Olympus viewer 2 is available for download. Basically a free raw processing app from Olympus.
I installed it and it is basically Olympus Studio 2 without tethered camera support.
Here’s the link for those who are interested:
edit: link fixed for windows and mac installs
support.olympus-imaging.com/ov2download
The website is running a bit slow. I think its getting hit by a few Olympus users at the moment!

Big thanks for the heads up. I'll have a play with it this evening.

Thanks, I'll try later. Right now the download page says:
Service is temporary unavailable due to system maintenance.

Thanks for the notice!

No tethered support? I still want to check it out, but wonder what Oly has for those that want to tether now? Hopefully not Studio...

I'm guessing Olympus Studio will remain the professional product for use in a studio environment. By giving Olympus Master users all the other features of Studio, Olympus have done a nice thing here IMHO.

After a little more checking, on the surface (i say this as a software developer!) Viewer 2 is exactly like Studio 2 other than a name change and the loss of tethered camera control.
It’s a lot of software for free. I paid good money for Studio!

Can not use the Service in order to maintain the system.
Service is temporary unavailable due to system maintenance.
统维 护中 system, not using 此服 务暂.

Just keep trying (refresh the url every 10 seconds or so) – you’ll get the page and it will ask you to enter a camera serial number.
Their site is being bombarded at the moment!

www.ephotozine.com/article/Olympus-Viewer-2-Photo-Editing...
According to this link the Olympus Viewer 2 is also replacing the free Olympus Master 2.
downloading now. Anyone use this new program so far?

Just gave it a quick try. It's pretty fast and seems to mimic the look of Lightroom.
I didn't see much other than your basic editing.
Other than applying Art filters for my RAW images, I think I'll continue to use LR.

This may be a really stupid question, but here goes.
I downloaded it on my Macbook Pro.
When I tried to open it a warning came up saying:
'OV2Setup.exe' is a Windows application which was downloaded from the internet. Are you sure you want to open it?'
Did I download the right thing?
I don't have Windows on my Mac.
The site says for Mac or Windows.
Is there a separate download for Mac?

I downloaded it on my mac. It auto-booted the xp software pc and installed there.
Doesn't look like there's a mac version on the web yet...

oops. i gave the link to the windows only download.
This link lets you choose windows or mac
sorry folks.
support.olympus-imaging.com/ov2download

wow... much better than master and studio... in terms of catalogue performance... will check out RAW and JPEG editing later

Christos
Efaristo para poli (hope phonetic Greek is OK with you!)
Down loaded OK, even in Cyprus!
Many thanks for the heads up, will be trying it later.
Yia Sou.

koilimal: Parakalo. I'm from Cyprus as well :)

does it have batch processing of RAW images?

just the question I was going to ask--patiently waiting for an answer :) the hell with it, I'm going to download it right now, especially since the only editing tools I use are Picnik and Olympus Masters 2--I imagine this will be a sweet upgrade indeed.

Lizzard_nyc: I will patiently wait to find out what you found out :)

BATCH PROCESSING!!!!!
Victory is mine!
I haven't tried it yet--but it said it does batch processing. and it seems to have transferred all my stuff from the Olympus Masters 2 over for me. :)

OMG---finally 'tilt adjustment' is mine!!!!!!

and something called Shading Compensation and unsharp mask--both things I haven't had access to til now.
I see an option for FIsheye correction too, but it's in shaded lettering.
Ok folks that's all for now--just so excited about this.

oh wow, so I won't have to pay for LR3 when it gets released! by tilt processing you mean fake tilt-shit?
Thank you!!!

nooo I think it means that if your photo is not straight (the bane of my existence) than it adjusts it for you to make the horizon straight---unless I am completely wrong.
Think saviest technology person and than do a 180--that's me.

Thank you Christos the Greek for the info.

Just futzed with it for a few minutes and I've got to say, the noise reduction is pretty good when applied carefully to a raw file. It's in the ballpark of what I get with Noise Ninja on Aperture 2, and a whole lot easier to work with considering it doesn't mean creating a ginormous tiff file.
The interface is a little bit kludgy, but with a price of zero I might actually reconsider switching from Aperture 2 to Lightroom 3 and just go with Viewer 2...

so does this mean studio 2/etc. is dead???

@ freealfas, yes, studio is dead.
'Internet downloading of the Olympus Studio 2 software trial application and sales of its license keys will be discontinued effective April 27, 2010' - www.olympus.com.au/images/stories/pr1004002.pdf
I'm not suprised that they've braught out new software. I like Master, but it felt a bit clunky and not overtly user friendly. With Olympus targeting the PENs (especially the E-PL1) at more 'ameuterish' peoples, I thought they'd have to do something softwarewise.

guess I missed that... thanks for the info

I... like it...
I can now:
-batch process
-have access to all art filters (not just the ones that came with my E-P1)
-have 2 screen display during RAW development (see original and edited)
-more easily organize things
on the downside:
-not really easier to use
-don't see the point of RAW development as you can do that within Image Edit now
Good stuff... *pats Olympus on back*

I really dont understand why we cannot get a free tethered shooting application, its in my world by far the weakest spot in the Oly software right now.
My father bought the Canon 550 recently and is playing with tethering a lot and it baffles me that they introduce new software and then ommits it.
Even if it is free the only reason for me to use this would be tethering so not gonna bother downloading it.
( Yes this makes me grumpy, follow the bloody times Olympus! )

Another vote for tethered use...makes me grumpy also.

