Several software items come with the camera. Kodak Professional DCS Camera Manager allows you to operate the Pro SLR/c from your computer. Kodak Professional DCS Photo Desk allows you to do extensive adjustments to RAW images, then save them in a variety of formats (RAW images can also be opened with Photoshop CS’s Raw Converter feature). The Kodak Professional Extended Range Imaging File Format Module lets you open extended-range ERI JPEG images directly in Photoshop and perform DCS-specific adjustments. And the Kodak Professional DCS File Format Module lets you open RAW images directly in Photoshop and other compatible software. The software can be upgraded free via Kodak’s website, as can the camera’s firmware. Computer requirements are a Power Macintosh G3 or higher (G4 is recommended) running OS X 10.2.8 or higher (10.3.2 or higher for tethered camera operation), or a 266MHz Pentium II (or better) PC running Windows 2000 or XP. Minimum RAM requirement with either platform is 256 MB, with 512 MB recommended. Kodak also offers optional Professional DCS Custom Looks software, which allows you to apply color, photo-filter and darkroom effects to your Pro SLR images. In Use The 13.5-megapixel RAW images are superb, with amazing resolution, excellent color rendition and a wide dynamic range. JPEG images are less wonderful, but quite usable: some of the images reproduced in this report are 13.5-megapixel JPEGs. The RAW images also allow you to do much adjusting after-the-fact with the supplied Kodak Photo Desk software. We would agree with our Kodak tech contact that it’s best to use this camera in RAW mode; after all, optimum image quality is the main purpose of a 14-megapixel digital camera. Photo by Mike Stensvold Overall, the Pro SLR/c’s metering system provided excellent exposures in a wide range of shooting situations. However, the camera did grossly overexpose 11 images out of the first 384 we shot, some even though the previous or succeeding image of the same subject was exposed correctly. Our Kodak tech contact suspects this is a lens-aperture glitch rather than a metering problem, although the offending lenses have not evinced that problem when used on virtually the whole line of Canon EOS models, digital and film. It is easy enough to check the shot on the LCD monitor and reshoot if necessary, unless you’re dealing with quick-breaking action or events. While buyers of the Nikon-mount DCS Pro SLR/n get Nikon autofocusing and metering systems (that camera is built by Kodak in Rochester, New York, using bits from Nikon), buyers of the Canon-mount DCS Pro SLR/c don’t get Canon systems (or Nikon systems, for that matter). Kodak won’t say officially who builds the /c for them, but the shutter-speed dial marked “Fast” and “Slow” a la Sigma SD9, and the fact that the first lenses listed in the Lens Compatibility section of the User’s Guide are not Canon, but Sigma, provide hints. The magnesium-enhanced body has a bulbous bottom portion that takes a little getting used to (of course, this is a non-issue when the camera is mounted on a tripod). While it lacks the rugged feel of Canon’s EOS-1Ds and EOS-1d Mark II, the Pro SLR/c is sturdy and should stand up well to normal use. Nice body features include easy-to-use controls, a Hotkey button that allows you quick access to user-definable features, and a PC-terminal cover that screws on rather than relying on friction to prevent loss. The /c’s AF system is not as fast or accurate with tough action subjects like birds in flight as the AF systems in Canon and Nikon SLRs, but it’s suitable for general shooting at the lower resolution settings. And it’s easy enough to focus the camera manually when necessary. The Pro SLR/c takes about five seconds to start up when you switch it on, as it calibrates itself each time. However, it awakes from sleep mode almost instantaneously, as soon as you lightly touch the shutter button—we wish our “action” digital SLRs could do that. The /c also has a lens-optimization feature that corrects for color shifts in the corners of images that some lenses produce; this improves image quality, but also slows things a bit each time you change lenses. We used the camera with Canon’s EF 300mm f/4L IS USM telephoto and EF 28–135mm f/3.5–5.6 IS USM zoom, and Sigma’s 15–30mm f/3.5–4.5 EX DG superwide zoom, and didn’t notice a performance difference among them. Some independent-maker lenses don’t autofocus as well on EOS cameras as Canon lenses do, but that’s not the case with the DCS Pro SLR/c.