Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Other Raw Converters => Topic started by: RobSaecker on December 31, 2014, 02:28:46 pm

Title: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: RobSaecker on December 31, 2014, 02:28:46 pm
Mildly surprised to see no previous mention of it here. http://www.fastrawviewer.com/ (http://www.fastrawviewer.com/), does pretty much what it’s name implies, i.e. renders your RAW images for evaluation. It’s essentially instantaneous on my computer (quad core Mac Mini). 30 day free trial available, and $5 off the regular price until the end of the year. Today, that is. :)

Disclaimer: no connection, other than I tried it and thought it was worth paying for a license.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on December 31, 2014, 06:00:47 pm
The web site says the special price is good until the end of January, 2015.
I just downloaded a trial version.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Paul Gessler on December 31, 2014, 06:09:10 pm
I downloaded a trial as well. Haven't fully exercised it yet, but what I've seen/tested so far looks great.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Phil Indeblanc on December 31, 2014, 07:35:54 pm
I will check it out. I do hope it supports:

IIQ images
Star rating that LR and Winodws OS seam to be sharing
Batch Metadata edits would also be nice.
Customizable GUI so we can color regognize what app we are in. All photo apps look so similar and I'd like to instantly know what app is on top when swapping around.

I'm tired of ACDSEE 8 alsways having hangups and hicupsand the only solution they have is to upgrade it. I used to really like it. Over time it gets white screen and freezes.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Phil Indeblanc on December 31, 2014, 08:06:47 pm
How do I browse? Are there no file names or thumbs to search?

On the bright side, it does say it supports Phase files, It does have a background tone control(wish it were color options).
Not sure about the rest yet.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: fdisilvestro on December 31, 2014, 08:26:31 pm
Mildly surprised to see no previous mention of it here. http://www.fastrawviewer.com/ (http://www.fastrawviewer.com/),

From May 2014:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=89896.msg732788#msg732788 (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=89896.msg732788#msg732788)
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Phil Indeblanc on December 31, 2014, 09:55:27 pm
I like it. The only thing is we have no reference point to confirm when rating without seeing the images at least in a browser, or Filmstrip. I rather have a browser.
They can pull from OS, or make unavailable thumbs. I wish it had a compare to do 1:1 vs composition (2 indy frames, like Compare in LR).
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on January 01, 2015, 01:47:58 pm
Thank you for your interest, Phil, and happy new year.
Filmstrip will be added relatively soon. 2-up, however, will take some time to implement.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Phil Indeblanc on January 01, 2015, 04:32:50 pm
I would love to delve further into FRV if it had what I mention....

I know its tough, I have used many browsers. Everyone has something they are used to and have to have some feature.

I have liked ACDSEE for its capabilities and speed, but it is not so stable. You are forced to upgrade for stability rather then them patching things with OS updates. So I stopped using it for the most part. LR is too big of a snowball to be fast for viewing alone.
I have also used IDImager/Supreme, which is very nice too, but I don't use it as its as complex as LR, so I just stick with LR. I have used PhotoMechanic, which was missing something a few years back. Owner said they would add it when possible, but I guess it took too long as I don't use it.
I used PhaseOne Media, and the former Expressions Media. Before Phase too over it was actually pretty nice. Now is clunky and broken or simply ilogical layout ruined it. File format issues, etc.
At some point and time, I have tried these, (I found for the price and features ACDSee to be my choice, but it can't support MF digital back files like IIQ, so the stability and the format issue is are the biggest issues.)

FastStone (not for large amount of files), file formats issue
Breezebrowser, also stumbles with large volume, file formats issue.
iMatch
IrfanView
Pictus
Zoner
Extensis Portfolio
Bibble
ArdFry

....One key feature, I as well as many like having is the ability to see and size "filmstrip"/thumbs. (ACDsee does this well with very customizable interface.

This is vital particularly shooting the same subject in very small incremental changes, say a model that is in the pose but makes small adjustments within it. You need to see the group of images in the thumb size large enough to make a decision if #1 vs #4 is the preferred image.  So if I have !1 large, I need to see #s2-6 maybe in a large enough filmstrip size to make the comaparison. I can check sharpness individually, but not the overall completion of the shot(pose, eyes, smile, hand, angle, tilt, hair position, clothes, flash output consistency, background). Most of these variables can be confirmed with a good size thumbnail. Why dual/large screen is almost necessary.


Happy New Year!
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on January 01, 2015, 05:06:22 pm
FastRawViewer is designed to view raw files, meaning - the histogram is of raw, over- and underexposure warnings are from raw, focus peaking is also from raw. That is very different from viewers that rely on either embedded JPEGs or unknown and uncontrolled renditions.

One more thing is that FastRawViewer plays nicely with other viewers, generally assigning FRV to 'external editor' option of the other viewer - like with PhotoMechanic I use 'E' key to pass the file to FRV; having multiple instances of FRV switched off in Preferences. In that case FRV will reuse the window, no need to close it.

We are very open to suggestions and bug reports, and are willing to make our software useful.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: alain on January 01, 2015, 07:24:34 pm
FastRawViewer is designed to view raw files, meaning - the histogram is of raw, over- and underexposure warnings are from raw, focus peaking is also from raw. That is very different from viewers that rely on either embedded JPEGs or unknown and uncontrolled renditions.

One more thing is that FastRawViewer plays nicely with other viewers, generally assigning FRV to 'external editor' option of the other viewer - like with PhotoMechanic I use 'E' key to pass the file to FRV; having multiple instances of FRV switched off in Preferences. In that case FRV will reuse the window, no need to close it.

We are very open to suggestions and bug reports, and are willing to make our software useful.

Just tested it and I'm quite happy with my first test.

I do use Capture one for my RAW conversions and unfortunately there are quite some "adobe" settings default when starting.  Adding some capture one settings (and/or a short tutorial to get the best settings for capture one) would be nice ;-)
The default settings also add some files (xmp) inside the folder, which doesn't seem good for default settings.  (I would use it mainly for a first cull.)

When shooting indoors sport, I normally shoot -0.7 stop underexposed, to avoid problems with side lights.  Is there a possibility to "automagicaly" correct for the in camera exposure while culling?

A last one, I've read that FRV checks for broken RAW files.  A button to do this for the complete selected folder, would be very nice.   Maybe as a side effect for a "play" option, go through a folder at x images/sec (of course limited by the computer speed), for me that would make for a nice first view to asses the image quality of the complete shoot. 

Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on January 01, 2015, 07:45:01 pm
Dear Alain,

In Preferences - Image Display, you can set ETTR-style automatic exposure correction, or you can set a fixed correction value. Additionally, on the same pane, you can uncheck 'Apply Adobe compatible hidden exposure correction'.

> The default settings also add some files (xmp) inside the folder, which doesn't seem good for default settings.
We would be much interested if you can elaborate on why those are not good as defaults.

> Adding some capture one settings...
Do you have any xmp files written by CaptureOne that you can send us to see what you mean? That would be most helpful.

Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: alain on January 01, 2015, 08:22:12 pm
Dear Alain,

In Preferences - Image Display, you can set ETTR-style automatic exposure correction, or you can set a fixed correction value. Additionally, on the same pane, you can uncheck 'Apply Adobe compatible hidden exposure correction'.

> The default settings also add some files (xmp) inside the folder, which doesn't seem good for default settings.
We would be much interested if you can elaborate on why those are not good as defaults.

> Adding some capture one settings...
Do you have any xmp files written by CaptureOne that you can send us to see what you mean?

Thanks for the fast response.

About default settings : I (and others I suspect) want to keep the images directories as clean as possible.  I follow the creation of xmp files is a user wants/needs it, but as default it was a -little- surprise.

About capture one : I'm rather talking about suggestions about contrast curves -and maybe other things-.  The way to get a display that's rather close to how capture one renders.

Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on January 01, 2015, 09:14:43 pm
Dear Alain,

You can switch off the xmp feature in Preferences - XMP: uncheck 'Use XMP for RAW files'.

