- Adobe's Fuji X-Trans support is poor until ACR 9.1 (LR 6.1/CC2015), which was released a couple of weeks ago. It's now much improved, but possibly still not on a par with the very best. Based on reading web reviews (i.e. with a large pinch of salt), Iridient Developer seems to come out top for RAW processing, but it's Mac only. I've evaluated Photo Ninja (both Mac and PC) which certainly does a good job, but is clunky as hell to use and I wouldn't really recommend it. Lightroom is plenty good enough, and the workflow is head and shoulders above anything else out there (with the possible exception of Capture One, which Miles may be able to comment on).
- As well as much better de-mosaic support for X-Trans sensors, the new Adobe "film simulation" colour profiles are now pretty well spot on - at least for "Standard/Provia", which is the one I tend to use. Far better than "Adobe Standard", and also better than the custom profile I made with my Colour Checker. In fact, using the Provia profile I've been enormously impressed as to how close the Fuji colours are to reality "out of the box".
- Not all sensors are alike when it comes to sharpening, and the Fuji X-Trans is a case in point. It will cope with much higher radii and detail extraction than the Canon sensors, and several people have published their presets based on extensive experimentation. The one which impressed me most came from Thomas Fitzgerald's Photography Blog, although - with the improved de-mosaic algorithm - they're possibly a little too strong now. I'm sure that Thomas will publish updated presets at some point, though. The URL is:
- http://blog.thomasfitzgeraldphotography.com/blog/2014/02/updated-x-trans-sharpening-presets-lightroom
- There are several good Fuji-based blogs, and Thomas Fitzgerald has lots of other interesting articles and reviews which are worth reading. Another person with an excellent Fuji blog is John Caz - especially a superb blow-by-blow guide to the camera's menu system, and how to set the device up for best results. The URL is:
- http://www.johncaz.net/blog/december-19th-2014
- Version 4 of the Fuji X-T1 firmware is due for release tomorrow, and it promises much improved focusing (and lots else besides).
- Finally, a personal observation which has been backed up by several other people. Despite lens firmware updates, there are still times when using Fuji's optical image stabilisation (OIS) causes unsharp pictures - especially when shooting at higher shutter speeds. The perceived wisdom appears to be changing the OIS mode from 1 (all the time) to 2 (shooting only), but I've found that - while this helps with fast shutter speeds - it makes things worse at show shutter speeds. Much better to leave the OIS mode on 1, but only to enable OIS when it's actually needed. This is different to Canon (and, probably Nikon too), and I'd be really interested to hear whether playing with the OIS setting helps with the sharpness of your 18-135.
Details enlarged from three photos taken with Fuji
Another set of useful Fuji tips relating to manual focus and critical focus checking.
ReplyDelete(1) Set the camera to "RAW+JPEG" even if you intend to throw the JPEGs away later. If you shoot RAW only, the maximum magnification is about 1/3 size (i.e. it's limited by the preview JPEG which is embedded in the RAW file). Shooting RAW+JPEG allows captured pictures to be viewed at 100% magnification.
(2) The "Focus Assist" button zooms the viewfinder/screen to 100% to help with checking critical focus at the taking stage. There's a really useful option (Spanner 1, Screen Set-Up, Focus Check) which enables this behaviour automatically when switching from auto to manual focus.
(3) In playback mode, the "Focus Assist" button zooms the picture to 100% for critical focus checking, with the displayed image being centred at the focus point.