As you can see in Figure E, you have to check a box to enable thumbnail creation, and then you have to choose your resolution, quality, and size of the thumbnails. Setting up these options will create thumbnails based on your converted images.

FIGURE E


Thumbnails can be added easily Roll over picture for a larger image.

At this point, all that was left was hitting the Start button. Doing so started the batch process. It ran through everything, taking each image and converting it to my specifications, and creating a thumbnail for each one. The whole process took approximately five minutes to complete. It saved me a TON of time and worked flawlessly. ReaConverter Pro also creates a log of the process, so you can see if any errors did occur, a nice feature if you run into any problems down the line.

I did many more tests with standard GIF, JPG, TIF and PNG files and had no problems. I did however encounter some weirdness when testing with CRW files from my Canon 300D Digital Rebel. It showed that everything converted properly but the files I ended up with were blank. To ReaSoft's credit, they do state next to CRW support that it's for PowerShot digital cameras, and Canon is notorious for changing their RAW format constantly, so I imagine it's just a matter of time before the 300D files are supported.

The only other issue I had with ReaConverter Pro was that it was Windows only, no Mac or Linux support at this time. It would have also been nice to see an FAQ on the ReaSoft website, but instead they just had support forums. This is forgivable, but when looking for support, it's nice to have immediate feedback to the most common questions.

In all, I have yet to see a better batch processing utility, especially for the price. ReaConverterPro is $39 for personal use, and $99 for business use. This price is a lifetime price that includes all updates to the software going forward. For this much power and the time it saves you, $39 for a lifetime of batch processing work is well worth your money. Looks like my toolbox is going to need room for one more program.

OUR RATING: 4 of 5

John Roling is an IT Manager for a global telecommunications company and a digital photo enthusiast. You can keep up with him at his blog at http://greyhawk68.dominohosting.biz.