CaptureOne: understood, thank you.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: alain on January 02, 2015, 07:07:01 am
Dear Alain,

You can switch off the xmp feature in Preferences - XMP: uncheck 'Use XMP for RAW files'.



I did found the switch, I was only writing about the default setting for it "out of the box".  I personnaly would have set the default to "unchecked".

BTW. I follow the post from  Phil Indeblanc, such a film strip would be nice.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on January 02, 2015, 01:17:16 pm
Dear Alain,

XMP:
> the default setting for it "out of the box".  I personnaly would have set the default to "unchecked".

In that case, ratings and labels  won't work, too. But users mostly demand XMP feature. What we can add is sort of a "pro" setup, to let the user chose the Preferences during the first start.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Phil Indeblanc on January 02, 2015, 06:12:55 pm
You're right, I shouldn't mention those viewers, but ACDSee applies as a raw viewer, EXCEPT it doesn't do IIQ files like this does. It also crashes often until a year time they have no updates, just upgrades, so you simply rent for the year, OS update hamper the use, then a year later the new version is out. Now they have Ultimate8?!!

Anyway, back the this...

As long as I can make use of the upcoming Filmstrip to have large enough(scalable), or best dockable on a second screen, I think it would be a great viewer. Did really like the focus tool. Great for initial culling, particularly on a laptop, but really just a good fast viewer.

I do wish I could simply select the folder instead of a actual file among many. It IS simple enough, just comes off confusing as a first experience with that opening.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on January 02, 2015, 08:20:29 pm
Dear Phil,

> ACDSee applies as a raw viewer
Well, it may be me, but IMHO a raw viewer should display at least the raw histogram, and not to apply some unknown processing. Should be instant, too. If I would find something I can use I can't imagine myself going "me too" route and replicate an existing product ;)

> I do wish I could simply select the folder
If I understand correctly your request...
You can drag and drop a folder onto the FastRawViewer icon, or into FRV's window; you can also use 'Open Folder' from the main menu.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Paul Gessler on January 03, 2015, 12:19:27 am
You can drag and drop a folder onto the FastRawViewer icon, or into FRV's window; you can also use 'Open Folder' from the main menu.
+1, this is exactly what I've been doing in my brief testing so far.  :)
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Phil Indeblanc on January 03, 2015, 05:45:04 am
Well, it may be me, but IMHO a raw viewer should display at least the raw histogram, and not to apply some unknown processing. Should be instant, too. If I would find something I can use I can't imagine myself going "me too" route and replicate an existing product ;)

Is ACDSee getting the histogram from the enbedded thumb?. I would think not, but possible?
I see a histogram on the RAW file in Manage mode (it has 4 main views/modes: Manage, View, Develop, Edit). It has option of Lume, RGB, or Lume with RGB histogram

In Manage view it is actually kind of snappy once it launches.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Manoli on January 03, 2015, 06:06:55 am
Is ACDSee getting the histogram from the enbedded thumb?.

Phil,

Three suggestions:

1 - use FRV before commenting on it
2 - read the previous thread
3 - and the manual

Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Phil Indeblanc on January 03, 2015, 06:18:22 am
Phil,
Three suggestions:
1 - use FRV before commenting on it
2 - read the previous thread
3 - and the manual

1, I did use it
2, He was answering to me from previous post. I think you need to read the previous, previous post.
3, maybe when the filmstrip version is out.

I like the app. I am comfortable with being wrong and maybe even a little quick on first impressions. But I post them as I look for answers to them. I don't have time to invest into everything new that comes along. I appreciate the useful feedback, and I will use it and try it. I also think its OK to bring up other apps, as I do so from experience and how I find things that FRV can do different or better, and at the least an alternate method. ...which in my book is always welcome.

Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Manoli on January 03, 2015, 06:51:15 am
I don't have time to invest into everything new that comes along.

Great, then you'll no doubt appreciate the time and effort that Iliah and Alex invest into answering the more mundane.

In case you missed it :
FastRawViewer is designed to view raw files, meaning - the histogram is of raw, over- and underexposure warnings are from raw, focus peaking is also from raw. That is very different from viewers that rely on either embedded JPEGs or unknown and uncontrolled renditions... One more thing is that FastRawViewer plays nicely with other viewers,

But moving on,

1- Until a built in filmstrip is incorporated, you can improvise by simply opening another instance of FRV.
2- In answer to another earlier query re different curves - a slightly 'hidden' option is to enable bottom bar options ( Preferences>Interface> Edit bottom bar options) and enable contrast curve selector as 'always visible'.

Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Phil Indeblanc on January 03, 2015, 07:55:03 am
I do appreciate it. I also hope other readers who are unfamiliar, and potential supporters also do, to make the sw more accessible to new users. 

I guess that's what I was wondering, if in fact ACD was getting from embedded thumb or raw(?), as it too is a raw viewer.
 Having that info is great in FRV, although, I was thinking I am seeing that in ACDS, no? I didn't see a direct answer. "Other viewers" is not inclusive to me.

opening 2 windows does help make it function to compare. I didn't mean for my wonderment to be offensive, and I can see how that might be if I bring up other apps. But I think its better to understand differences, and how one is suited for certain users. It's unhealthy to not have a reference to differ from. That's one thing from the start that appealed to me about FRV. The overall feel, interface.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Manoli on January 03, 2015, 10:16:03 am
"Other viewers" is not inclusive to me.

Not that Iliah needs me to clarify, but I suspect that what he's referring to is the way FRV integrates with Lr, C1 etc. You can either drag 'n drop or use John Beardsworth's Lr utility , OpenDirectly (http://www.beardsworth.co.uk/lightroom/open-directly/), (although C1 doesn't need it, offering the capability natively).

The beauty of FRV lies in both its simplicity and complementary functionality. Apart from the RAW histograms, FocusPeaking, Oe & Ue calculations it's excellent as a 'culling' app. Review a folder of shots and, instead of trashing as you go along, just go ' File>Move to _Rejected subfolder ' for later review / confirmation / change of heart. Uncomplicated, manageable, straightforward.

It's a great app, with unique features, it integrates well - let's not overload it with a ton of duplicated cross-functionality.

Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on January 03, 2015, 10:59:39 am
Dear Phil,

> if in fact ACD was getting from embedded thumb or raw(?), as it too is a raw viewer.

Depends on the definition of raw viewer. As I see it, FRV is the only one, that is why we made it ;) We have an article, http://www.fastrawviewer.com/viewing-raw-is-not-impossible (http://www.fastrawviewer.com/viewing-raw-is-not-impossible), which may help to see what exactly we are dong to display raw. You can press 'J' to switch between raw and embedded JPG (or external, if one is shooting raw+JPEG) and see the difference between showing a random rendition and raw. It is like this:
(http://cl.ly/image/2a453g1F0Z0s/Screen%20shot%202014-11-28%20at%2010.40.48%20AM.png)
vs.
(http://cl.ly/image/0x2c031L2B1q/Screen%20shot%202014-11-28%20at%2010.44.05%20AM.png)

And if one is selecting based on embedded JPEGs, he will choose this one, underexposed by 1.3EV:
(http://cl.ly/image/0e2D2Y031q34/Screen%20shot%202014-11-28%20at%2010.51.55%20AM.png)

> I was thinking I am seeing that in ACDS, no?

I may be missing the exact meaning of your question, but if you mean by 'seeing that', say, raw histogram - the answer is 'no'. No other viewer is displaying that, only FRV. With the current typical ISO (mis)calibration, it is one of the most useful features we were after when designing FRV.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on January 03, 2015, 11:02:33 am
Dear Manoli,

There is one more way - to pass the file for prrocessing in a raw converter one can use 'R' shortcuts, programmable in Preferences - External Programs. Up to 3 external programs/raw converters can be used.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Manoli on January 03, 2015, 11:43:18 am
Dear Iliah,

Thank you for the heads-up, I hadn't noticed that - shows one should read the manual !

