EyeMindSoul: FujiFilm HS-10 - Raw Converters Compared (RFC and ACR)

Monday, 20 December 2010

FujiFilm HS-10 - Raw Converters Compared (RFC and ACR) - Part One

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Note : Update December 22, there is now a second part to this which steps through the processes. Click here

A little while back I noticed that converting an HS-10 Raw file in the supplied SilkyPix Raw File Converter (RFC) was clearer than one converted in Adobe Camera Raw ACR.

This puzzled me and I determined I would look into it further at a later date. Today was the day.

Well, I spent the better part of this morning converting files in both. It does not matter how much I push, pull, tweak ACR, I get consistently better results in RFC.

One of the attractions to upgrade to the latest version of Photoshop/ACR was that it provided support for the HS-10 Raw files, and recently added a Lens Correction Module for the HS-10.

A quick summary here :

Colour, tonal gradations, clarity are all better in RFC
RFC automatically corrects 'most' lens aberrations
Using the Lens Correction Module for the HS-10, in ACR, increases overall image softness

I'll let the images speak for themselves. Apart from initial conversion, they have all been sharpened in the same manner. The ACR Lens Correction Module was not used as this simply added to overall 'softness'.

No Luminance (grain) noise reduction has been applied, but some (same amount for either) Chroma (colour) noise reduction has been applied.

Note : Clicking on any image will take you to a larger size. Each image is being shown as if it were a 16 x 21" (A2) print, so only a part of the image is being shown

1. ACR left, RFC right