ACDSee Professional Editor's Review

ACDSee Pro is intended as "a complete photo editor and photo management solution", designed to streamline a photographic workflow. It's aimed at the advanced amateur or professional photographer, rather than beginners and hobbyists. ACDSee is intended for those who work with digital single-lens reflex cameras outputting files in the RAW format.

Among the many positives about this program is the fact that ACDSee Pro does offer outstanding RAW processing. It also has a full set of metadata managing tools. Version 5 offers a full range of useful editing options and tools. The Smarter Sharpening tool makes it easier to target the sharpening effect on edges and textured areas. Dodge and Burn lets you bring up highlights and deepen shadows. The Batch Export tool allows you to create sets of presets that are applied to every picture in a batch, streamlining exports. A range of effects and drawing tools let you easily enhance your images or highlight particular features.

The main drawback of ACDSee Pro is that the tools you can access in Edit mode are destructive. Once you switch from Develop mode to Edit, the raw image data is converted into a standard 48-bit image, discarding information. This makes it harder to go back and undo earlier changes.

Pros: Full featured, excellent RAW processing.

Cons: Destructive edit mode.

Conclusion: Not for the beginner, this comprehensive photo management package will streamline many common photo editing and management tasks -- but watch out for destructive editing.