Fuji S5 RAW support?

[denyerec]

Hi there,

Just trialling the photomechanic software and I seem to have run into some issues with my Fuji S2 and S5 RAW files. Photomechanic seems to refuse point-blank to store IPTC information back into my RAW files. I've confirmed that it's behaving itself by storing data back into JPG's but with my RAWs.... no go. I verified this by applying some IPTC information, then deleting the auto-generated XMP files. The JPEGs when views in photoshop/bridge/fastone all displayed the IPTC information as entered, but the RAWs were untouched.

Am I doing something wrong, or does Photomechanic not support fuji cameras? PM is by far the best in class I have used to date, so I'm going to be incredbly upset if I can't use it with my cameras' output.

Given that I don't want 50,000 XMP files flying around the house cluttering things up and inevitably getting lost, have I got any options?

Yours,
Denyerec the Frustrated

[Kirk Baker]

Denyerec,

Just trialling the photomechanic software and I seem to have run into some issues with my Fuji S2 and S5 RAW files. Photomechanic seems to refuse point-blank to store IPTC information back into my RAW files. I've confirmed that it's behaving itself by storing data back into JPG's but with my RAWs.... no go. I verified this by applying some IPTC information, then deleting the auto-generated XMP files. The JPEGs when views in photoshop/bridge/fastone all displayed the IPTC information as entered, but the RAWs were untouched.

Am I doing something wrong, or does Photomechanic not support fuji cameras? PM is by far the best in class I have used to date, so I'm going to be incredbly upset if I can't use it with my cameras' output.

Given that I don't want 50,000 XMP files flying around the house cluttering things up and inevitably getting lost, have I got any options?

Fuji RAF files cannot have IPTC or XMP data embedded in them by Photo Mechanic.  They are not a TIFF-based RAW format like most other cameras.

You could always convert them to DNG, and then PM will be able to put IPTC and XMP into them.

HTH,

-Kirk

[denyerec]

Thanks for the swift response, even though that sucks an ungodly amount.

Is it a question of PM not supporting the write mechanism for the Fuji files, or is it a case of Fuji files being completely unable to support embedded metadata?

If it is the former, are there any plans to extend support for the FujiS5 format? Without it I can't really deploy PhotoMechanic and I'm sure there's legions of Fuji users out there who are in the same boat.


Converting to DNG is sadly not an option as DNG doesn't, to my knowledge, support the SR pixel data stored by the S5. Nor is there a DNG converter on the market able to rival the output quality of Fuji RawEX. Poor old Fuji's beautiful SuperCCD really is the ugly stepchild of the DSLR world... *sniff*

[Kirk Baker]

Thanks for the swift response, even though that sucks an ungodly amount.

Is it a question of PM not supporting the write mechanism for the Fuji files, or is it a case of Fuji files being completely unable to support embedded metadata?

If it is the former, are there any plans to extend support for the FujiS5 format? Without it I can't really deploy PhotoMechanic and I'm sure there's legions of Fuji users out there who are in the same boat.


Converting to DNG is sadly not an option as DNG doesn't, to my knowledge, support the SR pixel data stored by the S5. Nor is there a DNG converter on the market able to rival the output quality of Fuji RawEX. Poor old Fuji's beautiful SuperCCD really is the ugly stepchild of the DSLR world... *sniff*

If Fuji would document their RAW file format then it would likely be possible to embed metadata into their files.  But as far as I know, there is no documentation of the Fuji RAW file formats.  So until we have that documentation, XMP sidecar files are the only way possible at this time.

-Kirk