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I prefer to post photos rather than to write about software.  I’ve used and abused Apple’s Aperture (sadly dead and no longer supported), Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Lightroom.  I do have investments in presets for Lightroom, which made me loathe to give it up.  But the problem was that I just wasn’t seeing the amazing amount of detail that others seem to be getting out of their .RAF files.  So I decided to pick up a demo of a product from Iridient called X-Transformer and try to see if I could spot the difference in the files.  It wasn’t hard.  Although X-Transformer does take some time to work (go and have a cup of tea if it’s more than 10 files) the results speak for themselves.  The settings are exactly the same, I just cut and paste the settings from the previous import, no added sharpness or grain to either.  The results are simply stunning.  This is a 100% crop.

Screen Shot 2017-09-22 at 2.52.17 PM

I tried a few more just to make sure, and assuming the photo was decently taken to begin with, the results were the same.  I won’t say which is which, but it is pretty obvious.  The better of the two files

Screen Shot 2017-09-22 at 3.06.57 PM

In case you want to see the full photo from which the 100% crop was taken.

Screen Shot 2017-09-22 at 3.14.02 PM

I find it difficult to spot a lot of differences at full size, but the 100% crop makes it pretty easy.

I don’t feel like I really need to point at any one thing, the results speak for themselves.  I spent $40.33 for the OS-X version(I suppose it could have been cheaper if I’d found a discount coupon somewhere) and consider it money well spent.  Well done, Iridient.