I wasn't clear, but was commenting about the reverse - going from Lr to FRV.   I sometimes double check on the original raw file during C1 or Lr develop. It allows me to cross check the degree of exposure compensation, curve adjustments etc against the original file's histogram.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Phil Indeblanc on January 03, 2015, 12:24:08 pm
Yes, that's what I was asking, and thanks to clarify that ACD does NOT use the raw to make the histogram.
I can see FRV being a good replacement, specially with browse/filmstrip.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on January 04, 2015, 07:17:19 am
Dear Manoli,

'Preferences' allows a good overview of FRV, but maybe we used a wrong word and folks just do not go there. Should it be 'Customize' instead?
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Bart_van_der_Wolf on January 04, 2015, 07:34:01 am
Dear Manoli,

'Preferences' allows a good overview of FRV, but maybe we used a wrong word and folks just do not go there. Should it be 'Customize' instead?

Hi Iliah,

Preferences is fine, and internationally used for these types of custom preference settings. What would help is some specific tool-tip info that pops-up when hovering the mousepointer over the options.

Cheers,
Bart
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Manoli on January 04, 2015, 08:24:59 am
Dear Manoli,

'Preferences' allows a good overview of FRV, but maybe we used a wrong word and folks just do not go there. Should it be 'Customize' instead?

Dear Iliah,

I'll agree with Bart that 'Preferences' is both the correct place and terminology for setting all user options and variables.  

In this case, I simply hadn't noticed the option because 'File>Run>external editor' , for an individual file, isn't the way I use the program. In Lr and C1(depending on whether you use sessions or a catalogue) invoking the app brings up the 'Import' screen - too complicated and open to user error for an individual file. I will normally import a whole folder or SD/CF card and then cull. In Lr I can't send a RAW image back out to another editor or (FRV) - which is why I either drag 'n drop or use 'Open Directly'. Obviously this does not apply to converters such as Iridient Developer, where there are no DAM features to complicate a 2-way flow.

With FRV I now cull first, then import a whole folder ( less the _Rejected sub-folder) into either Lr or C!. If I do need to 'play' with an individual file I invariably send it to Iridient.

I also think that the default values you have set for Preferences are excellent. It's definitely not advisable to play around with the Image Display, WB and Colour Management Preference settings unless you are 'sure' of what you're doing. So the 'Restore Defaults' button is indispensable. I'll disagree with Bart, though on the tool-tips idea. These items need, and have, clear guidance in the manual (pages 58 and on) - so, as always, it really is case of RTM !

Best,
M


PS
I assume Bart is referring to the Preferences dialog box , as the bottom bar already has tool-tips ?
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Bart_van_der_Wolf on January 04, 2015, 09:02:49 am
I assume Bart is referring to the Preferences dialog box , as the bottom bar already has tool-tips ?

Yes, I was specifically referring to the Preferences dialog box. While it is impossible to explain everything in a tool-tip, small hints can IMHO be helpful, e.g. "XMP files are saved when exposure and white balance adjustments are be made". But it's not easy to make terse explanations.

Cheers,
Bart
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on January 04, 2015, 01:20:27 pm
Dear Gentlemen,

It is my experience with pre-press makes me doubt that Preferences are visited at all. Numerous times I was to instruct different pre-press folks to set colour polices in Photoshop Color Preferences correctly, to respect the embedded profiles - and they never knew before it was there.

We will keep 'Preferences' in FRV for time being, but I'm afraid it is obvious FRV is presumed to be a 'one-trick pony' piece of soft while it is far from that. In FRV we tried to reflect on everyday needs of raw shooters, including our own ;)

A tool tip on XMP is rather complicated. First of all, XMP files we record contain up to 3 groups of image processing tags, orientation, white balance, and exposure correction; and up to 2 selection tags - label and rating. It does not mean we do not need those tool tips, or do not mean to implement them - it is just substantial work and needs some time.

XMP files have a forced mode of creation, which we use to propagate settings. For example, some cameras have unreliable orientation sensors (or no sensor at all). The workflow for such situation is described on p.p.33 and 34 of the manual, 'Processing files for the cameras that lack orientation sensors'.

Forced XMP creation is useful for a series of shots that need same exposure correction, white balance adjustment, orientation, and label/rating (that also includes panoramas). Of course, if one decides to apply additional adjustments to the file under the review, the XMP is re-written with new settings.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: alain on January 04, 2015, 03:58:18 pm
Hi

Today I did the first culling of two shoots with FRV and it was a very nice experience, a real time saver.  It where shoots with a lot -expected- rejects and I only used the move to the _rejectecd folder, I will do the further culling and editing in capture one.

Alain
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Manoli on January 04, 2015, 04:04:06 pm
We will keep 'Preferences' in FRV for time being, but I'm afraid it is obvious FRV is presumed to be a 'one-trick pony' piece of soft while it is far from that. In FRV we tried to reflect on everyday needs of raw shooters, including our own ;)

Well, I hope you didn't base that just on feedback from this thread . :) If that is indeed the perception, then perhaps a change of name might be helpful - it's possibly the 'viewer' part that confuses ?

A tool tip on XMP is rather complicated...

Regarding tool-tips and Preferences , if I may suggest:  in this case, they're a bad idea.  I've spent this afternoon working with FRV, Lr and C1. On more than one occasion I've needed to refer to the manual e.g. to check on the settings re auto exposure calculation, interaction with ACR, WB settings, built-in curves etc.. I don't see anyway that a useful tip could be created which would supplement the manual.

As an alternative, perhaps consider publishing the manual, not just as a pdf, but also in a (context-related) accessible format. It's currently also available on-line, via the help menu, in a semi-context related way. Each subsection of the Program Settings chapter (which corresponds to each subsection of Preferences) could be easily linked via another button on each page of the Preferences box, next to 'Restore Defaults'.  It's a very well written, explanatory, manual - I don't see anyway of condensing the descriptions and explanations without reducing it's clarity and usefulness. Having it on the computer and so easily accessible might also increase the chances of people reading it !

Best
M



Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: stamper on January 05, 2015, 06:09:08 am
I have to be honest and state I downloaded the program a while back but mostly ignored it. Now I have downloaded it again and paid for it. I am impressed by it and it is worth the modest outlay. Recommended it to a friend. One question is it possible to increase the size of bottom bar by making twice the height or something similar. Still testing the other functions but at this moment in time a winner. :)
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on January 05, 2015, 07:19:10 am
Dear Robert,

Thank you.

> is it possible to increase the size of bottom bar by making twice the height or something similar

Looks like you are using an HiDPI display?
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: stamper on January 05, 2015, 07:33:38 am
It is an ASUS PA248

http://www.asus.com/uk/Monitors_Projectors/PA248Q/

I think I know what you getting at? Resolution 1920 X 1200 set at 150% magnification which tends to make fonts and menus look smaller?
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on January 05, 2015, 07:39:25 am
Dear Robert,

Thank you, very useful to know.

When scaling in Windows is non-standard, the visible font size changes in large steps. They still can't make a full transition to dpi in Windows. Not that OS X is significantly better in that regard, sometimes even worse.

Font size adjustments are high priority in our ToDo list, will probably have it implemented in v. 1.0.4.
v. 1.0.3 is laying some base for this, but will be mostly about HiDPI and Retina screens.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: stamper on January 05, 2015, 07:48:01 am
Thanks for the swift reply. The font size is manageable on the monitor but larger would be nice But nothing to worry about too much.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on January 05, 2015, 02:20:05 pm
I, too, just downloaded it in response to this thread. As soon as I tried it, I bought a license.
I like very much what I've seen so far and I look forward to working it into my regular workflow.
(And yes, I have explored the preferences.)
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on January 05, 2015, 03:38:12 pm
Dear Eric,

Thank you. Please let us know of any suggestions you may have.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: stormyboy on January 05, 2015, 03:57:24 pm
I just wanted to chime in that besides being a very useful program to me, Fast Raw Viewer's customer support is admirable. 

