Right Camera, Wrong App

Me, getting around birders at Mud Lake. Photo: DW

It's been almost four weeks since I bought a Sony α6700 and nearly two weeks since I acquired the 70–350mm lens for it, and I've been putting the camera through its paces as I've become comfortable using it. And while I've marvelled at the fast focusing and clarity of the images, I have to admit that I wasn't particularly satisfied with the quality of my photos.

All of the review videos that I watched on YouTube, leading up to my purchase, showed fabulous stats and incredible results from the camera, but when I looked at my own, they seemed somewhat lacking. And it wasn't until this past weekend that I figured out why.

It wasn't any fault with the camera. It was with the tool I was using to process my RAW files. I had the right camera, just the wrong editing software.

When I bought my first digital SLR, DW was working for Corel, which had great photo-editing software that held its own against the giant Adobe tools. I found PaintShop Pro to be fast and easy to use, and I didn't have to pay a costly subscription to use it.

And because DW worked on the software, I got my copies for free and always had the most up-to-date version on our home computer. Corel even used me for test cases in user experience, and a couple of my photos ended up being used in the splash screens during the product's installation, where they highlighted some of the program's features.

When I upgraded my old Nikon D80 to the D7200, I bought it on the day that it was released in Canada. Unfortunately, in doing so, PSP had not yet updated the software to handle the RAW files from this camera, and my first few sets of photos had to be edited by uploading the files to my smartphone and editing them with Snapseed.

It wasn't the best solution but because DW was on the PSP team, she was able to convince the developers to add a plugin that would recognize the data from the files created by this new camera. The updates were pushed to users and the problem was solved.

I bought my D750 when that model had already been out for five years, so there was no issue in editing my photos in PSP.

The α6700 was released almost three years ago, so when I took my first shots with it and processed them in PSP, I didn't expect any issues. I was running PSP Ultimate 2023, so I assumed it would be up to date with Sony files.

And when I processed my first photos, I didn't really see anything wrong. Mind you, I was taking photos in bright light so there was no issues with exposure. But I've since taken a second look at those trial-run images, and they're not great.

When I started shooting photos with my telephoto zoom, I noticed a new type of problem. When I looked at the RAW files, everything looked fine, but as soon as I opened the file in PSP, I would get a black border that appeared at the bottom of the image and along the right side, when I shot horizontally; in a vertically-shot photo, the black border appeared at the right side and the top.

What I could see of the image was not cropped: I just had a black border that needed to be cropped out.

At first, I didn't mind too much because I was taking photos of birds and I would inevitably do some cropping anyway. And for some reason, the border went away with the next set of photos I took, a few days later.

But a new issue arose. On the right side of a horizontally-composed photo, fine pixelated lines ran along the edge (at the top for a vertical shot), almost like some sort of fringing. Again, I'd mostly be cropping my edited photos, anyway, but these issues were starting to bother me.

I took some photos on a bird-nerding outing on an overcast day, walking through some woods, and the resulting images really bothered me. They were very noisy, as though I was shooting at a very high ISO in super-low lighting conditions.

I saw some of DW's photos, taken in the same place, and hers weren't noisy. Plus, her birds were much sharper. Her Canon EOS R7 first came out in 2022, and she bought it in December, 2025. While it's a great camera and her telephoto lens gives better reach than mine, the α6700 seemed to be better-rated for its fast, sharp focusing.

And then it dawned on me: it wasn't my camera, but rather the software I was using.

DW owns a MacBook and edits her photos with Photomator. She doesn't use PSP and rarely touches our Windows computer anymore.

More than a year ago, I started using her MacBook for editing my videos. Our Windows computer is getting long in the tooth and can't handle the large files from my video clips. Her MacBook has a super-fast processor and she has Final Cut Pro, which makes creating my videos fast and easy.

But I've continued using my Windows computer for writing and photo editing, with PSP.

On the weekend, after we returned home from more bird-nerding (this is a term DW has started using and, as you can see, is beginning to stick with me), DW went to her MacBook while I went to the Windows machine. And as I worked on my photos, I became more frustrated.

For instance, I spotted an American Redstart for the first time, and it was close enough that I could get clear shots. Looking at the RAW files, the photos looked pretty good, but as soon as I pulled them into PSP, I saw so much noise that I thought there was something wrong with the camera or—most likely—my ability to take a good photo.

I tried everything I could to make the photo look as good as possible, and here's what I got:

Sony α6700 at 350mm, f/6.3, 1/3200 sec., ISO 6400

I grumbled and moved on the the next image, only to be met with the same frustrations. DW heard my bitching and asked what was wrong, so I called her over to look at my photos, and she agreed that the noise was troubling.

She showed me her pictures and they were outstanding. Sharp, bright, and beautiful.

"I'm done editing," she said, "why don't you put your RAW files through Photomator?"

I've been reluctant to use the MacBook for photo editing because I have saved all of my edited photos to an external drive that I use as a database, and the storage device has been formatted for Windows. I'm not even sure if the Mac would recognize the images I have or allow me to save edited photos to this drive.

I do have an cross-platform thumb drive, so I loaded it with RAW files from my past few photo outings, and moved them from my Windows machine to the MacBook, and imported them into Photomator. DW showed me how she uses the program to edit her photos and I could immediately see that it read my RAW Sony files much better than PSP had.

I re-did the photo of the American Redstart and here is the new result:

Can you notice that this version is much less noisier and the bird appears sharper?

I then re-edited other photos. Here are the before and after results of a Northern Yellow Warbler (PSP version first, followed by the Photomator version):

Sony α6700 at 350mm, f/6.3, 1/3200 sec., ISO 3200, EV +0.7

Because I was able to clear up so much noise in this photo, I was able to give it a better crop and opted for a vertical orientation.

DW said that even though she hasn't worked at Corel for a few years, she still has friends who do and she keeps up with how the company is doing. She told me that the developers aren't being as diligent with updates to PSP and she doesn't think it's going to get any better.

It still works great for the photos that I shoot with my Nikon. I edited some photos that I shot with it over the weekend and you can see some of them in tomorrow's Wordless Wednesday. I also shot some photos at that event with my Sony, and with the great lighting, there were no issues that I spotted. (See if you can tell which camera shot which photo.)

DW acknowledged that our Windows computer was getting long in the tooth, and it wasn't that long ago that I suggested we update it. DW suggested that I move over to Mac, that it would be easier for us to share photos.

I've never been a fan of Apple. They're overpriced and—at least, when I had my iPad and iPhone—too restrictive. But is it time that I moved over? I've always said that I'm not particularly loyal to one brand, and maybe I should simply get the right tool for the job.

For now, I'll continue to use my Windows computer for writing and editing the photos that I've shot with my Nikon. Maybe, I'll try editing some of the D750 files in Photomator and see the results. Maybe I have the wrong app for them as well.

But one thing is certain: with the Sony α6700, I have the right camera.