Fuji Photographers; Even If You Are A RAW Only Photographer, Here Is One Excellent Reason To Set Your Camera To RAW + JPEG Instead Of Just RAW

Knockout Rose blossom for illustration (click to enlarge)
X-T1, 18-55mm lens @ 55mm; 1/125th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 800
Overall image is 4896 X 3264 pixels or almost 16 megapixels

Even if you have shot only RAW with other brand cameras, there is one excellent reason for you to use the RAW + JPEG setting on your Fuji X-Trans camera.

This is the maximum magnification you see on your LCD when you shoot RAW only.  It is the equivalent
of about 15% of you total image.  (click to enlarge)
The RAW only maximum enlargement on your LCD gives you an image about 1966 X 1311 pixels,
or about a 2.5 mp image. (these are approximations, but very close)

When you set your camera to record only RAW images, you cannot get a 100% view of your image on the LCD to check for critical focus.  You have to set it to RAW + JPEG to get that 100% view.  Here is what you see on your LCD when you only make a RAW image of the subject matter above.  I've approximated the view as closely as I could.

When you shoot RAW + JPEG, the camera gives you a view equal to about 2% of you overall image.  This is much better
for judging critical focus.  (click to enlarge)
The RAW + JPEG maximum enlargement on your LCD gives you a view that is about 733 X 489 pixels,,
or 0.35 mp (again, this is an approximation,)

Now, here is what you see when you take the same scene and use the RAW + JPEG setting. As you can easily see, your ability to judge precise focus is exponentially better when you use the RAW + JPEG setting.  You may not be able to judge it properly at the much lower magnification.  Again, I've approximated the view as closely as I could.

If you have no use for JPEG images and use LIghtroom, you can set Lightroom to treat the RAW and JPEG as one and, instead of importing the RAW and JPEG images, Lightroom will only import the RAW images and ignore the JPEGs.  Go to Preferences and under the General tab, uncheck the box that says, "Treat JPEG files next to RAW files as separate photo."  JPEGs will not be imported with your RAW images.  Kind of the best of both worlds.  

Have them in-camera for their usefulness, then don't import them if you don't need them. Of course, Fuji JPEG files are extraordinary, in my opinion, and I use them often and only revert to using a RAW file if I can't get out of a JPEG what I need, which isn't often.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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