Tom River

Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: stamper on January 06, 2015, 03:19:36 am
I just wanted to chime in that besides being a very useful program to me, Fast Raw Viewer's customer support is admirable. 

Tom River



First Class. :)
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on January 08, 2015, 09:10:20 am
Beta 1.0.3 addresses the font size problem through
- Preferences - Interface - Bottom bar font size
- Preferences - Interface - Information windows size

Additionally, it supports new Panasonic DMC-TZ70 / DMC-ZS50 camera.

Downloads:

64-bit Windows:
http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/beta/FastRawViewer-1.0.3.520-x64-DX9-Setup.exe

32-bit Windows:
http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/beta/FastRawViewer-1.0.3.520-DX9-Setup.exe

If you are already using OpenGL version,
http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/beta/FastRawViewer-1.0.3.520-x64-OpenGL-Setup.exe

OS X:
http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/beta/FastRawViewer-1.0.3.520.dmg

Changelog and Manual reflecting the differences will follow.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on January 16, 2015, 11:38:13 am
A draft of our article 'Why bother shooting RAW if you are culling JPEGs?' http://s3.amazonaws.com/IliahBorg/RAWvsJPEG/text_eng_culling_RAW_vs_JPEG.docx

Raw files used for the article are in http://s3.amazonaws.com/IliahBorg/RAWvsJPEG/raw.zip

Comments and critics are most welcome.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on January 30, 2015, 01:09:08 pm
FastRawViewer 1.0.4 RC is out for public testing.

Short summary of added features:

Menu - File - Copy to folder (ask destination) (standard hotkey: C)
Menu - File - Copy to folder (same destination) (standard hotkey: Shitf-C)
Menu - File - Close File -- to allow un-mount and eject removable media, including cameras connected to computer
Display Leaf shooting data

Improved CCT/Tint calculation

Added camera support:
 Panasonic GF7
 Sony A7 II

Downloads
OS X (http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/FastRawViewer-1.0.4.530.dmg)
Windows 64bit (http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/FastRawViewer-1.0.4.530-x64-DX9-Setup.exe)
Windows 32 bit (http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/FastRawViewer-1.0.4.530-DX9-Setup.exe)
other versions, including OpenGL and Legacy Windows (http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/)

Suggested workflow (http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/Workflow_FRV_1_0_4_Adobe_Lr_ACR.pdf)

Bug reports, suggestions, critics are most welcome as always.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: digitaldog on January 30, 2015, 02:59:47 pm
Glad I stumbled on this tread. Once I read about it's intended task and spent awhile looking it over, it is (forgive the overused term) a no brainer at this price point. Blazingly fast on my MacBook Pro.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: kirkt on January 30, 2015, 06:50:43 pm
Excellent work, as always Iliah.  Thank you for the heads up.

kirk
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: stamper on January 31, 2015, 03:43:27 am
Excellent work, as always Iliah.  Thank you for the heads up.

kirk

Agreed. :)
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: alain on February 07, 2015, 05:59:46 pm
Hi

While I'm very happy about Fast Raw Viewer, out of curiosity I looked at what could be the ultimate speed bottleneck.

I ran FRV with files from an SSD that can deliver 10 RAW files per second if read in an optimum way.
I started FRV and moved as fast as I can to the next picture, I got about 2-3 RAW's per second.
At that time I had about 50-60% CPU usage (i5-2500) and GPU-Z indicated that my GPU (AMD 7800) was running at  25-30%.
My MB only supports PCIE-2.0 not the faster 3.0 variant.

Now I'm left to wonder what's the speed limiting factor?


Alain
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: AlterEgo on February 07, 2015, 06:24:51 pm
with files from an SSD that can deliver 10 RAW files per second if read in an optimum way.
deliver where ?
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: alain on February 07, 2015, 07:08:21 pm
deliver where ?

I can calculate SHA-256 hashes for 10+ RAWfiles per second.  That means that the file is read in memory and ready to be used by CPU and/or GPU.
In other words, I don't think the SSD is the bottleneck.   
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: AlterEgo on February 07, 2015, 08:18:49 pm
In other words, I don't think the SSD is the bottleneck.  

it is not of course... instead of a slow SSD try a ramdisk, which has throughput 10 to 100 times faster than SSD (SATA or PCIe) - you shall not see a big difference

then as an exercise compare the speed of FRV work with 100% magnification vs for example 15% magnification - you shall see a noticeable gain in speed @ lower magnification

then are you able to make a decision about your raw files @ speed of 10 raw files a second ? I don't... I envy your mental+vision capabilities and ability to work with keyboard or mouse that fast culling files or whatever  ;)

Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: alain on February 08, 2015, 05:12:19 am
...
then are you able to make a decision about your raw files @ speed of 10 raw files a second ? I don't... I envy your mental+vision capabilities and ability to work with keyboard or mouse that fast culling files or whatever  ;)


Sometimes I have to compare against an image that's 10-20 images back and then it's useful to be able to go as fast as possible.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on February 08, 2015, 10:52:24 am
Dear Alan,

FastRawViewer is performing Bayer demosaicking to display the image. It is very computational-intensive operation (chain of operations, in fact).

Couple of things worth looking at.
First, you can disable internal JPEG support in Preferences: RAW+JPEG: Ignore internal JPEGs.
Second, you can try different image resampling and downsampling options in Preferences: GPU Processing. Depending on the video card, it may speed things up.

One more thing: bottom bar contains file navigation buttons, and if you click on the file number, it allows to use Shift-ArrowUp/ArrowDown to jump through 5 files.

Can you please give more details: OS version you are running, is it 32 or 64 bits, what is the RAM size, what video card model is in the system, how much memory does video card have?
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: AlterEgo on February 08, 2015, 11:04:07 am
Sometimes I have to compare against an image that's 10-20 images back and then it's useful to be able to go as fast as possible.
may be a better option will be to selected a file to compare from some external image browser (that displays thumbnails only - as FRV does not have that functionality yet unfortunately) and then have an option for a key combo in FRV to display the previously (vs currently) viewed file... pressing such combo again and again will allow quickly switch back and forth between the 2 most recently viewed files in one FRV instance w/o speeding through many files back and forth in FRV... just $0.02.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: alain on February 08, 2015, 11:29:19 am
Dear Alan,

FastRawViewer is performing Bayer demosaicking to display the image. It is very computational-intensive operation (chain of operations, in fact).

Couple of things worth looking at.
First, you can disable internal JPEG support in Preferences: RAW+JPEG: Ignore internal JPEGs.
Second, you can try different image resampling and downsampling options in Preferences: GPU Processing. Depending on the video card, it may speed things up.

One more thing: bottom bar contains file navigation buttons, and if you click on the file number, it allows to use Shift-ArrowUp/ArrowDown to jump through 5 files.

Can you please give more details: OS version you are running, is it 32 or 64 bits, what is the RAM size, what video card model is in the system, how much memory does video card have?
Hi Iliah

First:  I was actually looking what was the "speed" bottleneck and didn't find a clear one.  My only "complaint" is going very fast through a nr off pictures  to find a further away one.  (a thought of me : Need those to be processed "all the way"?) One nasty side effect is that it keeps going on processing queued key presses, and thus jumps 3-4 pictures further.

Ignore internal jpg's didn't change it.

I-2500K,  Windows 7 64bit, 8GB RAM (1333Mhz), AMD 7870 Ghz version with 2GB RAM , interface running at
PCI-E  x16 2.0, display 2560 x 1140, D-800 40MB lossless compressed raw files.


Alain
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Manoli on February 08, 2015, 12:10:39 pm
Sometimes I have to compare against an image that's 10-20 images back and then it's useful to be able to go as fast as possible.

Better to simply open another instance of FRV and then you'll have the image (to be compared) on permanent display ..
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: alain on February 08, 2015, 12:12:53 pm
Better to simply open another instance of FRV and then you'll have the image (to be compared) on permanent display ..

