I'm learning a bit more about the mysterious ways of FujiFilm as I use the XT-3 out in the field and try to make it work the way my Panasonic cameras work. They don't. It's different.
I recently held my breath a little bit when I couldn't open the new camera's raw files in the Adobe products I use. A quick search informed me that Adobe just recently launched an update and now everything works more as less the way all modern cameras to with the software. Like a spoiled consumer I just assumed all the other vendors would follow along.
So, today I loaded a bunch of raw files from this morning to my snazzy new laptop and clicked on one of the raw file's I'd just backed up. I was wondering why my computer wasn't generating icons from the files; why they did show up in Preview. Well, it's because they haven't updated their applications yet. I'm sure they will but a quick read on the web indicates that Apple has a history of not extending their updates to include Fuji's compressed raw files. And I like to shoot compressed raw because we can all talk about endless storage and super fast computers but at a certain point (uploading?) smaller files can make life easier. And I don't want to bend my workflow in accommodation.
Well, FujiFilm has an application for both Apple and Windows that converts from raw to your choice of Jpeg or Tiff. It's also an actual converter in that it gives you the ability to change settings like your color profile, size, compression etc. during the raw conversion. Here's the interesting thing: The app is resident on your computer. The folder of images to convert is on your computer system but to use the app you have to plug in the camera, load the card, and use the camera to do the actual computational conversion. The app uses the camera's processor (and ostensible the image processing software in the camera) to make the conversions. It's pretty fast. I just processed a folder with 325 compressed raw images to Normal Jpegs and it took about 7 minutes.
It also maintains the Fuji conversion mindset and might be a workaround for the Fuji users who are raw converter sensitive. I just checked and it doesn't appear as though the processor does anything to the files on the card. All the Jpegs were written to a desktop folder.
Just though you might want to know......
11 comments:
The great thing about the studio software is allowed me to dial-in my in-camera settings on a big screen. Which made the process exceptionally fast.
In the past I'd have to either shoot a series of photos with different settings and then view the series on my large monitor and then go back to the camera and futz about or shoot, view, repeat until I got it right. Shooting one raw and going through every permeation of settings quickly has had a profound effect on my willingness to shoot and use jpegs. Honestly I'd find it really hard to go through old kludgey process now that I've done it the Fuji way.
Capture One and you'll never look back. Trust me. Especially with Fuji files.
Unless you're averse to Capture One for some reason, go to phaseone.com and download Fujifilm Express. It's free and it's very capable.
Per the other comments, give Capture One a try. It does amazing things with the raw files from my Sony full frame body and I’d expect no less from their partnership with Fujifilm.
Another option is Iridient Developer (Mac) (Windows version also available) Free trial available. It is one of the best but it adds an additional step. First convert, it supports all the Fuji film simulations but ultimately you will likely need to bring it into your editing program of choice.
I'd heard about Fuji X Raw, Kirk, but I'm more inclined to process files untethered to the camera. I've been experimenting with my XT-3 and was initially somewhat frustrated with getting my RAW images to look as I remember seeing them with the naked eye. I much prefer shooting RAW to extract all the detail I can from a file. I've slowly become more acclimated with RawTherapee and gaining successes with my images. I then tried Capture One Express and, as other have already stated, it's such a smooth and intuitive software system. More importantly to me is the images have so much more detail, richer colors and greater dynamic range. These guys seemed to have unraveled the mysteries of the Fuji X-Trans. I can honestly say it's made me appreciate the XT-3 so much more, and I'm realizing the Fuji system does offer some incredible image quality. I'm even starting to think this will be my preferred portrait system going forward. The skin tones are incredible. I'm not a Fuji or Capture One fanboy, just sharing the information of first-hand experience. Appreciate your blog.
~ Ron
What annoys me is that Adobe and Fuji don't work together to perfect the processing of Fuji raw files in the Adobe products. There is no way I'm going to muck around with other software when I have a paid subscription for Lightroom and Photoshop. I'm not unhappy with my results from my X-E3 with LR and PS, but it seems clear it could be better if Adobe and Fuji collaborated to make it so. Fuji has some form of partnership with the Capture One people, why exclude the biggest slice of the market?
I've tried the Fuji Raw Therapee, and the Fuji X Studio, I don't want to learn these new interfaces, I have expertise with LR and PS.
And, why the hell can't camera makers work with Adobe and other companies to get raw converters working at the time of camera release? Why do buyers of new cameras have to wait so long for an updated version of Camera RAW and other software to start processing their files from new cameras. The whole thing seems very anti-consumer.
Hi
Fully agree to your point of closer collaboration between camera makers and Adobe.
That a side: One could use the free Adobe DNG Converter for bulk conversion (no need to connect the camera to the computer)
Regards
I can understand anyone wanting to stick with Lightroom (or any other software with which one has long familiarity, even if it doesn't necessarily do the best job with the files from any given camera. As Mike Johnston quoted a reader named Lee on The Online Photographer a few days ago, "I've always said that the really intuitive interface is the one you've been using for five years."
I got my first digital camera in 2003, when I was older than you are now, Kirk, and began teaching myself Photoshop. Later that year I began using Capture One and have stuck with it ever since. I wish that could have been the end of it, but of course it wasn't. There were updates, new camera operating systems, and various peripheral software programs to be mastered. It seems like all I have done the last 15 years is learn software, and I am tired to death of it.
For 35 years, I shot film. Mostly transparency film. Most exposures were calculated with an incident meter and followed up with a three-shot bracket. I loved the look of slide film, and loved the fact that I could throw away the outs and file the keepers in slide pages. Life was more simple than I knew.
So far, I've used Fuji's SilkyPix and Capture One's Fuji Express. I'm doing okay with them, but it's really tempting to go back to my three-shot bracket, maybe even with the incident meter, and a jpeg workflow. My friend Bill Fortney does that, and his results are astonishingly beautiful.
In my film days I was a very precise photographer, but shooting digitally has made it too easy for me to allow myself to become a sloppy photographer. Maybe it's time to get back to basics.
As a follow-up to my previous comment, there's the argument that if I don't shoot with precision, I can always "fix it in post." That's true to some extent, but "fixing it in post" requires those hours of sitting in front of a computer that I'm no longer willing to spend.
@Dave Jenkins - Nothing wrong with going back to basics every so often. The modern raw file makes me quite lazy about exposure, so I have JPEG only days. Besides, the JPEGs from Fuji cameras are supposed to be excellent.
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