Fuji RAF conversion software

[daveleo]

Along comes the village idiot with a question . . .

Why wouldn't / shouldn't Fuji release the in-camera RAF-JPG conversion routine (the program) to be used on a computer.
I am thinking of a cross-platform program, with the nice little options of the in-camera conversion.

Why wouldn't that be a great idea?

 

[willie_901]

Fujifilm provides a basic version of Silkypix with their cameras. I understand there are OS X and Windows versions.

I never used Silkypix because, with few exceptions, people report it is has an extremely inconvenient and frustrating user interface. SIlkypix's small number or proponents insist that once you adapt to using it the way it was designed to be used, Sikypix quickly generates nice results. Until recently it was the only way to render JPEGs with FUjifilm's proprietary film simulation modes. Now Fujifilm has shared their film simulations with Adobe.

I don't know if it has mode where there are the exact same options one sees on the in-camera raw rendering menus. But I'd be surprised if it didm;t have something very close or even exactly the same.

 

[daveleo]

Yeh, the time has come for me to get serious about my handling of RAF conversion and processing. The Fuji in-camera conversion is great, I love it, but that workflow is stumbling (sometimes shuffling RAF files back and forth from camera-computer-camera).
All my older RAF files are on my computer and that's where the software should reside.

 

[f16sunshine]

Hi Dave

LR and Aperture both do ok. The greens and blues are still the most troubled areas in my workflow but.... I'm learning too.

I wish as many do I imagine that Fuji would create a stand alone or plugin SW to convert RAF to DNG. This would solve a lot.
Sharing the algorythym with Adobe, Apple, and others does not guarantee these companies can imliment a full scale solution to the xtrans peculiarities.
A DNG file that has been color and exposure tuned as desired from an RAF could then continue to be proceessed, stored, converted for final output etc.. by a LR Aperture and all quite easily.
Silkypix is a joke. I've tried it repeatedly now. I have no plan to become an expert at that program !
Fuji should just create this plug in and get it out to us. It would bring up their stock and aquire more customers. I just don't see a loose scenario.

 

[GaryLH]

Part of adobe camera raw stuff is the raw to dng converter that for the life of me right now I cannot remember the name. Just google adobe samsara raw. It will output rag files as a dng. By cross platform I am assuming Linux based as well as mac and windows. If u have photo sw on Linux that can read dng then it can be used on all three platforms.

LR will work in both mac and windows. I don't remember if it has a Linux counterpart.

There are some third party sw which were designed to work in all three environments, but I don't remember which ones they are since I gave not used Linux in 8-10 years.

Gary

 

[nongfuspring]

The in camera raw conversion has very few parameters for adjustment, Silkypix is much more flexible.

I guess you could call me one of the Silkypix proponents. It's not a particularly intuitive program, but it's not terrible and the results are good. Being a RAW converter even with the clunky interface it's not especially complicated to get a hang of anyway since there's not all that much to figure out in the first place. It's free too, if you lost the disk you can also download it from the fuji website.

 

[daveleo]

Hi Dave
...................
Fuji should just create this plug in and get it out to us. It would bring up their stock and aquire more customers. I just don't see a loose scenario.

Nor do I.
I initially thought that Fuji would not want to give away their conversion software secrets (to Nikon, Canon, etc) by releasing their code as a small standalone computer program. By why would those competitors want to know how to convert X-trans files ?? The Fuji plug-in idea is excellent. What's to lose ???

PS. I have been on Unix/Linux forever but my head hurts from running into this wall again and again. I am springing for a Windows PC (there, I said it) and get some new software. The hour has come!

 

[GaryLH]

PS. I have been on Unix/Linux forever but my head hurts from running into this wall again and again. I am springing for a Windows PC (there, I said it) and get some new software. The hour has come!

Just as a FYI. The Mac OS 10 is based on a variation of unix. The original development team released the base kernel back to unix community ages ago. Once u get into a cmd shell, u are able to run unix shell cmds, scripts, etc.

In the past, apple released all the development tools (desktop, c and c++ compilers! etc) on the DVD w/ os on it (part of the stuff u got from a new computer). These days, u need to go thru their site to acquire it.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_(operating_system)

Gary

 

[willie_901]

In LR anyway, plug-ins only operate on rendered images. I have no idea id other raw rendering platforms support rendering via plug-ins.

I guess if it is possible to convert Silkypix .RAF files to flat TIFFs, then these could be imported into just about any package.

 

[hexiplex]

I'd love for Fuji to release a simple program that allowed me to use the limited (but in my opinion adequate) paramaters offered in-camera on my computer instead. I find the simplicity makes it more of a joy to shoot in RAW than when I have to resort to Lightroom. Sure, Lightroom is a powerful application but to me that wealth of functions are redundant.

 

[daveleo]

@hexiplex

I am kind of with you on this. It would be a very nice convenience if Fuji did this. Okay, it wouldn't stand up against the big guns, but what's to lose? Small and fast software for minor tweaks of RAF files that you already transfered off the SD card over to the computer.

 

[jbielikowski]

Well, before I switched to PS CC my workflow was RAF->Raw File Converter EX powered by Silkypix->TIFF->DxO FilmPack 3->TIFF-> PSE 8, and it was not as inconvenient as it sounds.