But then I still have to go to it first.  The decision to view a picture 20 places back occur when I see the current one.
Title: version 1.0.5
Post by: Iliah on February 16, 2015, 03:14:53 pm
In 1.0.5 we are trying to address the request to delete files. Among some other things, we added "Clean _Rejected" to delete the unwanted files.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on April 21, 2015, 12:31:30 pm
After quite some time of beta testing we are releasing FastRawViewer Release Candidate. Trial period is reset. Downloads are at http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/110rc1/

Please excuse "What's new" not being yet translated.
As you can see, we added filmstrip, folder tree; and many other features.
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/f.cl.ly/items/0V2j2b2o0u1J1E3W1m3Z/FastRawViewer_ProgramWindow.jpeg)
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Redcrown on April 21, 2015, 01:59:34 pm
Thanks, Iliah, but can you please tell us which of those exe to use?

For me, which one for Windows 7 64bit?
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on April 21, 2015, 02:05:19 pm
You can start with FastRawViewer-1.1.0.622-RC1-x64-DX9-Setup.exe (http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/110rc1/FastRawViewer-1.1.0.622-RC1-x64-DX9-Setup.exe) - it is what we generally recommend.

If your videocard is relatively modern, like Nvidia GTX4xx and newer, AMD/ATI HD5xxx and newer, or Intel HD5xxx - you can try OpenGL version:
FastRawViewer-1.1.0.622-RC1-x64-OpenGL-Setup.exe (http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/110rc1/FastRawViewer-1.1.0.622-RC1-x64-OpenGL-Setup.exe) - it is slightly faster. If it won't work for you, just reinstall DX9 version.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: fdisilvestro on April 21, 2015, 02:14:22 pm
Awesome!
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: kirkt on April 21, 2015, 08:03:36 pm
Really nice work.  Thanks Iliah.

kirk
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Redcrown on April 22, 2015, 03:06:24 am
After a 2 hour review... Outstanding program. I had passed on the initial version due to lack of features like navigation and thumbs. This release is great. Very fast, easy to use, and everything you need to analyze raw quality.

For the future, I suggest one more feature. Add a filter to display by rating stars or lables. And then add the ability to select multiple files (even select all of one rating) for moves to reject or other folders. Just like Adobe Bridge.

When culling, I like to tag images as "best", "seconds", and "junk-delete". But I like to keep them all visible until I'm done reviewing everything and then move or delete images.

With this version of FRV I can do the tagging using lables or star ratings, but then I can't say "show me just the best" and I can't say "move all the seconds to a separate folder".
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on April 22, 2015, 08:22:03 am
We have those features in our ToDo list ;)
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: alain on April 22, 2015, 05:26:28 pm
After quite some time of beta testing we are releasing FastRawViewer Release Candidate. Trial period is reset. Downloads are at http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/110rc1/

Please excuse "What's new" not being yet translated.
As you can see, we added filmstrip, folder tree; and many other features.

First test of the RC went very smooth.  I've noticed that the film strip can be placed on a second monitor and can be made into a light box (several rows).
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Lundberg02 on April 23, 2015, 12:16:03 am
Why no Mac version?
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: AlterEgo on April 23, 2015, 12:31:51 am
Why no Mac version?
I can see FastRawViewer-1.1.0.622-RC1.dmg  available for download
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on April 23, 2015, 08:30:55 am
Why no Mac version?

Just in case, all RC1 files are here:
http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/110rc1/ (http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/110rc1/)

OS X version is available among those, but here is a direct link to it, too
http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/110rc1/FastRawViewer-1.1.0.622-RC1.dmg (http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/110rc1/FastRawViewer-1.1.0.622-RC1.dmg)
Title: 1.1 RC2 is available
Post by: Iliah on April 24, 2015, 09:39:47 am
http://www.fastrawviewer.com/forum/fast-raw-viewer-110-RC2
You can find "What's New" and a link to User Manual there, too.

Thank you very much for testing and feedback.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: jrp on April 25, 2015, 07:26:45 am
What is the USP of this viewer over FastOne, Fast Picture Viewer, etc, etc? If it is just that it produces a more accurate histogram I wonder whether it is solving a real problem, other than for those interested in technical raw data processing?
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on April 25, 2015, 08:24:32 am
>  it produces a more accurate histogram
Not "more accurate", but simply accurate.

The problem however is much more general. There is significant difference between the data in JPEG and data in raw. It is not just histogram. If one shoots raw, he needs to see raw, and not some unknown uncontrolled interpretation.

FastRawViewer supports more cameras than any other viewer.

FastRawViewer allows to set conversion parameters instantly.

FastRawViewer saves a lot of time, offloading the need to build full size previews when importing the whole shot into, say, Lr - as it allows to cull with confidence.

Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: AlterEgo on April 25, 2015, 11:00:15 am
>  it produces a more accurate histogram
Not "more accurate", but simply accurate.
exactly as accurate as rawdigger ?
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on April 25, 2015, 11:53:25 am
exactly as accurate as rawdigger ?


The difference is that RawDigger has tools to manipulate the histogram view (change the number of bins and scale), while FastRawViewer does not. The accuracy of the histogram calculation is the same for both programs.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: jrp on April 25, 2015, 06:16:24 pm
OK, so what practical problem does having an accurate histogram solve?  Does it tell you whether there are highlights or shadows that can be recovered with Adobe Camera Raw, for example?  If so, how often is that a key factor in the workflow of taking a bunch of images from a shoot, culling and processing them?  Why would looking at the out of camera JPEG not be a better starting point for triage?
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on April 25, 2015, 06:52:03 pm
> Does it tell you whether there are highlights or shadows that can be recovered with Adobe Camera Raw, for example?

Yes, among other things.

> how often is that a key factor in the workflow of taking a bunch of images from a shoot, culling and processing them?

When bracketing a high dynamic range scene, it is often a key factor. Correct exposure is considered in photography to be one of key factors, no?

> Why would looking at the out of camera JPEG not be a better starting point for triage?

Because JPEG has nearly nothing to do with the raw data. It will show you wrong brightness, and can easily show red or blue channels being blown out when in fact they are underexposed.

> OK, so what practical problem does having an accurate histogram solve?

May I ask why are you willing to concentrate on just one thing, histogram?
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: fdisilvestro on April 25, 2015, 07:11:41 pm
Why would looking at the out of camera JPEG not be a better starting point for triage?

You are kidding, right?
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: eliedinur on April 26, 2015, 04:47:25 am
Iliah, Will the RC overwrite 1.0.5 or will it install itself in a different folder?
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: alextutubalin on April 26, 2015, 09:22:44 am
Iliah, Will the RC overwrite 1.0.5 or will it install itself in a different folder?
By default, it will install over 1.0.x

You may choose different installation folder on install ('Select Destination Location' step in install wizard)
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on April 26, 2015, 10:24:43 am
Release Candidate 4 is here: http://www.fastrawviewer.com/forum/fast-raw-viewer-110-RC4

What's new in Release Candidate 4 (compared to RC2):
- Filmstrip Off/On button on the right of status (bottom) bar.
- Filmstrip/Thumbnails performance tune: Preferences - Performance - Thumbnail cache - Thumbnail decoder thread count. You can raise the value for fast SSD drives (and ultra-fast flash cards, like CFast or UHS-II in fast readers), and decrease the value for slow HDD drives/slow flash cards/slow card readers.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: bjanes on April 26, 2015, 10:01:22 pm
Release Candidate 4 is here: http://www.fastrawviewer.com/forum/fast-raw-viewer-110-RC4

What's new in Release Candidate 4 (compared to RC2):
- Filmstrip Off/On button on the right of status (bottom) bar.
- Filmstrip/Thumbnails performance tune: Preferences - Performance - Thumbnail cache - Thumbnail decoder thread count. You can raise the value for fast SSD drives (and ultra-fast flash cards, like CFast or UHS-II in fast readers), and decrease the value for slow HDD drives/slow flash cards/slow card readers.

