Fujifilm JPEGs

I've been shooting Fujifilm cameras (X-T2 and now the X-H1) for 2 years now but I've always been a RAW shooter. I had heard people talking about the Fuji SOOC (straight out of camera) JPEGs but to be honest I just thought nothing could compete against RAW as I had come from a Nikon DSLR background. How wrong was I? Well, I'll still suggest RAW is the best option for landscapes but for 90% of the other photos I take the JPEGs will be more than good enough.

This all started when I was deciding whether I should stick with Fuji or move back to Nikon (Z6/Z7) and as part of my decision process I decided to play around with in-camera JPEGs. The Fuji X Weekly website really helped as the different film simulation recipes are listed. It was on a recent visit back to Cairndhu House when I decided to try the Tri-X Push-Process Film Simulation. The settings used were as follows:

Acros+R
Dynamic Range: DR200
Highlight: +3
Shadow: +4
Noise Reduction: -4
Sharpening: -1
Grain Effect: Off
ISO: Auto between 3200 & 12800
Exposure Compensation: +1/3 to +2/3

I did make some slight changes (curve adjustment, gradient to lighten some shadows) in Capture One but these images were more or less straight from the camera.

I used the Fujifilm X-H1 camera and the 16mm 1.4 lens. Due to the low light I shot the interior images handheld at an aperture of 1.4. This is when the IBIS on the X-H1 really did matter.

Normally I would have converted a colour image to black and white using a tool like Silver Effex but I have to say the JPEG images from the camera are lovely and even the noise caused by shooting a high ISO is very film like. I think I'm staying with Fujifilm!

I tend to always capture the RAW images too and I don't see that changing particularly as Fujifilm has an application called Fujifilm X Raw Studio. Again I have to admit I have not used this application much ... well, until I started trying out different film simulations. The application connects to your camera and uses the camera's processor to convert images to JPEG. Now you would think that post processing software does the same but I think it can take quite a while to match the look that comes out of the camera and I'm not sure you will achieve that look in all lighting scenarios via a preset.

I decided I would try Kodachrome 64 film simulation using the following settings within Fujifilm X Raw Studio.

Classic Chrome
Dynamic Range: DR200
Highlight: +4
Shadow: -2 Colour: +4
Noise Reduction: -3
Sharpening: +1
Grain Effect: S

I have to say I do like the colour images. I even opened the images up in Alien Skin Exposure to compare them against the Kodachrome 64 preset and the Exposure application comes close ... maybe a tiny bit darker than the images generated by Fujifilm X Raw Studio. I'm not sure a preset in Lightroom or Capture One will achieve the same look but surprisingly Alien Skin Exposure came very close. What I don't know yet is whether the images produced by Fujifilm are more accurate compared to the original Kodachrome 64 film but one thing is sure is that you could easily do this conversion in-camera, save them to your phone and then do a couple of adjustments in Darkroom - that would be a very efficient mobile workflow.

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