Fuji’s new raw process uses your camera’s hardware to speed up desktop workflow
Sep 8, 2017
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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This is an interesting developing. Fuji have announced that a new raw processing application is coming in November; Fujifilm X RAW Studio. Unlike all current raw systems, X RAW Studio actually seems to use your camera’s hardware to speed up the workflow. Much in the same way that games, 3D and even video editing applications can utilise your GPU.
Essentially, you plug your camera into a Mac or PC via USB, and then the software sends tasks out to the camera to perform. Fuji believe that the X Processor Pro inside the camera is far more efficient than a computer’s CPU. Especially when it comes to the large raw files we see today.
“FUJIFILM X RAW STUDIO” enables users to quickly and easily convert RAW files with outstanding image quality, once a camera is connected to a Mac or PC via USB cable.
Exceptional image quality is retained, as the X RAW STUDIO system utilizes the X Processor Pro in the camera instead of the CPU in the computer,
Due to the increasing size of RAW files, users have found batch conversion to be an issue, as it takes more and more time as a result. However, using the high performance “X Processor Pro” processor, this batch conversion is handled far more efficiently as a result.
The software’s due to be available from late November for the Mac, and from January 2018 for Windows. And it’s a very cool concept. Given the speed with which cameras can convert raw files, it makes a lot of sense to offload those duties from the desktop CPU. It would also make editing in the field much easier for those using low powered laptops and Windows tablets.
- Convert RAW Images on the computer (Single / Batch Process)
- Preview converting files
- Save, load or copy conversion profiles.
There are a couple of caveats. First is that you can only process raw files taken with the model of camera currently connected to the computer. So, if you shoot an X-T2 and an X-Pro2, you’ll have to hook up each camera individually to get the benefits for both. The range of cameras with compatible firmware is also currently quite limited.
But, if this proves to be popular and worthwhile, I would imagine it will start to become standard in all future models. You can find out more on the Fuji website.
A very cool concept, and something I hope to see more manufacturers and application developers adopting in the future.
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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10 responses to “Fuji’s new raw process uses your camera’s hardware to speed up desktop workflow”
Dette var noe nytt Kenneth Gjesdal
Mariano Dario ???
Only works with certain Fuji Cams.
Brillant!
Sony, if you read this,..
Sounds cool ?
Interesting concept idea, but I wanna see it working and proven by independent testing.
Not sure what caveats Fuji is putting on these claims, but here’s the thing:
As far as I can see it, the major bottleneck in a setup like this is USB connectivity, which is extremely slow in comparison to internal bus.
Unless you are using an underpowered laptop, I can’t imagine throwing data back and forth with a USB connection being any faster than processing it internally by a CPU or GPU.
I’d give it more credit if the camera was connected via Thunderbolt 3, which enables even external GPUs, but for regular USB… well, wait and see.
Mac problems!
Interessant concept
I don’t like it…
The necessity to connect the camera to process your photos is a step back…
Any editing process (RAW conversion) etc. that requires connecting my camera to the computer is NOT a step forward IMO. I’ll stick with fast card reader and fast workstation. Plus many of us working photographers have various pre-sets that we apply during import into Lightroom, etc. Maybe I’ll change my mind after we learn more.