Quite happy with it. Far faster and more functional than Olympus Master on my bog standard MacBook.

Somebody (I guess it's me) should note that when you download, have your camera in front of you because the site asks you for the serial number.

Thanks Christos, a new toy to play with!
I noticed that the Album and Calendar views are missing. I'll miss the ability to create albums of pics from different folders. My pics are organized in folders, but sometimes I can't remember the name. Calendars and Albums are offered in ACDSee, Kodak EasyShare, and Olympus Master 2, so why did they go away in Viewer? Maybe they'll return in a future update.
The 'color mark' tagging looks interesting and we get to assign our own meanings to red, green, and blue marks. The A and B selection boxes are still a puzzle to me, but maybe they help with batch processing.
By the way, the Help facility is installed by the first Update, so run that right after the install.
Thanks again Christos!

I gotta tell you that in terms of colours and gradation you can’t beat Olympus Studio / Viewer.
If you shoot raw, load them into viewer and it will pick up all your camera settings and do the biz. You can even try some different camera settings to see what fits your style.
If you shoot jpeg, no problem it will handle those as well but with less functionality.
Free? its pretty damn good if you ask me.

I think I'm seeing reasons why I might move to shooting RAW+JPG
On the E-600 I've noticed I like to sharpen a touch and also deal with noise and under-exposure a fair bit also

Thanx Christos for the info. Downloading it now after 2 days attempt. Will talk about the outcomes later.. :)

Thanks for the info
Just installed it, I said goodbye to OM2.
It's better, faster and has more features and tools

adi10times -- For a second there, I thought you were refering to your Olympus OM-2 camera! Need to be careful with those abbreviations. ;-)

Just showing off here....the first photo I've processed using only Olympus Visual 2:
Pretty awesome colors, if I do say so myself.

@ thomas.merton
no no not that OM2, it's Maitani san's masterpiece :)
I had OM-1, sold it because it was broken. Still looking for replacement, OM-2 would be nice :)

I've been using Studio 2, but I just installed Viewer 2 and other than tethered support, I see no difference (yet) in output - excellent Olympus colors. There is a panorama option, but I can't get it for some reason. I took multiple exposures hoping for a panorama, but I can't use the darn thing!!!!

@ i think to use the panoramic features of Olympus software you have to use an Olympus XD picture card to take the photos
have downloaded but not really tried it out yet looks good though

ANyone having problems with the new software.
First when I want to transfer my images from my camera it stil says 'olympus Masters 2'--so I download but they appear in the new version, ok fine. Then when I work on RAW images and want to save them, it won't let me, it says 'so and so file already exists' and it gives me the option to replace it, I hit yes but it won't let me.
Then it kicked me out of the programs and 'experienced problems' and the program shut down!
Any other problems?
And anyone experience the above?
Very frustrating.

Sounds like you shoot in raw+jpeg if so when you try to save a new jpeg it is already there, try renaming the file your trying to save.

AH! thank you v1viper.

Had a good play with it this afternoon. It'll not replace Aperture but does give me a nice local work flow package when I'm on my extended biz trips away from the Mac (the biz in question stipulates an unreliable Dell that it supplies for my biz trips).

Is it still unable to output 16 bit files with EXIF data intact? That's what made the last version completely useless.

What are the good features can anyone mention a few please?

Hmm, I like the output of Olympus Viewer. I haven't be able to reproduce that in Lightroom. Don't like the clunkyness of the user interface (it's still a bit slow, for instance) and what said.
Here are two versions of the same picture. Both processed using the default settings. Notice the difference in skin tones and the reds + blues of their wigs.
Edit: fiddled with the picture in LR and it disappeared from my stream. Not going to re-re-upload it ;)

nobofoto: Yes I think for certain shades of red and blue there is a difference and skin tones can be a bit pinky with lightroom.
I use the “adobe standard” profile i have blue primary saturation set to +20 in “camera calibration” section. It gets the colours closer to Olympus studio. This is for the E620 but I did something similar for the E500.
ffoto: So far as good features it has a wide variety of tools for a free application but it has a couple missing as well.
Muzzlehatch: It still doesn’t output 16bit tiff with exif. How difficult can it be? They did it in Olympus ib which has a subset of the raw processing tools.

