DxO PureRAW vs Fujifilm X100VI RAW Files

DxO has just released new versions of their software products that include compatibility the Fujifilm X100VI RAW (.raf) files. That includes PureRAW 4.

Since I’ve been shooting quite a bit with the X100VI recently, it’s something I’ve been eager to try out. PureRAW is their app that applies denoising, demosaicing and other processing on RAW files (and only RAW files). It can be used as a standalone app or as a plugin with Lightroom/Photoshop for round-trip editing.¹

The X100VI RAW files, even at relatively high ISOs, are in good shape out of the camera, but as with any APS-C camera, quality can start to deteriorate fairly quickly when you get into the upper ISOs.

I was particularly interested in seeing two things:

• How much PureRAW might improve some of the high-ISO images coming out of the X100VI.
• Whether its lens distortion and vignetting corrections might improve stitching for panoramas. There’s not a lot of distortion or vignetting with the X100VI’s lens — it’s a good lens. But there’s still room for improvement to make panorama stitching cleaner and easier.
  

Fujifilm X100VI RAW files in DxO PureRAW 4 tests

Here are some examples using both of the core processing methods available in PureRAW 4.

I shot all of these with the Fujifilm X100VI in RAW (firmware v.1.10). I processed them in PureRAW 4.2.0.²

While I’ve embedded the processed versions below, they’re frankly not especially helpful when viewed at this small size. Much of the detail really isn’t visible unless you view it at 1:1 or near to it.

You can click on each image for a full-size version. But an even better option is to use the links in the caption of each image to download the original files. Some of them can be large filesizes — up to around 140MB — but it’s by far the best way to see accurate results and compare to the original out-of-camera versions.

The original RAW files for the images in this post are available to subscribers to my newsletter on the RAW file downloads page. The page is password-protected; the password is in the newsletter’s welcome email. The JPG versions linked in the captions stay free.

DeepPRIME

This is using the basic DeepPRIME method, the most basic method (and also the quickest) available in PureRAW 4. And because it applies less-intensive process, it’s also the quickest.

And while you might be forgiven for assuming that less processing means lower quality, that’s not always true. I find that I often prefer this method, because the more-intensive XD2 methods below can be prone to smearing artefacts in some cases.

DeepPRIME XD2 / XD

This is using the more advanced (and slower) DeepPRIME XD2 / XD.

Wrap UP

I have been running many of my images from my other cameras through PureRAW more regularly in recent months now that some of its workflow has been improved (but still isn’t perfect). And I find that the results I’m getting are, most of the time, excellent (with some exceptions).

But my aim here isn’t to convince you to use PureRAW or not use it. Every photographer has their own set of preferences and tastes. And whether the results fit yours is something only you can decide.

But I thought some other X100VI shooters might find it helpful to see some real-world results to judge for themselves whether it might be useful in their own workflow. And it’s something you really have to decide after seeing the visual results. Which is why I thought it might be useful to post them here.

Notes & References:

1. For reasons I still don’t fully understand, PureRAW doesn’t do true round-trip editing from Lightroom, and that’s one of my biggest criticisms and frustrations with it. But in the recent version, they’ve improved the workflow so that it approximates round-trip editing. That said, there are some limitations, such as the resulting images not being automatically stacked with the originals and IPTC metadata not being transferred across. [↩︎]
2. You’ll need at least version 4.2.0 to have the X100VI compatibility; it was rolled out in late May 2024. [↩︎]