Iliah,

I am a long time and very satisfied user of Rawdigger but am late with Fast Raw Viewer, since I thought Rawdigger did most of what I wanted to do. I just downloaded it and immediately purchased it after trying it out for a few minutes. I then downloaded RC4 and was impressed with the improvements. FRV is a valuable addition to my toolkit. It is amazingly fast with my 36MP D800e NEFs.

There is one thing I would like to do with FRV and have not figured out if it can be done. I have a series of test exposures of a saturated red flower at various exposures short of clipping in the red channel of the raw file. With the camera space set to AdobeRGB FRV does show the clipping in the red channel internal histogram with increasing exposure. This could be saturation clipping from rendering into the relatively small AdobeRGB space and this can be verified in some cases by rendering into a ProPhotoRGB JPEG with ACR with no resulting clipping of the reds. I can view the external JPEG histogram in FRV, but it would be helpful for FRV to show a histogram of the raw file rendered into ProPhotoRGB without the need to render a JPEG in ACR. Is there any way to do this?

With increasing exposure, the red channel can be clipped ProPhoto due to white balance. In this case the clipping can be eliminated by negative exposure in the raw developer as shown by rendering with ACR. Can the same be accomplished with FRV?

In any case, hats off to you and Alex for a great program.

Bill Janes
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on April 26, 2015, 10:31:11 pm
Dear Bill,

We have 2 histograms, internal/external JPEG and raw. What you are looking for is the third one, call it "raw converted to ProPhoto"? This is actually doable, but will not be a "match" - as we may use one conversion method and one set of colour transforms while  some other program (like ACR) will be using a different one.

Thank you for the kind words, and always happy to hear your suggestions.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: AlterEgo on April 26, 2015, 11:56:24 pm
as we may use one conversion method and one set of colour transforms while  some other program (like ACR) will be using a different one.
if you pick & use a dcp profile from the set available to Adobe (and apparently by FRV user intending to use ACR/LR later down the pipeline like bjanes) then you shall be able to match, no ? that is quite some code to write though, albeit it is documented by Adobe.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on April 27, 2015, 12:08:57 am
Unfortunately, picking a dcp profile is not enough, there are more components to that - like hard-coded baseline exposure compensation. There are also several versions of the "process", and several dcp profiles to choose. There is interpolation between 2800 and 6500; and extrapolation. Need to think about it. It is actually easier to repair false blow-out caused by white balance.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: bjanes on April 27, 2015, 12:23:37 pm
Unfortunately, picking a dcp profile is not enough, there are more components to that - like hard-coded baseline exposure compensation. There are also several versions of the "process", and several dcp profiles to choose. There is interpolation between 2800 and 6500; and extrapolation. Need to think about it. It is actually easier to repair false blow-out caused by white balance.

Iliah,

You know the complications much better than I, but what I am interested in is a rendering of the camera XYZ data before white balance into ProPhotoRGB going from the 3x3 camera matrix (of which there are many, but I would image that Adobe's as used in DCRaw would be suitable) to ProPhotoRGB. I see that you have already taken the Adobe baseline offset into account.

Adobe PV2012 is not suitable for this purpose, since it is image adaptive. I have done quite a bit of work with a Stouffer wedge exposed with my Nikon D800e and have found that PV2010 with a linear tone curve and all the sliders set to zero does a pretty good job when rendered in to ProPhotoRGB with ACR. I use the Adobe Standard profile for this purpose. The data are still gamma encoded, but this is no problem in a color managed workflow. If desired, one can convert to linear with the linear_RIMM-RGB_v4.icc profile using the colorimetric intent as described in this ICC white paper (http://www.color.org/scene-referred.xalter#profiles).

If this is not feasible in FRV, I will continue to render into a ProPhotoRGB JPEG with ACR and PV2010 as described. I can then use FRV to review all the histograms.

Regards,

Bill
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on April 27, 2015, 12:44:47 pm
Dear Bill,

As I said, need to think about it. Mostly, it is a documentation challenge - how to make clear what we are doing, avoid misinterpretation and not to raise false expectations.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: bjanes on April 27, 2015, 12:48:03 pm
Dear Bill,

As I said, need to think about it. Mostly, it is a documentation challenge - how to make clear what we are doing, avoid misinterpretation and not to raise false expectations.

Thanks, Iliah. No problem. I realize that FRV can not be all things for all users.

Bill
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on April 27, 2015, 12:51:00 pm
Dear Bill,

Thing is - we are just starting with FRV. We will be adding features to it for sure. Right now the primary goal is to release 1.1; and after that we will be turning the page of the ToDo list.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on April 29, 2015, 09:24:41 am
FastRawViewer (http://www.fastrawviewer.com/) 1.1 is released. Starting new ToDo list, please tell us what you feel is missing (keywords, sorting, filters are already in the new list).
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: m_rouleau on April 29, 2015, 06:32:47 pm
On sale for $15?! Bought without thought! It really is a no brainer.

One thing I would like to do, and this is a nit, is to be able to modify the IPTC/XMP description without having to enter a description, close, move to the next image, reopen the window, type in the new name.

It'd be awesome if I could just enter a name and then tab or arrow to the next image, without having to close the dialog box and reopen it, if that makes sense.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on April 29, 2015, 07:09:24 pm
to be able to modify the IPTC/XMP description without having to enter a description, close, move to the next image, reopen the window, type in the new name.

It'd be awesome if I could just enter a name and then tab or arrow to the next image, without having to close the dialog box and reopen it, if that makes sense.

Yes, it does make sense, thank you, have it in ToDo list.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: digitaldog on April 29, 2015, 08:08:42 pm
On sale for $15?! Bought without thought! It really is a no brainer.
It is. The only area I HATE about this product is going back to Lightroom and seeing it's pathetic speed to preview images in Grid. I'm now so spoiled.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: jrp on May 01, 2015, 07:27:41 am
I'm giving this a go, but getting fairly regular random crashes such as the following:

Crashed Thread:        0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type:        EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes:       KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x000000017e7b400d

VM Regions Near 0x17e7b400d:
    MALLOC_LARGE           000000016771c000-000000017c13a000 [330.1M] rw-/rwx SM=PRV 
-->
    __TEXT                 0000123480000000-000012348043b000 [ 4332K] r-x/rwx SM=COW  /System/Library/Extensions/AMDRadeonX4000GLDriver.bundle/Contents/MacOS/AMDRadeonX4000GLDriver

Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0   com.libraw-llc.FastRawViewer  0x0000000100187422 EXIFInfo::parseIFEntry(unsigned char const*, unsigned int, bool, unsigned int, unsigned int, unsigned int*, unsigned int) + 546
1   com.libraw-llc.FastRawViewer  0x0000000100188ace EXIFInfo::parseFromEXIFSegment(unsigned char const*, unsigned int) + 1166
2   com.libraw-llc.FastRawViewer  0x000000010016a0e4 FRV_RawProcessor::readJpegData(unsigned char*, unsigned int, int, QString const&, int, float) + 404
3   com.libraw-llc.FastRawViewer  0x000000010016bef5 FRV_RawProcessor::processFile(LibRawData_wrapper*, JpegItem*, bool, int, int, bool, QVector<float> const&) + 2053
4   com.libraw-llc.FastRawViewer  0x000000010007794c FRV_MainWindow::openFileAndDisplay(QString, LibRawData_wrapper*, JpegItem*, int, int, int) + 4780
5   com.libraw-llc.FastRawViewer  0x000000010007e960 FRV_MainWindow::openFileLibRawAndJpeg(QString, LibRawData_wrapper*, JpegItem*, int, int, int) + 48
6   com.libraw-llc.FastRawViewer  0x00000001001dc55b FRV_MainWindow::qt_static_metacall(QObject*, QMetaObject::Call, int, void**) + 2907
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on May 01, 2015, 09:39:06 am
Thank you. The crash is caused by some irregularities in EXIF data. Please make available the raw file that causes the crash (and JPEG, if there is an external JPEG for this file too in the same directory); you can reach us at support@fastrawviewer.com
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: jrp on May 01, 2015, 12:19:23 pm
Thanks.  Co-incidentally I came across a post elsewhere pointing out that Leica did not terminate all its Exif fields.  So that could be the issue. Equally, I use photomechanic to ingest my photos and apply metadata, including xmp creation.  So it may be producing encodings that you don't like. Either way, it is obviously not good to have a program apparently reading its way through memory in an uncontrolled way.

