Fuji Post your Iridient raw converter findings here

carlb

All-Pro
OK, here's where I hope folks can post their findings on the Iridient raw converter, specifically for the X-Trans sensor raw files.

I don't (and perhaps won't) have a final write-up. But here are my initial thoughts (from file comparisons last night) as to how it compares the the raw conversion in my favorite post processor "Tiffen Dfx." (For me, Tiffen Dfx raw conversion compares about the same as "Silky Pics" raw converter that comes with Fuji cameras.)

1) Iridient recovers "blown skies" better, both default and "tweeked." Smoother sky color transitions (versus harder color "bands") than Tiffen's. More of the cloud details made available. When tweeking, the "clipping recover" (or whatever that's called) works much more effectively on Iridient - does not reduce contrast nearly as much as Tiffen's (or Silky Pic's) slider does.
2) Iridient seems to handle chroma noise better for default, although I'll need to normalize relative color saturation to be sure. Nothing obviously different for over-all color saturation, however.
3) For far-field foliage, Iridient's default seems to have a bit less contrast than does Tiffen's. But the shots I was working on (blown skies) likely influenced how Iridient handled the conversion. On close inspection, Iridient perhaps has more "believable" detail than does the Tiffen converter. I'll need to investigate this further with other image conditions.

That's it for me now. Observations made just upon a pair of conversions on "skewed" images. So, very initial. So far, I much like this converter better than Tiffen's (and hence Silky Pic's) however. It does a better job at "default" from what I'm seeing so far, and at least the "Recovery" slider works better when tweaking.

Again, I hope others will post their findings as well.
 
To follow up on your post, I sold all my m43 system and purchased an X-E1 because of the new version of Iridient Developer.
IMHO this new release of software now makes the Fuji X-Trans cameras and shooting raw a reality.
 
That was a gutsy move, Kuau! m43 has such such a variety of great lenses for it. I sold the E-M5 (just wasn't using it), but I'll likely get the Panny GX7 when it comes out.

Well I just tried Irridient's converter on X20 files. It's conversions are definitely better than Silkypix' (Tiffen doesn't convert X20 files yet).

Better detail, less 'blotchiness' in the foliage. If I had to put a subjective "percent better," I'd say about 20%. Even when sharpened and contrast increased a bit, the Silkypix conversions don't look quite as good to my eye. The Irridient conversions don't need much sharpening (if at all), and hold up well to the little that you might want to apply.
 
Tdp, I'll do the basic conversion with Iridient. It does have adjustments for brightness, contrast, sharpness, smoothing, most if not all of the basic manipulations you'd need. But it does not have masking, something I find very useful for just working on a sky or other region while not affecting everything else. For most post, I personally work in Tiffen Dfx.

Mike, I don't have LR, but from what I've read most consider Irridient conversions better.
 
I just downloaded the demo of 2.1.1 and gave it a spin with a RAW image from yesterday (XE1, XF14mm), and did the same with CaptureOne Pro 7.1.2 and Lightroom 4.4. For a basic test I did simple in and outs (72 dpi and sRGB), then for each s/w option I did edits and a single export. A Flickr set with all 6 results can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/x/t/0090009/gp/tdp_photos/0k98s1/

A few kudos for Iridient: it is very fast on my 2 year old MBP laptop (8GB RAM, SSD HD), inexpensive, small footprint and it is simple to use.
 
Would be very interested in images from Adobe vs Iridient. However, I did read that a better workflow is to export a relatively flat tiff file from Iridient, and do your processing on Lightroom/Photoshop/what-have-you. I think I'll try that sometime - I just need to find the time (!!).
 
Photoshop definitely has the better post-conversion tools. Irident is fine for rudimentary contrast, brightness, color temp, sharpening, smoothing. If I get a bit of time, I'll try Photoshop's conversion to compare.. I'm trying it out for a month.
 
V. 2.2 is out, offering X-M1 support and many fixes and improvements for X-Trans sensor users.

New Features:

Support added for lens vignetting correction from DNG metadata, LCP lens profiles, and some manufacturer's RAW metadata.
Manual lens vignetting adjustments.
A whole bunch of new resampling methods for image resizing on export including various sharper, smoother and auto options for fine tuning the results of image resizing.
New, smoother "Soft Look" demosaic option for Fuji X-Trans models.
Added support for Fujifilm RAW daylight, cloudy and tungsten white balance presets for most recent models.
Added support for automatic RAW lens distortion and vignetting correction metadata for many Fujifilm models.
Added support for automatic RAW lens distortion correction metadata for most Panasonic models.
Added support for automatic RAW lens vignetting correction metadata for most Olympus models (distortion was already supported in earlier versions).
Support for Canon EOS 70D.
Support for Sony DSC-RX100M2 and DSC-RX1R.
Support for Fujifilm X-M1.
Support for Panasonic DMC-GX7, DMC-FZ72 and DMC-FZ70.
Support for Pentax Q7.
Support for EXIF and IPTC/XMP metadata when exporting to PNG format (some metadata requires OS X 10.7 or later).

Improvements:

Improved Saturation slider adjustment processing for more natural color rendering at higher saturation levels.
Improved handling of the "Auto Levels" option for noise reduction.
Modified tone curve and baseline exposure for Fujifilm X-Trans models to better match other software and camera JPEGs.
EXIF 2.3 lens model information should now be displayed in Preview window for many more camera models, including the Fuji X-Trans models.
EXIF date and time should now be formatted with proper localization settings for display in Info Window.
Extended manual lens distortion slider range.
Greatly improved speed of Job Queue window user interface when batch processing huge numbers of images. Now can handle batch proessing many thousands of images with little to no lag in updating the Job Queue window.
Includes latest LittleCMS 2.5 color management library.
Includes latest OpenEXR 2.0.1 libraries.
Includes latest Adobe XMP SDK (XMP-CC 06-2013) metadata libraries.
Various camera default settings and ICC profile updates.
Various memory and performance improvements.

Bug Fixes:

Fixed bug with selected image count text not updating when selecting multiple images.
Fixed bug with "Soft Look" checkbox and the Fuji X-Trans cameras. Now, like with Bayer/Foveon RAW models this option enables an alternate, smoother demosaic (RAW interpolation) method.
Fixed ISO gain adjustment for Fuji X-Trans models at ISO 3200 and 6400.
 
It's a nice discussion but it's all so subjective. Where the heck are the 100% crops, guys, lol?!

Let's see side-by-sides of the different converters!

To paraphrase Steve Martin: Talking about RAW conversion is like dancing about architecture.
 
My problem with Iridient is noise. While I like the color and detail, the noise level is quite a bit higher at default settings than LR even with NR=0. I tried fooling with the NR settings in Iridient, but I couldn't get the noise down to LR-like levels without killing the detail (making it worse than LR 5.3).
 
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