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Lensflare

Lensflare

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Simon Everett
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I am disappointed. I needed to get a new camera and lenses after mine were all lost in a motorway crash....I did research and eventually decided to go for the Fuji option. I didn't think, or know because there was little information on it, that the difference in COMPUTER REQUIREMENT between a Nikon D4s and the newer, but smaller, Fuji XT2 would mean that my current computer and programs has nowhere near enough power to use the Fuji.....had I known then that by buying into the Fuji system it was going to cost me another £2000 - £3000 for a computer and programs to run it I would just have got another D4s and lenses and continued with what worked before.....

Just a heads up really for anyone thinking about upgrading 'their camera'. It will most likely mean you need to upgrade EVERYTHING, and you need to take that into account. I am stuck with a Fuji that I can only use for about 20% of it's capability. Don't get me wrong, it is a nicely built camera and the lenses are way better built than the Nikon ones (even the Nikon pro ones), but the computer requirement is HUGE. My perfectly working big computer is on Windows 98 and still works perfectly well. My laptop is on Windows XP Pro and that DID work perfectly well with the Nikon...but having talked to Fuji is way behind what they need to run their camera files. I just wish someone had told me all this BEFORE I bought the camera.
 
Given that you are running windows 98 on your main system i am surprised you have managed this far!

To be fair i have swapped and upgraded cameras a lot over the years but i have never had to lay down 2-3k on a new computer to support the change so your comment there is a bit over dramatised.

For the record i am using a Sony camera with a 24mp sensor so it will output files roughly equal in size to the fuji XT2.
The PC i edit them on cost less than £600.

I think you are your own worst enemy by negating to move with the times (computer wise) and i mean that in the nicest possible manner.
 
stupar said:
Given that you are running windows 98 on your main system i am surprised you have managed this far!

To be fair i have swapped and upgraded cameras a lot over the years but i have never had to lay down 2-3k on a new computer to support the change so your comment there is a bit over dramatised.

For the record i am using a Sony camera with a 24mp sensor so it will output files roughly equal in size to the fuji XT2.
The PC i edit them on cost less than £600.

I think you are your own worst enemy by negating to move with the times (computer wise) and i mean that in the nicest possible manner.
Click to expand...

:agree: A few hundred pounds and you can get a suitable computer or laptop, you can then use the 'free' software that Fuji supplied, or look to using one of the the other processing packages.
 
I've read that Fuji X Trans files take a lot more processing power than the more usual Bayer files although to be honest when processing Fuji files I've downloaded I haven't noticed any difference.

I don't know if this is a part of the issue on a PC or just in camera...

https://petapixel.com/2017/03/03/x-trans-vs-bayer-sensors-fantastic-claims-test/

"Fujifilm representatives have tossed around various figures of their own for X-Trans performance (“30% slower”) and have also hinted that one of the reasons they choose Bayer for their new medium format GFX 50S camera was because demosaicking 50 megapixel X-Trans images would be too slow.

In these tests, X-Trans demosaicking took approximately 3.27 times as long as Bayer. So perhaps what Fujifilm really meant to say is that X-Trans demosaicking is 30% as efficient as Bayer. In any case, it’s significantly slower, a fact that is uncontested."
 
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woof woof said:
I've read that Fuji X Trans files take a lot more processing power than the more usual Bayer files although to be honest when processing Fuji files I've downloaded I haven't noticed any difference.
Click to expand...

Not 2-3k more power though :D

When i had the XT1 (albeit 16mp not 24mp)
I was editing those files on a HP dual core laptop that cost me a smidge under £200.
I saw no issue when processing the raw files.
 
woof woof said:
I've read that Fuji X Trans files take a lot more processing power than the more usual Bayer files although to be honest when processing Fuji files I've downloaded I haven't noticed any difference.

I don't know if this is a part of the issue on a PC or just in camera...

https://petapixel.com/2017/03/03/x-trans-vs-bayer-sensors-fantastic-claims-test/

"Fujifilm representatives have tossed around various figures of their own for X-Trans performance (“30% slower”) and have also hinted that one of the reasons they choose Bayer for their new medium format GFX 50S camera was because demosaicking 50 megapixel X-Trans images would be too slow.

In these tests, X-Trans demosaicking took approximately 3.27 times as long as Bayer. So perhaps what Fujifilm really meant to say is that X-Trans demosaicking is 30% as efficient as Bayer. In any case, it’s significantly slower, a fact that is uncontested."
Click to expand...

But in reality it's no big deal, and anyone upgrading from a Win98 PC is going to to think any modern computer doing anything is quite zippy.

There is a noticable difference when importing X-T2 files over X-T1 but that is to be expected as they are 50% bigger, and its only really noticable when importing large batches of images.