Let me know if this is enough or if you need more.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on May 01, 2015, 12:22:10 pm
Dear Sir,

But we really need to look at the files to fix it. Please...
Title: v.1.1.1 RC1 is out
Post by: Iliah on May 10, 2015, 08:50:36 am
Downloads for this Release Candidate are at http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/111rc1/

This is a maintenance release-to-be, mostly addressing different problems induced by slow and irresponsive storage devices, custom solutions (like older versions of Dell Backup), as well as by "features" in EXIF/Makernotes.

Also, several recent cameras added:
Canon: 750D, 760D
Leica: Monochrom (Typ 246)
Nikon: 1 J5

Detailed changelog is available under Menu - Help - What's new
Please let us know of any bugs or problems, you can always reach us at support@fastrawviewer.com
Title: 1.1.1 Release Candidate 2
Post by: Iliah on May 14, 2015, 10:42:36 am
You can download this pre-relase from http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/111rc2/
FastRawViewer 1.1.1 is released now.
The main focus is on improving stability when working with network drives. Please test it, and report any bugs to support@fastrawviewer.com
Title: FastRawViewer 1.1.1 is released
Post by: Iliah on May 15, 2015, 10:11:12 am
Please download from the usual place, http://www.fastrawviewer.com/download
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: jrp on June 02, 2015, 04:45:15 pm
One thing that it would be helpful to set it the detail / contrast overlay.  As it stands, it shows much more as being sharp than looks sharp to my eye.
Title: Re: 1.1.1 Release Candidate 2
Post by: kers on June 02, 2015, 07:58:07 pm
You can download this pre-relase from http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/111rc2/
FastRawViewer 1.1.1 is released now.
The main focus is on improving stability when working with network drives. Please test it, and report any bugs to support@fastrawviewer.com

hello Iliah,
As a user of Media Pro i would like very much if colortags and ratings that i put on the photos in FRV could be read in media pro.
I see the following:
ratings assigned in FRV are read in media pro   ! -    colortags assigned in FRV  however are not read in mediapro
rating and colortags assigned in media pro are both not read in FRV

Is there something you ( or I) could do about that to get it synchronized?

Thanks in advance- must say i like the program a lot. It could mean i drop the external jpegs and only shoot RAW.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on June 03, 2015, 03:14:18 pm
Thank you, we will look into it - need to install MediaPro and see how we can interact.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: John R on August 04, 2015, 02:09:27 pm
I have bought and installed FRV. Arlen, on another thread mentioned that FRV can review and delete files. However, I do not see any feature that allows me to delete files. Is there one? Maybe the Rejected File? Have to do some reading. Thanks.

JR
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on August 04, 2015, 02:44:02 pm
I have bought and installed FRV. Arlen, on another thread mentioned that FRV can review and delete files. However, I do not see any feature that allows me to delete files. Is there one? Maybe the Rejected File? Have to do some reading. Thanks.

JR

Please have a look at Main menu -> File -> Clear _Rejected folder.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: John R on August 05, 2015, 09:45:39 am
Thanks for that. I was looking for a simple button like on the Windows viewer with an X, to indicate delete file. So I have to go to edit and click >edit >move file to rejected subfolder. And then clear rejected folder when I want to delete for good. Is that right?

JR
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Bart_van_der_Wolf on August 05, 2015, 11:43:43 am
Thanks for that. I was looking for a simple button like on the Windows viewer with an X, to indicate delete file. So I have to go to edit and click >edit >move file to rejected subfolder.

John, there's a keyboard shortcut for that.

Quote
And then clear rejected folder when I want to delete for good. Is that right?

I do not think it's possible to make it easier, and still safe enough to prevent errors, than that menu option.

Cheers,
Bart
Title: v. 1.1.3:
Post by: Iliah on August 07, 2015, 12:50:39 pm
 * New camera support
   Nikon D810A
   Panasonic DMC-GX8
   Sony A7R-II, RX10-II

 * Fixed the program behavior for the case when the folder change is initiated through Folders panel:
   - 'Copy to Folder' and 'Clear _Rejected' actions are deactivated
     (they will be active after a file selected through Thumbnails panel is displayed in the main window)
   - the list of rejected files is cleared and 'Restore from Rejected' action is deactivated
   - if the new folder contains RAW or JPEG images, 'First/Last file in folder' actions become active.

Mac OS X (http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/FastRawViewer-1.1.3.667.dmg)
Windows/64bit/DirectX (http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/FastRawViewer-1.1.3.667-x64-DX9-Setup.exe)
Windows/32bit/DirectX (http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/FastRawViewer-1.1.3.667-DX9-Setup.exe)
Other versions, including OpenGL;  new versions are at bottom of the list (http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/)
Title: FastRawViewer 1.2.0 Beta
Post by: Iliah on October 19, 2015, 08:45:19 am
FastRawViewer 1.2.0 Beta is out, the download page includes a new trial key and full changelog. Changelog is rather lengthy, it includes file filtering by ratings and labels, favorite folders, sorting by EXIF timestamps, improved white balance; and of course additions to the list of supported raw and dng formats. Windows users do not need to choose between DirectX and OpenGL downloads, 1st part of What's New explains the details.

http://www.fastrawviewer.com/testing/fastrawviewer-1-2
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on November 03, 2015, 01:28:08 pm
FastRawViewer Release Candidate 2 (RC2) is available at http://www.fastrawviewer.com/testing/fastrawviewer-1-2 It includes streamlined processing of ratings/labels already present in XMP blocks of raw files and XMP blocks in general, as well as a new activation for MS Surface devices. If you want to try it while your trial license has expired, a new trial key is there on the page.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: AlterEgo on March 17, 2016, 11:54:28 am
http://www.fastrawviewer.com/testing/fastrawviewer-1-3#

GRID MODE and more....
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: fdisilvestro on March 18, 2016, 05:40:30 pm
It looks very good!
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer 1.3 RC4
Post by: Iliah on April 06, 2016, 02:37:56 pm
Please try http://www.fastrawviewer.com/testing/fastrawviewer-1-3 - it is Release Candidate 4, supporting nearly all recently announced cameras. Your feedback is most appreciated, as always.
If your license key expired, please use this testing key: U46KXX-MCGOVW-DVX5XY-NPZJR2
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on April 09, 2016, 09:18:39 am
FastRawViewer 1.3 Release Candidate 5 is out
http://www.fastrawviewer.com/testing/fastrawviewer-1-3
Since there was no bug reports for RC4, this one includes interface enhancements only.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on April 21, 2016, 09:21:16 am
FastRawViewer 1.3 is now officially released. Please download from http://www.fastrawviewer.com/ as this version is not yet included in auto-updates.
Title: FastRawViewer 1.3.1 released
Post by: Iliah on May 11, 2016, 01:23:10 pm
Adding Camera support for:

Canon 1300D
Fuji X-Pro2 compressed format
Nikon D500
Pentax K-1 (incl. pixel shift mode)
Interface improvements, minor bug fixes.

