What are you talking about? Adobe Raw is the app responsible for the raw conversion for all the adobe apps, and it's free!!! And way more compatible than Apple raw, You don't need to have the last lightroom to have more raw cameras compatible formats. Not the same with Apple!!

@ Surfspirit: I'm sorry but you are mistaken. Specific versions of Adobe Camera RAW are compatible with only certain versions of any of the Adobe image processing apps, including Lightroom, Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. This is because Adobe occasionally adds features to Camera RAW that are not backwards compatible with earlier versions of these apps. Which is one of the primary functions of the DNG Converter app. You can use it on RAW files created with new cameras not supported in earlier versions of Photoshop and Lightroom to convert such files to DNG so they can be opened with these older apps. In fact, it is precisely the mission of the DNG file format to preserve this kind of interoperability. Which is why Adobe encourages people to archive their RAW files in DNG format.

For instance, Camera RAW 6.x is not compatible with Lightroom 2 or Photoshop CS 4. It only works with Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS 5. Actually, Lightroom does not use the Adobe Camera RAW plugin. Camera RAW support is built into Lightroom - though it has a largely parallel feature set with Camera RAW; the two are developed in tandem.

Now that iLife has been broken up in the Mac App Store, iPhoto is an even better value; you can buy a standalone version for $14.99. Apple's Digital Camera RAW updates are free just as the Adobe Camera RAW updates are. And they have the same kind of version compatibility issues as Adobe Camera RAW.

Comparing iPhoto to Lightroom makes me laugh! Adobe Camera RAW is FREE, and you can convert with it and use any good photo app you want, and Lightroom use Adobe Camera Raw, it just embed it inside, but as you would know you can configure it to use another RAW converter!! iPhoto is so low level that you should't even use RAW and iPhoto in the same sentence. Anyway, everyone that knows photography knows by far that while iPhoto is kind of cool because of iLife integration is way to far away for a good photo app!

@ Surfspirit: You are truly ignorant, sad to say, and apparently unwilling or unable to be educated. Adobe Camera RAW is a plug-in that runs in Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. It is not an independent, standalone application. It is not free but is included as part of Photoshop and Elements; the updates are free, but they only update the plug-ins for the applications.

I was not comparing iPhoto and Lightroom, merely suggesting iPhoto as a less expensive option for anyone who is a "less demanding shutterbug" - which probably includes most of the people who use less expensive or less capable digital cameras - or camera phones. Of course Lightroom is a superior application - but it's much more expensive, as well. I don't know why you are so down on iPhoto, but clearly, given you level of misunderstanding, you are not qualified to judge it.

iPhoto is bad, slow and expensive for what it does, and I have sent an email to apple already quite some time because of bug in it and I haven't seen any iPhoto update until now, you can see the bug in this small video: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/420682/%20%20Upload%20Tempor%C3%A1rio/iPhotoBug.mov

There's plenty of apps that do lot more than iPhoto, take Google FREE Picasa for example, its faster, it can ever recognize RAW files that iPhoto CAN NOT!, and it has better features, yes it only misses the iPhoto eye candy.

Then get a newer Mac. Camera equipment constantly evolves, and so does computer equipment and software. That's like complaining that your digital camera doesn't take film.