Fuji's own X-RAW Studio, due for release at the end of November offers fast batch conversion, but at the expense of the available editing adjustments.
 
I raised this point in another thread yesterday; handling, processing and storing large photo files can come at the cost of a computer upgrade or replacement so this element is best considered when budgeting for the cost of a camera upgrade. Video editing is a good example here, with a 2 hour HD video weighing in at around 15 Gigabytes. I had to replace my 7 year-old computer last year to handle file sizes that big with reasonable speed, plus buying some external 2 Terabyte hard drives to store the archived videos on! As with most things though, the experience of efficiently working kit is often enjoyed long after the purchase price is forgotten.
 
How are you even using USB devices?

USB support only came out with Win 98SE
You're seriously moaning about being unable to use a relic for your new camera files?

This is a wind up right?
 
I have a sneaking suspicion that the OP whilst having a Windows 98 PC is using the Windows XP pro laptop for photowork.

A bit of digging and the go to specs at during the Windows 98 era were -
Pentium P4 CPU
DDR ram probably maxed out at 1gb as there were memories issues with anything around that amount or more
USB 1.0 if lucky (slow as data transferl

Those specs alone i would doubt could handle D4S files unless they were JPG and not RAW.

That aside even if it is the laptop that is used my current comments still stand relative to cost of new systems etc etc.
 
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I upgraded my systems a few years ago and for my 1Ds MKII files (17MB) I went with an i7 3770K and 16GB RAM.

Which I think is good enough for the OP for a fair bit of future proofing.

As for XP Pro I still run VMs using a cut down version of XP Pro and it still runs perfectly well for many applications.
 
Don't have to spend thousands on a computer to have a more up to date system with the functionality you need. Alternatively pop along to WH Smith and get some new really strong elastic bands fir your current system.
 
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Got to be a windup. The low memory specs, old slow disk drives.
I have a windows xp laptop - it has a serial port so I can connect to my cars ecu for diagnostics :D I'd never consider using it for photography, not sure how lensflare used it for a Nikon D4 unless he had the image size turned right down?

I have a full i7 Skylake based PC solely for photography.
 
In all honesty i am just genuinely impressed you are still managing to use windows 98 for anything, i didn't think anything would actually support it anymore even down to basic web browsers.

In terms of a capable pc that will run as you need it to then you really don't need to shell out 2-3 grand, you could very easily spend less than a grand on a tower including windows and then if you want to buy a monitor then you could spend whatever you liked on that.
 
"My perfectly working big computer is on Windows 98 and still works perfectly well. My laptop is on Windows XP Pro"

Suspect somebody is having a Laugh.
 
Don`t understand why people are being so unhelpful here, if OP sends me the 3k I will sort out a suitable PC to handle Fuji files
 
Give poor old Lensflare a chance - he's still trying to write his reply on his slow PC :D
 
GreenNinja67 said:
Just re-image the OS Frank.

It's unlikely to be duff memory causing it.
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Terry, I think I should point out that I know nowt about computers other than how to switch them on.

What does re image the OS mean and how do I do it without losing all my programmes?
 
Sorry Frank,

Being in IT I assume others know about this stuff.

Reloading the operating system (Windows) will normally fix the BSOD problem.

You will however have to also reload your programs.

But you'd have to do that if you replaced your pc /laptop
 
mickledore said:
Well Stuart. ..as I keep getting the dreaded BSOD perhaps you could point me to where I could get one of those???
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I built it myself Frank. I just source the components from various outlets then put it altogether, that way i get exactly what i want from my money.

Do you have more details on your BSOD, maybe a screenshot we can analyse?
Feel free to drop me a PM about it so we dont overload the OPs thread.
 
GreenNinja67 said:
Sorry Frank,

Being in IT I assume others know about this stuff.

Reloading the operating system (Windows) will normally fix the BSOD problem.

You will however have to also reload your programs.

But you'd have to do that if you replaced your pc /laptop
Click to expand...

Thanks Terry. I'll have a Google!

stupar said:
I built it myself Frank. I just source the components from various outlets then put it altogether, that way i get exactly what i want from my money.

Do you have more details on your BSOD, maybe a screenshot we can analyse?
Feel free to drop me a PM about it so we dont overload the OPs thread.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the offer Stuart. No way I could build one! I'll PM you next time it happens.
 
