Is Lightroom good for RAF FILES NOW?

[Hemanth]

I have a Lightroom subscription and have been ysing it for a while now, however the RAF didn’t seem very good, certainly no where as good as jpegs..then i tried to use enhance details and found almost no difference and in some cases a much smoother image as if it got compressed...i shifted to capture one pro 12 and that thing doesn’t even recognize any photos on my laptop when i try to import...can someone please help me, I’m feeling hopeless 🤕

[vladspace]

Hi, 

Try using Capture One Session instead of Catalogue, and browse for your folder with photos on your laptop, you dont need to import files. Then try if it works. There is lots of tutorials on Capture One Youtube Channel. I switched from Lightroom about 6 m ago, since the default raw rendering is much better in CO especially Sharpness of RAF. Please give it a second chance, you will not regret. I dont know if LR rendering of RAF has improved meanwhile, i doubt.

Cheers,

V

[Nicholas Jefferson]

Thank you @vladspace

[YOUTA]

On 10/15/2019 at 6:20 PM, Hemanth said:

I have a Lightroom subscription and have been ysing it for a while now, however the RAF didn’t seem very good, certainly no where as good as jpegs..then i tried to use enhance details and found almost no difference and in some cases a much smoother image as if it got compressed...i shifted to capture one pro 12 and that thing doesn’t even recognize any photos on my laptop when i try to import...can someone please help me, I’m feeling hopeless 🤕

you can actually convert raf files using silkypix converter to TIFF then you can use it normally on lightroom . if you want to know the latest compatibility of raf with newest version of lightroom ,let me know , i'll check it and will let you know soon !

[Lumens]

I use Lightroom (Subscription) all the time without any issue.  I find RAF or Xtrans Sensor files are initially sharper then Bayer sensor files from other cameras causing the issues generally identified as "worms".  Lightroom adds sharpening (40) to all imported files, so higher ISO RAF files may tend to show very high noise.  I created a preset to import with, that reduces sharpening to "0" and adds Luminance (50) (same as Capture One does).  With this preset working with RAF files in Lightroom works every bit as well as Capture One with equal quality results.

With these changes, it then comes down to personal preference.  Both are outstanding software and do an excellent job.  For me I prefer the sliders of Lightroom over the Levels and Tone Curves of Capture One, so I stay with Lightroom.  I own both (subscription) and like to play with each at different times, but as for final results I find both the be pretty close to equal, although at HUGH magnification a pixel peeper may disagree - depending on which software he prefers.

As far as import issues with Capture One I can only think you have an older version.  Capture One works closely with Fuji and should accept any Fuji RAF file you have unless it has not been updated properly.  This is the difference between purchase and subscription.  A lot of people don't like subscription, but then cuss when they can't open files from a newer camera without re-purchasing a newer version.  The newest version of Capture One should handle your RAF files.  Pro 12 should handle most except from any of the newest cameras (XS-10, XT-4, ? are questionable) - you'd need to check on their website for compatibility. 

[sofiabelle]

On 12/30/2020 at 5:42 PM, Lumens said:

I use Lightroom (Subscription) all the time without any issue.  I find RAF or Xtrans Sensor files are initially sharper then Bayer sensor files from other cameras causing the issues generally identified as "worms".  Lightroom adds sharpening (40) to all imported files, so higher ISO RAF files may tend to show very high noise.  I created a preset to import with, that reduces sharpening to "0" and adds Luminance (50) (same as Capture One does).  With this preset working with RAF files in Lightroom works every bit as well as Capture One with equal quality results.

With these changes, it then comes down to personal preference.  Both are outstanding software and do an excellent job.  For me I prefer the sliders of Lightroom over the Levels and Tone Curves of Capture One, so I stay with Lightroom.  I own both (subscription) and like to play with each at different times, but as for final results I find both the be pretty close to equal, although at HUGH magnification a pixel peeper may disagree - depending on which software he prefers.

As far as import issues with Capture One I can only think you have an older version.  Capture One works closely with Fuji and should accept any Fuji RAF file you have unless it has not been updated properly.  This is the difference between purchase and subscription.  A lot of people don't like subscription, but then cuss when they can't open files from a newer camera without re-purchasing a newer version.  The newest version of Capture One should handle your RAF files.  Pro 12 should handle most except from any of the newest cameras (XS-10, XT-4, ? are questionable) - you'd need to check on their website for compatibility. 

Thanks for your precious suggestion. This is a very informative post.

[syborg]

On 12/30/2020 at 1:12 PM, Lumens said:

I created a preset to import with, that reduces sharpening to "0"

 

You mean 'Detail' amount, I hope.

[Lumens]

On 1/4/2021 at 6:46 AM, syborg said:

You mean 'Detail' amount, I hope.

I mean all sharpening.  The X-Trans sensor files are already much sharper than the standard bayer sensor file.  Some can be added after the fact but usually is not necessary.

[georgopal]

Lightroom for me is the best software to edit my raw pics

[syborg]

On 1/20/2021 at 12:21 PM, Lumens said:

I mean all sharpening.  The X-Trans sensor files are already much sharper than the standard bayer sensor file.  Some can be added after the fact but usually is not necessary.

I mean the only thing you should set to avoid this 'worms' effect in LR for X-Trans sensor is just 'Detail = 0' , other Sharpening controls may still be useful.

 

[YOUTA]

after seeing lot of discussions going on between the lightroom and fujifilm x-trans file compatibility , i asked opinions from people who use lightroom and other software's along with fujifilm , also checked out some articles etc.. so the simple answer is , if you are a pixel peeper ,who zoom into the max to check the quality difference , go for capture one without a doubt . but if you're not a pixel peeper , then lightroom is good enough for you after doing the workaround's like setting the details to 0 and using enhance detail option etc... . i hope this helps !. have a nice day ahead !