Hi

First of all, let me say that the contest for the £50 voucher is closed. I’ll inform the winner as soon as possible.

Before I go back at work, here are the first links with feedback about the LR4.4 and ACR7.4 release candidates… now it’s your turn, Apple!

Soundimageplus (click here):

Thomasfitzgeraldphotography (click here):

“The raw conversion engine no longer suffers from the dreaded water-colour effect and is as good if not better than Capture One, and pretty much on par with the Fuji Jpegs. Where as previously any amount of sharpening would cause the raw files to fall apart, now you can sharpen away. Adobe have done a great job…”

comparison LR4.3 vs LR4.4 RC at thomasfitzgeraldphotography

frontallobbings (click here)

“I’m please to inform everyone that the dreaded watercolour, or colour smearing issue has been abated in this version which is very welcome… Although details are still not as good as some of the other RAW processors that I’ve thrown at it, it is improved over the previous versions. One of the more notable details is in the shadow details. LR4.3 lost a lot of micro details in the darker or shadier areas. LR4.4RC improves that dramatically. But as you can see, the Capture One details are still surpassing what both default settings are putting out in this case… Is it perfect? No it isn’t, but its improvements are dramatic“

image courtesy: frotallobbings

The source was right! Now start downloading and leave your feedback in the comments. Download LR 4.4 here. or Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw RC 7.4 here.

Rico Pfirstinger updated his RAW converter comparison with two samples that were processed with Lightroom 4.4RC. Click here, read the article, and see the images.

There is also the first dpreview test: “In the ACR 7.3 rendering, the foliage takes on a distinct ‘watercolor’ appearance, and the white text of the sign is ‘filled-in’ green. As you can see, the new processing approach in ACR 7.4 RC offers substantial improvements in both areas.” (thx MJr)

Lightroom 4.4 Release Candidate and Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw 7.4 include a correction to the demosaic algorithms for Fujifilm cameras with the X-Trans sensor.  This specifically impacts the following cameras:

• Fujifilm X-Pro1
• Fujifilm X-E1
• Fujifilm X100S
• Fujifilm X20

Download and discuss on Fujirumors.

And many thanks to the source!

I know you are all waiting for the Lightroom 4.4 release candidate. In response to the comments here, my source didn’t confuse the C1-express 7 version with the LR 4.4 RC. It’s just, I should have been more precise: it should be released Monday in the USA, and Tuesday in Europe (obviously because of the time difference).

In the meantime Capture One released the Express 7 version with Fuji support for €69 or $99 or download the trial version here.

thanks for the link, Albert.

dpreview (click here): “A stripped-down version of Capture One Pro, Capture One Express 7 gains features including HDR processing, lens correction and a new digital asset management tool. Express doesn’t support tethered shooting, but images can be viewed remotely and wirelessly using either the Capture Pilot iOS app or a web browser on other devices.” thanks again, MJr.

To be frank: the X100s and X20 sample shots at Fuji’s website are not that good. I agree with MJR, who said in the comments: “I’m sorry Fuji but these are the worst samples ever. (at photographers fault) I’m heading back to http://fujifilm-x.com/photographers/en/ to feel better.”

So, take a look at the dedicated X-Photographers pages (with X100s and X20 samples) here. Just look worldwide for them!

_

X100s: AmazonUS / BHphoto / Adorama / AmazonUK / AmazonDE /

X20: AmazonUS (black – silver) / BHphoto (black – silver) / Adorama (black – silver) / AmazonUK (black – silver) / ebayITA /  / AmazonDE / AmazonITA /

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The users manual for X20 can be download from fujifilm.eu at this link here. (thanks Leo)

… the X100s manual is available here.

And for the X100s JPEG sample shots go to Fuji’s webiste here!

X100s: AmazonUS / BHphoto / Adorama / AmazonUK / AmazonDE /

X20: AmazonUS (black – silver) / BHphoto (black – silver) / Adorama (black – silver) / AmazonUK (black – silver) / ebayITA /  / AmazonDE / AmazonITA /

X100s sample shot at Fuji’s website