Thanks Minds-eye - it’s a good suggestion, but I do have an SSD.
OK, I think I found the reason: If I have Photos → Display RAW images with priority on speed disabled my rendering times are similar to yours.
If I enable Display RAW images with priority on speed then my rendering times for exposure compensation, contrast, and saturation are so fast, I can hardly time them (maybe a couple of 100 ms). Dehaze is about 1 second, clarity is about 2 seconds.
Concerning the image not resolving, is that on 50% zoom level? If yes, that’s an issue that’s been around since the dark ages which I have only seen at 50%. Set the zoom level to something else (e.g. 49) and that should not happen any more.
Oh you got me all excited there… but I already have that enabled. Tomorrow I might try a raw photo from my TG6, just in case it’s camera dependent. And google ‘How to speed up OM Workspace’ and similar…
I’m not sure what the previous zoom factors were. It seemed to happen too often for it to be 50% each time, but I’ll monitor it in the future.
What a pity. That would have been an easy explanation.
I have Workspace 2.1.1. Your laptop specs are roughly the same as mine, only that most of my laptops have more ram than yours (32GB, 48GB and 64GB). Except for the more cpu intensive settings like clarity and dehaze my rendering times are a couple of 100 ms.
I don’t normally believe in recommending this: How about deinstalling, rebooting and reinstalling Workspace.
Other than that I am out of suggestions.
I might just do that if random searches don’t throw up any gems (and if they do, I’ll report back here!). Thanks again.
Strongly recommend picking up a desktop computer if you don’t have one. Like a Mac Mini with Apple Silicon or an inexpensive Windows or GNU/Linux equivalent from Beelink.
If you’re on the road, of course you’ll make do with your laptop. But when at home… use a desktop as your primary computer. You’ll be so, so happy you did.
Desktop machines, even small ones (versus big towers), are built differently than laptops. They are designed with the assumption of AC power availability, so they usually have speedier processors with more muscle. They may also come with more memory.
Apps like OM Workspace are much happier on a desktop!
In my experience there’s a huge difference between even a pricey tricked out MacBook Pro and a Mac Mini. The MacBook Pro can quickly become strained under even medium sized loads… I can hear the fans going and the device gets hot. The Mini doesn’t do this. It stays quiet and doesn’t turn into a slowpoke after extended use.
I expect using a desktop would help, but unfortunately it wouldn’t work for me - because of muscle issues I actually work (and edit, read the news, use social media) with my laptop on my lap. And my post-processing is so minimal that to be honest, I could just stick with minimal tweaks to jpegs. I would at least like the opportunity to develop these skills.
I’m going to try Faststone today (have rejected Affinity and Rawtherapee as I don’t want the added faff of converting to dng) and if I don’t get on with that, I’ll fork out for Photoshop Elements which I have on trial at the moment.
This should work without conversion: You can add Affinity (and a lot of other apps) as “registered application” to Workspace and launch it from the Workspace Photos → launch registered Application menu.
Ooh, interesting, thank you. Though I often wish there were fewer options, all with steep (to me, at least) learning curves!
See Affinity Photo 2 in OM Systems Workspace as Registered Application for adding a “Windows App” (versus a “legacy” Win32 .exe application) as registered application.
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Would that work with Affinity V1? I don’t have V2, and presumably I’d have to buy it to use it as a registered application.
I don’t have Affinity v2. But I seem to remember discussions saying that v2 did not work in the way v1 did and that it caused problems for people who had linked v1 to other software. So linking to your v1 may just work without the additional bits needed for v2.
Actually, so far I’m really liking the look of Faststone. The learning curve was a lot less steep than I expected it to be 
I have just tried registering Affinity v1 in Workspace and then launching a photo from it. I had no idea how to do it but it worked first time.
In Workspace go to tools - options - registered application.
Select “Use” and if Affinity is not in the first box (for me it was not) select others. Clicking on the file icon to the right takes you to programme files. Locate the Affinity folder open it, select “Photo” and scroll down until you see the main Affinity icon (Photo.exe)
Click on this then click on OK.
To operate the link you select a photo in Workspace then in the photos tab is an option to launch registered applicaton, clicking on this opens the file in Affinity v1.
I tested this on a jpeg as I didn’t have any raw files!
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Faststone does a lot.
I make use of a small proportion of it. Just for sorting, comparing and selecting and then, as I said, using the edit in external programme option.
It probably does all the editing I need… for now, anyway. I usually shoot bugs and by the time I’ve selected the keepers, identified the bugs, tweaked the photos, uploaded to Flickr, moved them to the appropriate folder and shared them in various places online… it’s past my bedtime 
I am glad you have found something that does what you want.
Looking forward to seeing some of your bugs.
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Same here. I try to get it right in camera so I do not have to spend time in front of the computer. However when birding I often need to crop in Workspace because the Oly 150-300 + 2x teleconverter looks daft on my Pen-F.
The advantage of Workspace is that when editing a raw file except for iso, aperture, exposure, and the scene modes every setting matches the settings in the camera and can be adjusted. This has helped me understand the features of my camera from the comfort of my laptop instead of having to fiddle around in the field keeping my subjects waiting.
I really want to use WS. I believe it has a slight advantage in processing ORFs particularly HR ORFs. However, that’s all it’s got. All the rest, culling, editing, data management coupled with onerous hardware requirement, is woeful. I so wish OMDS produces a plugin for Lightroom.
With my E-M5.3, i often use in- camera stacking for floral images. I find that the editing tools in Faststone are all i need for editing these jpg images.
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