One of the selling points of Fujifilm X10 is ability to shoot a RAW images. Just a brief intro: sensors in digital cameras convert light into electric signals, and the signals are processed into picture such as JPEG. The RAW files contain output from sensors, and it is possible to develop JPEG image later from RAW file. The benefits are very significant. The RAW files can be developed with different parameters such as color balance, noise reduction, exposure compensation and some others. Because image processing parameters can be applied later, it is does not matter much what parameters (such as a white balance) the camera had at time of shooting. Obviously, JPEGs also can be edited in Photoshop or GIMP but RAW files have more information than JPEGs, and the results are generally better. Shooting RAW comes at some cost: RAW files are big, and the development of RAW images requires a dedicated software.
Today I used the X10 at somewhat challenging light, and decided to write RAWs as a back up. It is very easy implemented on X10: push the dedicated RAW button and the camera will take next image both as JPEG and RAW. It is possible to set up RAW shooting but I used the RAW button.
My initial impressions from X10 RAW files are rather mixed. The files are big, over 19 Mb. For comparison, Olympus E-30 with the same pixel count produces ~12 Mb RAWs. It seems that the SILKYPIX converter produces crop(?) of the image compared to out of camera JPEG (OOC JPEG). The difference is not big but I am surprised that the proprietary software produces different image. Even more surprising, the pixel sizes of OOC JPEG and JPEG developed from RAW are identical, 4000x3000 pixels.
The default parameters of the SILKYPIX converter result in very soft(?) JPEG. I guess it can be adjusted to the same level as OOC JPEG but I just not familiar with the SILKYPIX software.
Update: I checked the latest release of UFRaw, RAW converter plugin for GIMP, and it does not support X10 :(
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