Best software for editing Fuji Raws

teenaxta wrote:

I know this question is repeated more than 1000 times but honestly i am confused. The reason I am asking here because every comparison is filled with 100 pages of detailed comparisons and it gets really confusing. I am lightroom user but just got a Fuji X-E3, so what should I go for? Capture one or lightroom with some tool for developing?

Would appreciate a concise and easy to understand answer.

There are probably five options here.  1) Lightroom, 2) Iridient Developer, 3) Iridient X-Transformer (into DNG) into Lightroom, 4) Capture One and 5) Other

Each will have proponents and each will have opponents.  Since no Adobe product darkens my Mac - I won't comment on 1) or 3).

Iridient Developer is a wonderful convertor.  Brian seems to have XTrans processing down to a art and science.  I use C1 normally since it is basically a fully function edition package.  However, for particularly difficult files I can spawn Iridient Developer from within C1 and often do.  I would say ID is the creame de la creame of developers. The down side is it is Mac only.  That doesn't bother me but for those that use a MicroSucks box it would.  There is XTransformer for those that want to use a PC.  I don't know the difference between ID and XT so won't comment on that.

Capture 1 - especially Capture 1 20 is a top notch product for both development and editing.  It produces nice images.  If a file is particularly difficult you can use Iridient from within so you can develop two ways and then pick the best for follow on.  C1 seems to have struck a deal with Fuji and fully supports the film simulations of Fuji plus the large catalog of "styles" both from C1 and third parties.  Maybe the best part you can still own C1 or you can rent it if you want.   Adobe does not offer that option.

On the others, I have looked at Luminar.  I loaded in on my wife's Mac since it is easy to use and she was just getting started.  However, from a computer science point of view Luminar is pretty much not ready for prime time and it was prone to crash and one often had to worry about cleaning out files as it doesn't seem to use memory very well.  Probably issues with memory leaks but now she uses C1.  Luminar has a lot of "presets" which make editing  pretty quick.  C! requires a little more understanding but once you have it C1 becomes easy to use and the results are much better.  For any other "other" - I have not tired them since I am happy with C1 and would rather spend time making images than learning S/W packages.

Each of the options requires some work to understand and develop an efficient work flow.