Why does the Fuji X100S offer ISO 12800/25600 only in JPEG, not RAW?
Asked 3/14/2014
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On the Fuji X100S, the standard ISO range is available in both RAW and JPEG, but the expanded high ISO settings (12800 and 25600) appear to be JPEG-only. Why would Fuji limit those higher ISO options to JPEG? Are those very high ISO JPEGs effectively just software-boosted versions of a lower-ISO RAW capture, such as ISO 6400?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
12y ago
2 Answers
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This is a classic among Fuji cameras. The standard ISO range is available in both RAW and JPEG but expanded options are only available as JPEG. This is true at both ends of the range. The X100S has Low (100) and High (12800, 25600) ISO settings which are JPEG-only.
These ISOs are probably simulated by simply multiplying the signal in the camera's software which causes 1 or 2 bits per component to be unused. You could argue this still gives you more granularity than JPEG images but the gap is definitely narrowing.
Originally by user1620. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1620
12y ago
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Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes—on the X100S, ISO 12800 and 25600 are part of Fuji’s expanded ISO range, and those expanded settings are JPEG-only. The standard range tops out at ISO 6400 for RAW.
The most likely reason is that these higher settings are not a true additional sensor-native RAW capture mode, but an in-camera boost applied after capture. In practice, the camera is likely amplifying or scaling the recorded data in software before creating the JPEG. That gives Fuji less reason to offer those modes as RAW, since the RAW file would contain little extra useful information beyond what you could get from the highest standard RAW setting.
This is similar to Fuji’s expanded low/high ISO behavior on other models as well. The tradeoff is image quality: pushing beyond the standard range generally increases noise and reduces usable detail, which is why these settings are often treated as special JPEG modes rather than full RAW options.
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