The Fuji X Files

I had a chance over the weekend to download the trial version of Lightroom 4.3 from Adobe's website. I'm looking at RAW Conversion software for the tricky X10 RAW files (Fuji call them RAF files), and had hit a brick wall with all of the options I personally owned (see last post). Except for a very brief stint several years ago, I've never been a Lightroom user - choosing Aperture instead. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and maybe Apple wasn't the way to go, but they were the first to come out with a 'Pro' RAW conversion application, and I was an early adopter. So I've stayed with them all the way through. But now it seems that they have lagged too far behind, offering no RAW support for the X10 (and an apparently inferior RAW processing engine, depending on who you listen to)? So I downloaded Lightoom, to see if it offers better support for the X10. Lightroom and Fuji RAF files - a beautiful thing. The above image speaks volumes! Finally, RAW suc...

One of the things 'real' photographers (as opposed to fake plastic ones?) look for in a compact camera is the ability to shoot in RAW. All top-end compact cameras now have this ability, and the Fuji X10 is no exception. However, as anyone who has owned a few different cameras from a few different systems will tell you - RAW is not created equal. In fact, no two RAW codes are the same. So, the RAW image from a Nikon D90 is different from the RAW image in a Nikon D80, which is different from the RAW code in a Nikon D200, which is different from.... you get the idea. This is why software like Lightroom and Aperture get frequent updates - to include all the new RAW coding for all the new cameras. This often means a 'lag' period before the new RAW code is reverse engineered and sent out to everyone, so early adopters of new cameras beware - you may not be able to process that RAW file in your preferred software for a few weeks (months) while the software engineers figure i...