Thank you for the replies. Unlike some of you I don't live my life on a screen - sometimes I don't turn the computer on for days, so if there is a lull in my replying, I am not ignoring you, I might simply not have the confuser switched on - like if i go away for instance. I have been busy today because a friend has given me his old phone, he was fed up with me using my Nokia 3100 (it still made phone calls) and has given me his Samsung S4....christ, i have spent all day trying to work out how to get my phonebook onto it. Failed and have lost most of them, even the Vodaphone shop cocked it up despite saying they could take them off one and put them on the other....to me, that is high end technological competence beiong able to do something like that, which is why I drove 44 miles round trip to get it done for me. This is just to give you an idea of my very limited knowledge of anything screen based. You all live by them - I have spent my life trying to avoid them. That has caught up with me and I now find I know virtually nothing about how to do anything. It isn't easy.

The cost was what I was advised it would likely be - ok from someone who stood to gain from a purchse, so trying to sell me something I don't actually need. That I find quite disturbing, being an honest person I could not do that, and if it was my job, I couldn't do the job because my conscience wouldn't allow me to dupe people like that. It is downright dishonest.

So, for those that know about these things, what have I actually got to go and ask for please? In simple terms that I might understand - and with a system that I will be able to understand how to work, because at the moment I am completely confused, and my mind is in a total whirl with it all. I haven't a clue what half the things you have written above actually mean. I have had ONE editing program all my digital life, the one that came with the D2x I think it was, probably and then Nikon upgraded it for the D3. That was the Nikon Capture NX and NX2 - that is what I have. It worked for the D3 and sort of scraped by for the D4s. I had hoped the D4s would be my last camera, I would have replaced it had itnot been so heavy and the small size and weight of the XT2 was what really sold me on it - and I never gave the computer side of it a single thought, because I simply didn't know I had to (however obvious it might be to YOU, it wasn't to me).

Talking to the people at Fuji (Andreas and Arthur Macinnon) it is obvious my current laptop is too out of date and has too little memory to work with modern cameras. The syatem is a 2Gb one but that is as much as I know and I have 150GB of storage memory, plus a hard drive I plug in the side, which I think is 500GB, but is nearly full now. I had I given it the proper thought I would have done the entire shopping at the same time and bought a whole new system in totality - why didn't I? Because I was too stupid to even know I had to consider the computer end - I have no understanding of what a computer does or how it works, I just press buttons and have to learn what buttons to press 'parrot fashion', as in I don't actually know what I am doing, but I know what the end result is...which is why pressing new buttons is something I don't do, because I don't know what will happen if I do. I have never played a video game in my life, none, not of any sort. I was baby sitting for friend the other week and thei rson got me to try to play some space game or other...I was out of the game within 2 seconds, I didn't even have time to get my finger on a button and there was no way I could remember what each button did (there were 4 or 5 of them on the control and a joystick), so whatever I get has to be easy to use and understand.

At the moment I am just going to stick with jpegs as they come out, which is what I have been doing so far. They are OK, but of course limited to whatever that gives me.I suspect that for 90% of the pictures it will be fine, but everyone goes on about all this extra you can do and I would like to try to do some of it. So please be patient and try to help me through the transition, rather than just deride my total ignorance of all this modernity.

Thank you, in advance.
 
You probably have a mate who DOES understand at least some of the terminology - maybe he/she could take you shopping for a suitable computer. As for software, I find that PhotoShop Elements (I think I use version 12 now) does all I need and a hell of a lot more. If you're going to start using raw, I have a feeling that some of the converters are better at processing the Fuji files than others - a look in the X-T?? thread will tell you more.
 
As per Nod above, if you can find someone close to home who can help you shop then that would be the best solution.

Failing that we the TP posse can give you recommendations on suitable hardware with a link to a suitable place of purchase and actually save you some of your 2-3k budget.

To get you started though the minimum go to specs that get banded about on here are along the lines of

CPU - intel i5
RAM - 8 to 16gb
HARD DRIVE - 128/256gb SSD for operating system and applications........1/2TB HDD for storage
MONITOR - 23" 1920 x 1080 minimum

Hope this helps get you started at least
 
I agree with Stuart's recommendations.

I'm using a home built i5 based system with 8GB RAM (physical memory) and now I've upgraded to the Adobe CC rental package I'm finding it rather slow.

3 things are essential nowadays. Fast enough processor (i5 is fine, you don't need an i7), enough RAM (I'd recommend 16GB as pcs slow down in time whatever they are) and an SSD (Solid state device - electronic hard drive).

The SSD is quicker than a spinning hard drive as it's basically a massive USB drive type affair and doesn't have a spinning platter in it (instant access in comparison).

You don't need a really fast and expensive graphics card either.
 
Here's another recommendation and at £670 for the desktop only it has more than enough grunt for your needs 9good CPU, Good SSD drive, 8GB RAM which can be double to 16 quite easily)

https://www.ebuyer.com/782286-hp-prodesk-400-g4-sff-desktop-1jj60et-abu

Add a Keyboard , mouse and monitor and you will have a system that will last you for a good while and it would be less than £1000
 
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