• Members 7 posts
    April 19, 2023, 9:13 a.m.

    I wanted to try this free image viewer from fast stone to cull my raw images quickly using it's tag feature.

    Full screen preview is working fine with embedded jpg images. But when i changed to Actual size in setting i only get blank black screen. This is happening to all RAW files not just one camera.

    2023-04-19_144014.jpg

    JPG, 52.1 KB, uploaded by Mahi on April 19, 2023.

  • Members 142 posts
    April 19, 2023, 10:09 a.m.

    I've not worked with Faststone in a while, but would like to suggest FastRawViewer, which is excellent.
    Sherm

  • Members 2332 posts
    April 19, 2023, 10:29 a.m.

    it means you need a faster computer :-(

  • Members 7 posts
    April 20, 2023, 2:10 a.m.

    I was using Adobe Bridge it was bit slow initially when rendering Actual preview. That's why i was suggested to try Faststone image viewer.

    I heard about fast raw viewer but it's not freeware. I don't think my system is very slow
    i5-8265U
    12.0 GB Ram
    Nvme SSD for OS and apps but Images are in Sata 2.5in drive
    Mx 230 Graphics.

    Bridge is working fine. Just initial rendering is slow when i load many raw images after a shoot. So i thought of culling in FIV first if that was helpful.

  • Members 2332 posts
    April 20, 2023, 2:37 a.m.

    go into the faststone menu and set the raw parameters. for fast load or slow. are you shooting compressed or uncompressed ?

  • Members 2 posts
    April 20, 2023, 3:03 a.m.

    Faststone is an awesome image viewer and culling tool. It is super fast, free, and easy to use.

    A newer CPU with decent HD, graphics card, and RAM is recommended if your viewer settings are the default.

  • Members 7 posts
    April 21, 2023, 1:04 a.m.

    With embedded jpg aka fast preview it works well. But I want to see the full raw preview. That's where I get black screen. I'm shooting compressed raw. There is a big capacity different between both and I rarely see the benifit of uncompressed raw in my Fuji x-t20

    I wanted to try this program as many told it's faster than bridge. So wanted to give a try in culling. But in my case I get black screen when doing full raw preview.

    Although initial caching time of bridge is slow. It's working fine with my specs. Since FIV is free just wanted to give a try and I was unsuccessful. I think it's something related to my system or setting which I cannot find it. I decided to stick with bridge workflow now.

    I also tried another software called irfanview. That does not start in the bird eye explorer view like neither bridge/FIV. It seems designed to be an editor than culling software.

  • Members 2332 posts
    April 21, 2023, 3:37 a.m.

    do you know where to set the raw settings from ?

  • Members 142 posts
    April 21, 2023, 12:55 p.m.

    Irfanview also has a very nice product called "Irfanview Thumbnails", but I'm pretty sure that Irfanview itself looks at the raw's embedded JPG and not the actual raw data.

  • Members 976 posts
    April 21, 2023, 1:16 p.m.

    FastStone Image Viewer is using raw processing code from 2018 (DCRAW from Dave Coffin), and that code doesn't support newer raw encoding schemes.
    A separate question is if the DCRAW rendering they are using is adequate for culling raw files.

  • Members 8 posts
    April 21, 2023, 1:29 p.m.

    One of the benefits of uncompressed raw is more software supports it - as you seem to have discovered

  • Members 7 posts
    April 22, 2023, 12:19 a.m.

    I think I know where to set the parameters. I have attached a photo in my first post. That's the place right?

    Yes I heard about uncompress raw has support for more softwares. But in Adobe bridge which I was using from the beginning I didn't see any advantage for the size increase. If I remember correctly file was 50-80 percent more in size.

    Uncompressed file may help with FIV but since I shoot lot of images when I get in to a project the capacity is not really worth and I get storage issues and copying delays.

    I'll stick to bridge. If the delay is unbearable ( it's not as I Don't do multiple projects now). Then I'll consider buying fast raw.

  • Members 2332 posts
    April 22, 2023, 12:26 a.m.

    takes 3 seconds to display a full size image in faststone. your computer is to slow. for the record raw image viewer didnt show the same level of rawness in detail as faststone does.

  • Members 976 posts
    April 22, 2023, 1:28 a.m.

    There are no different levels of rawness. :))))
    It's either raw, or not.

  • Members 8 posts
    April 22, 2023, 6:56 a.m.

    Your definition of raw differs from FujiFilm

  • Members 209 posts
    April 22, 2023, 7:14 a.m.

    AFAIK Fuji compressed raw is lossless, so what is not raw?
    Another thing is that some apps cannot read these files and apparently Faststone is one of those. Yous gets what yous pays for, I guess .

  • Members 2332 posts
    April 22, 2023, 7:29 a.m.

    all good my bad, id opened 2 different raw files ,so i re checked to make sure i opened up the same one in both programs and they are the same.
    fast raw viewer is much faster opening full size raw files its instant on my computer. but for a culling and image viewer i like the pop out panels on faststone if im culling images i need full screen and the straight into ACR , and the quick tagging and saving into folders is great not forgetting batch processing for my web orders super fast and efficient. but i have been using fast stone for a long long time.

  • Members 8 posts
    April 22, 2023, 11:11 a.m.

    FujiFilm lossless compressed raw is lossless; FujiFilm compressed raw isn't

  • Members 976 posts
    April 22, 2023, 12:02 p.m.

    "To record raw, unprocessed data from the camera image sensor, select a RAW option for image quality in the shooting menu..." -- fujifilm-dsc.com/en/manual/x-t10/shooting/raw/index.html
    So it might be the interpretation of "unprocessed" we disagree on ;)

  • Members 8 posts
    April 22, 2023, 1:44 p.m.

    In the days of the X-T10 that was your only option - FujiFilm now offers lossy compressed raw

  • Members 976 posts
    April 22, 2023, 2:09 p.m.

    Since lossy is heavily processed data, it's pseudo-raw.

    "
    What is a RAW file?
    RAW files are just that — raw, untouched, and unprocessed images recorded directly from a camera’s sensor. All available image data is there with no information cut or compressed. This leads to high-quality images that you can edit with minimal quality loss." -- www.adobe.com/creativecloud/file-types/image/comparison/dng-vs-raw.html