Digital Light & Color

I am not so sure even when 'dcraw' supports the X20 that 3rd party software will have sufficient desire to invest in development alogrithims for this non-traditional sensor array as even 'dcraw' seems to have difficulty when traditional wavelet noise reduction [-n 100] and 3x3 median bluring [-m 2] are applied...

Illustrations...

A DPReview X Pro-1 test image RAF file converted with dcraw v9.17 with minimal options: -v [messages]; -w [camera white balance]; -6 -T [output a 16 bit tiff]... Image area zoomed 1:1: left, base conversion and right, base conversion with added luma/chroma noise reduction... Image area zoomed 2:1: left, base conversion and right, base conversion with added luma/chroma noise reduction... Note particularly the visual element edges and the apparent difference in camera white balance color casts...

...den...

I think you're right. The X-Trans sensor might just be too non-traditional to garner any widespread support among 3rd-party vendors. Too bad - I like the X20 for its size and weight; also, its JPG's are pretty good, once you understand how to set the camera's many options.

This leaves me a few alternatives:

- take only JPG's, not Raw files. PWP has no problem handling these.

- use the Silkypix Raw converter (supplied with the X20) to do the conversion and then save the output as a 16-bit TIFF. From then on, use PWP for my editing. The Silkypix conversion has been well-received in the community, although the program's workflow requires more learning time than I'm willing to invest.

- wait longingly for the X-Trans sensor to be widely supported. (I hear Capture One 7 does an excellent job with the sensor, but it's too expensive for me.) I'm not holding my breath, tho.

Fortunately my main camera is a Nikon.

Frank

- take only JPG's, not Raw files. PWP has no problem handling these.

Jonathan, Kiril... perhaps you would consider having PWP support the Extract-ion of the 'embedded' JPEG's of RAF raw files for Fuji cameras with X-Trans sensors... ...and later, providing the raw conversion development...

Illustration...

A 400x400 1:1 zoom factor image area of the 1920x1280 embedded JPEG [DSCF2008.RAF (full size = 4952x3288)] previously illustrated... Obviously, camera settings for a full sized JPEG, [perhaps similar to Canon's EOS-350D "RAW+JPEG" setting], are needed and the resolution is limited to 8-bit color depth containing JPEG compression artifacts... ...the in-camera resulting conversion is really not all that bad if the scene is captured with good exposure...

...den...

FYI...

DCoffin's dcraw v9.18 and v9.19 has "3-Pass X-Trans interpolation" that does a creditable interpolation of the X-Trans sensors... ...comes with a price... ...it took 2 minutes to convert to tiff the Fuji X-Pro 1 DSCF2008.RAF file with options: -v -w -6 -T...Should see more 3rd party software appearing perhaps with multi-threading...

dcraw v9.19 supports the X20...

...den...
Vista 32 Home Premium, SP2, latest version/updates
AMD Athlon 64 x2 6000+ processor
3 GB DDR2 dual channel RAM
2 MB ReadyBoost Cache
500GB hard drive with 100GB free space

Den,

Is a Windows compiled new dcraw from Helicon, or is there some other version that should be tried? Do you have a link?

Also, is the new dcraw raw interpolation method described somewhere? Do you know what it actually does?

Cheers!

Helicon's Windows dcraw compilation remains v9.16 as of this date.

A Win7/Vista 32 or 64 bit compilation for dcraw v9.19 that DCoffin released on 06-16-2013 may be downloaded from:
http://www.centrostudiprogressofotografico.it/en/dcraw/

Did not investigate "3-pass". By default dcraw uses "3-pass X-Trans interpolation" for the X-Trans sensors and seems to ignore any other interpolation method option [-q <num>] if specified. Using dcraw's wavelet noise reduction and 3x3 median blur during conversion still produces un-satisfactory results... ...probably best to do chromatic aberration, luma/chroma noise reductions with post-conversion edits of the dcraw RAW converted to tiff file...

...den...

...Update for a Windows dcraw.exe, version 9.19...

Sebastian Nibisz has made available today a dcraw9.19 windows update for SNS-HDR linked here:
http://www.sns-hdr.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 2974#p2974

This compile will execute in 30 seconds vs. 2 minutes for the previously linked dcraw9.19 files... ...and can be used to update the dcraw.exe file in the SNS-HDR program folder(s) if you have the SNS-HDR program...

The following illustration compares the dcraw conversions of an 1:1 image area of the X-Pro 1 RAF file... ...den...

Adobe tackled raw files from Fujifilm's X-Trans sensors and did not do well at first. Some people say that finally Lightroom is more or less okay now.

You can get reasonably large (4 to 7 MB) JPGs from the APS-C-sized X-Trans cameras like the XE-1, plus a raw file. There are many easy ways to save the JPG, then open it in PWP.

The Fujifilm Raw File Converter is a restricted variant of Silkypix. The workflow does not need to be complicated. Once you know where the control window is, you work down its short list of adjustments: exposure, white balance, contrast, optional film color simulation and other color modes, sharpness and noise reduction. Ignore most of the secondary sliders under each of the items on this list. Ignore the toolbar across the top of the window.

Watching the histogram, I generally adjust exposure, white balance, and contrast to avoid clipping. This usually means a low level of contrast. Then I do the real work on an exported 16-bit TIFF.

Currently, I experiment with one of den's techniques for saturation (raise HSV-S curve near the high end, holding it fixed or at lesser increase near the low end) by using a diagonal or inverse diagonal brightness mask. I also run the TIFF file through Raw Therapee for its LAB curves; a couple of simple curves can do amazing things to pop colors without extreme saturation.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41790885@N08/9031103094/

Charles -

I'm about where you are. I use the Silkypix-derived software to correct white balance and possibly exposure, and then save the results as 16-bit TIF files which I process in PWP.

Frank

If of interest and you would like to 'pixel peek' the difference between a DCRAW9.17 "Bilinear/VNG interpolation" and a DCRAW9.19 "3-pass X-Trans interpolation" with Mouse On/Off comparisons for a Fuji X-Pro1 dcraw converted camera raw file...

... you are welcomed to visit: http://www.ncplus.net/~birchbay/tutoria ... /index.htm ...

...den...