Fuji S5 Pro post-processing comparisons (love Cameras, hate Computers (software))

Bit post-mortem reply, but better late..

Basically none of free to use/alternatives based on DCraw can read both pixels of sensor, meaning you wont get those up to 4 eV extra dynamic range and that sometimes rather color bit fat file. S5 Pro has double readout which can create 14-bit files, except they can on upper end have full 14-bits for pretty much everything exposed, something thats not possible outside of exposure (HDR) stacking

Only stuff that supports both pixels is original Hyper-Utility, which is absolute pain to use and has couple of issues, like useless noise mitigation and no hot pixel removal.

Then you have SilkyPix, which again is far from comfortable to use (UI from dawn of computers). And output is frankly meh, also last time I checked it had really poor noise removal.

Obscure s7 RAW which is really extreme thing, but can not only read both pixels (sensors) it can actually output them both and you can combine them in PhotoShop, if you want. Allows pretty much maxing dynamic range, but its very hard to use, cant imagine that being used for normal pics.

Most main contenders left S5 Pro in the dust, except..

Yea, evil Adobe. Which works best, does everything and latest ACR with quite improved color handling actually does rather good job. It really could use some custom color profile, but I never got around to actually do it. Instead I just learned how to fix whats there.

As for colors, ACR is good to make raw RAW (well, TIFF) and then everything else can be done in RT, which is complicated but can do quite amazing stuff.

Some pumpkin, S5 Pro, one shot. ACR then RT. No exif, but got original ofc.

Problem with everything apart ACR (and Hyper) is that it might fail in highlight area, cause highlight part of sensor has some color balance issues and it requires extensive color reconstruction which only ACR handles well. Rest usually gets magenta/red highlights if pushed far.

IMHO, S5 Pro was impressive thing. Tech in sensor was groundbreaking, but Fuji was as usually bit ahead of time and sadly ahead of software solutions. Its bit like Xtrans story. Great tech, that could work, just needed more time and patience..