the only products to provide a total solution for the two most common problems faced by DSLR users today, namely editing large numbers of pictures and converting these into the best quality output with the minimum of time and knowledge. Our RawShooter family of products have a range of sophisticated slider driven correction tools which use proprietary technology “behind the scenes” to give the best possible results with minimal effort. As well as the basic corrections to white balance, exposure compensation and saturation, the product offers ground breaking noise suppression, sharpening and new scene adaptive image correction technology. Support for both products is via online forums, staffed by industry experts, including a German language forum.

Pixmantec are committed to providing cutting edge tools for the digital photographer via their ‘PHOTOGRAPHERS TOOLBOX’ concept. RawShooter | essentials 2005 was the first in a long line of planned product releases, each using the core philosophy of providing tools that are designed specifically for photographers.

Company Information
Pixmantec is located in Copenhagen, Denmark. The company was founded in 2004 by Michael Jonsson and Kenneth T. Laerke.

In the coming year Pixmantec is planning to launch several digital imaging software applications exclusively for the Windows platform. These will be split into separate product lines each supporting individual digital image file formats (JPEG / RAW Adobe DNG). The software applications are designed with both professional photographers and amateurs in mind given the recent explosion in sales of digital cameras and associated software in both consumer sectors.

The tools provided by Pixmantec for image editing are based on patent-pending proprietary technologies.

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