I just changed LR's default profile to ACR 4.4 instead of Adobe Standard. That made things a lot better IMO.

Finally downloaded this yesterday to test.
I can't believe how slow it is! The noise control is better than in Aperture, but the sheer amount of time it takes to make an adjustment and then show me the change on screen is ridiculous.
I wont be using it. Too slow!

is there an online tutorial for viewer 2 that helps you get familiar with the viewer 2? My LR3 beta expired and I can't figure out how to use the Viewer 2, its so unintuitive! :-(

Don't know from tutorials for Viewer - I looked once but never found anything. But if you have anybody in your household who is a student you can get the full version of LR3 for $89...and it's tutorials and online manuals are pretty alright.

Thanks Christos!
Not a big fan of post processing (screen time is not lens time) so not up to speed with you LR3 wizards.
But having downloaded OV2 it's a shedful of software for free. I'll definitely be giving it disc space on my pc.

I want to use Viewer 2, but it does weird things! For example, when I am in the RAW development window, and I try to rotate the image (curse th EPL-1 for not doing that), it rejects the change made. And even time I do edits on the RAW image, it insists I save the changes to a new file before moving to the next image. I am like WTF?

It's neat, but the user interface is sooooo bad... You have to expand all the panels manually. Zooming in and out is troublesome. As a poor man's Lightroom, it's okay, but it doesn't even come close in the functionality or final picture output.

How's the highlight recovery function on that?

Thank you for the link. I could not find my disk recently. Had purchased a new PC and was needing this for updates.

Thanks for the update info. I just returned from Europe where I shot 5,000 photos, and not one in RAW format. Still, this will be nice for those special shoots.

Do RAWs genuinely look any different in this program compared to lightroom?

Short answer - yup. The program automatically applies the jpeg settings that were selected on your camera at the time of shooting when developing the raw, rather than the generic (or fine tuned, if you've done it) development formula of LR. You can also change any of the jpegs settings (modes like 'Vidid,' 'Natural,' &c., and Art Filters if you've got them in your camera model) in Viewer the same way you would with the camera.
That's basically the advantage of it - you get access to Oly's very good jpeg processing formulas while capturing raw files. It is, however, as others have noted, kludgy and unintuitive in its interface and won't do the sort of non-destructive editing LR and Aperture do with sidecar files, so if you use Viewer and want to keep your edits you end up with a lot of multiple versions of things cluttering up your harddrive.

Do RAWs genuinely look any different in this program compared to lightroom?

I left Master 2 for the Viewer :)
(+) points :
- unlike Master 2, the edit panel is on the same place with the raw converter. So no need to save the file first for further adjustment like usm, curve etc on the edit panel. I like it.
- simple ... raw paramenters are same as camera settings :)
- the auto tone correction is good, useful for shadow recovery
- USM, color filter, tilt adjustment, rotate etc
- batch processing
- fast image scanning
(-) points :
- slow, especially when using 1:1 view. but at least faster than rawtherapee imho
- standard noise filter (no further adjustment), no color and luminance selection
- no highlight recovery, I think we could use curve for it but I'm not sure :)
- no watermark
- no sharpening masking like lightroom :P
- no brush like lightroom :P
It's a nice software for 'light' adjustment. I usually convert the raws with Viewer, and then resize and watermarking the photos using XnView (it supports transparent graphic watermark)

I think they look different in subtle ways... if only because it is difficult to exactly reproduce the settings from one program to the next, since the functions are called different things, or combined in some cases, missing in others, etc. You'll never get the exact same picture from the same raw file using two such different programs.
The Olympus software is good if you want to reproduce an Olympus jpeg because it's the the exact same algorithms, just ported to run on your computer instead of your camera.
In addition to the shortcomings theaterculture mentioned, the Olympus software, as in the camera, has no highlight recovery. I can't think of a better single reason to shoot raw than highlight recovery and its omission in the software makes the software pretty useless. But since it's just a port of what's done in the camera with an interface stuck on, it makes sense that it's missing.
Also missing is robust support for 16 bit files. If you like to shoot raw and edit your processed files as 16 bit tiffs, Master/Viewer can do this, but only if you are willing to destroy your exif data. Between being able to edit 16 bit files and having exif data, 16 bits is much more important, but I'm not sure why we have to choose. The other raw processors can make a 16 bit file with exif intact.

This is an excellent old thread about Viewer software.
It talks about the pluses & minuses of Viewer and alternatives.
So, I guess anyone can re-lists them - but I think that's pretty well covered above.
The Viewer Help section actually looks half-way decent.
There does seem to be some potentially useful correction tools in Viewer (CA, distortion, isolated point, shading compensation, etc).
Though they are listed in the 'Help' section I wish there was more 'how to' detail. I think this is another case of Olympus coming up a little short in the communication - follow-thru department.
But, I'm more of a video tutorial learner.
Does anyone yet know of any video tutorials for Viewer?
thanks