Full changelog is available at http://www.fastrawviewer.com/download#changelog

http://www.fastrawviewer.com/about-and-features
Title: Fast Raw Viewer 1.3.2 Release Candidate
Post by: Iliah on May 29, 2016, 08:20:33 pm
Mac OS X 10.6-10.11: http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/beta/FastRawViewer-1.3.2.935.dmg
Windows 7-10/64bit: http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/beta/FastRawViewer-1.3.2.935-x64-Setup.exe
Windows 7-10/32bit: http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/beta/FastRawViewer-1.3.2.935-Setup.exe
Windows XP-Vista/32bit: http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/beta/FastRawViewer-1.3.2.935-WinXP-Setup.exe

Some of the improvements: faster copy/move/reject operations, without any stability sacrifices; context (right-click) menu for the single file view; new options for filtering the folder tree; better lens recognition for Sony + Sigma MC-11 adapter. More details are in the Changelog.

Changelog and revised manual are coming with the installation package.

Please test and let us know of any inconsistencies.
Title: 1.3.2 pre-release
Post by: Iliah on June 03, 2016, 09:19:37 am
Mac OS X 10.6-10.11: http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/FastRawViewer-1.3.2.937.dmg
Windows 7-10/64bit: http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/FastRawViewer-1.3.2.937-x64-Setup.exe
Windows 7-10/32bit: http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/FastRawViewer-1.3.2.937-Setup.exe
Windows XP-Vista/32bit: http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/FastRawViewer-1.3.2.937-WinXP-Setup.exe

Fixed a bug that caused crashes with some types of incorrectly written EXIF tag.
New "hidden" setting UseGPSStatus.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: kirkt on June 09, 2016, 05:48:29 pm
FRV -> RPP -> Photoshop = Awesome!

kirk
Title: macOS Sierra
Post by: Iliah on October 05, 2016, 02:41:36 pm
To address some issues with macOS Sierra,
http://www.fastrawviewer.com/blog/FastRawViewer-1-3-5-beta
Title: FastRawViewer 1.3.6 RC
Post by: Iliah on October 27, 2016, 07:08:16 pm
With this Release Candidate, we gave a complete re-write to the routines that handle Folders panel; added support to new cameras; fixed some bugs.

Downloads:

Windows 7-10/64bit (http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/beta/FastRawViewer-1.3.6.995-x64-Setup.exe)
Mac OS X 10.6-10.12 (http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/beta/FastRawViewer-1.3.6.995.dmg)
Windows 7-10/32bit (http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/beta/FastRawViewer-1.3.6.995-Setup.exe)
Windows XP-Vista/32bit (http://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/beta/FastRawViewer-1.3.6.995-WinXP-Setup.exe)

 Detailed list of changes is in our blog: http://www.fastrawviewer.com/blog/FastRawViewer-1-3-6-release-candidate
Title: Getting 1.3.8 ready
Post by: Iliah on January 16, 2017, 12:25:27 pm
More cameras supported, new features added.
You can download release candidate here http://www.fastrawviewer.com/blog/FastRawViewer-1-3-8-release-candidate
Please let us know of any bugs.
Title: Getting 1.4 Ready
Post by: Iliah on May 14, 2017, 04:50:01 pm
Main points to look for:

- Over- and Underexposure display has been improved and refined (Manual, p.132)
   • Detecting clipping point for overexposure zones display depending on camera's Make and Model (not available for all cameras)
   • Adjusting underexposure limit detection based on camera ISO setting

- Improved synchronization of XMP changes between ACR/Lr and FRV (see "XMP settings" in Manual, p.117)

- Touchscreen support (Manual, pp.68, 126)

- Option to verify data after file copy (Manual, p.36)

- The sorting and filtration of files in folders has been massively overhauled;
   • File sorting and filtering (Manual, pp.42, 165):
      • by Filename (naturally or alphanumerically)
      • by File type (extension)
      • by File modification time
      • by File size
      • by Shooting date (EXIF Timestamp)
      • by XMP rating
   • Save, Cancel and Restore filters (Manual, p.44)

- Folder tree editing (Manual, p.58)
   • Create subfolder
   • Rename folder
   • Delete folder

- Drag-drop into the folder tree (including Favorite folders) (Manual, pp.50, 112):
   • Copy or Move modes

- Drag-drop files into other applications (Manual, p.49)

- Selecting the position (below or above thumbnails) and detail of the EXIF data to be displayed in Grid mode (Manual, p.161)
   • Abridged exposure data (shutter speed and aperture)
   • More complete data (shutter speed, aperture, ISO, exposure correction)
   • Date & Time (from the EXIF data)
   • Camera name

https://www.fastrawviewer.com/blog/FastRawViewer-1-4-release-candidate
Title: Fast Raw Viewer 1.4.4 is out
Post by: Iliah on November 23, 2017, 03:30:04 pm
We crossed 1000 supported cameras milestone with this one. Changelog https://www.fastrawviewer.com/blog/FastRawViewer-1-4-4-release
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer 1.4.4 is out
Post by: digitaldog on November 23, 2017, 03:32:22 pm
We crossed 1000 supported cameras milestone with this one. Changelog https://www.fastrawviewer.com/blog/FastRawViewer-1-4-4-release
Congratulations; that’s got to be a lot of work.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer 1.4.4 is out
Post by: paulster on November 24, 2017, 08:27:40 pm
We crossed 1000 supported cameras milestone with this one. Changelog https://www.fastrawviewer.com/blog/FastRawViewer-1-4-4-release
That's great work! I did notice, however, that both FastRawViewer and RawDigger aren't reporting any updates available, despite being on older releases than what you have on the website.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer 1.4.4 is out
Post by: Iliah on November 24, 2017, 08:33:08 pm
That's great work! I did notice, however, that both FastRawViewer and RawDigger aren't reporting any updates available, despite being on older releases than what you have on the website.

We delay update automatic notifications by a week to give anti-virus software enough time to include new versions into the whitelists. Dealing with thousands of users simultaneously asking why the update is quarantined on their computer is no fun.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer 1.4.4 is out
Post by: paulster on November 24, 2017, 08:34:37 pm
We delay update automatic notifications by a week to give anti-virus software enough time to include new versions into the whitelists. Dealing with thousands of users simultaneously asking why the update is quarantined on their computer is no fun.
I can't argue with that logic!
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on December 16, 2017, 08:46:39 pm
SONY ARQ support added, please test https://www.fastrawviewer.com/blog/FastRawViewer-1-4-6-beta
Title: FRV 1.4.6 RC - please test
Post by: Iliah on March 21, 2018, 12:12:44 pm

Downloads and more detailed feature descriptions:
https://www.fastrawviewer.com/blog/FastRawViewer-1-4-6-release-candidate (for quick copy/move description, please see the Manual and/or https://www.fastrawviewer.com/blog/FastRawViewer-1-4-6-beta3#146beta3 )
Title: FastRawViewer 1.4.7 Technology Preview
Post by: Iliah on June 21, 2018, 09:34:08 pm
This technology preview aims to increase the speed and offloads more operations to GPU (for description and settings to enable this mode please see link to part 1 below) as well as speeding up workflows that include JPEGs (link to part 2 below).

Downloads:
Mac OS X 10.6-10.13: FastRawViewer-1.4.7.1316.dmg (https://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/beta/FastRawViewer-1.4.7.1316.dmg)
Windows 7-10/64bit:  FastRawViewer-1.4.7.1316-x64-Setup.exe (https://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/beta/FastRawViewer-1.4.7.1316-x64-Setup.exe)
Windows 7-10/32bit: FastRawViewer-1.4.7.1316-Setup.exe (https://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/beta/FastRawViewer-1.4.7.1316-Setup.exe)

An extended trial license key (works until the end of July, copy-paste helps avoiding typos) P2IW6L-XOXNXX-LMBUED-GTI74X

Descriptions:
- part 1, https://www.fastrawviewer.com/blog/FastRawViewer-1-4-7-technology-preview - please read at least "Turning this mode on" section in the blog post
- part 2, https://www.fastrawviewer.com/blog/FastRawViewer-1-4-7-technology-preview-part2

Our results for Canon 5Ds, 50 Mpix files
Hardware for the test:
i7-7700K CPU at factory frequencies (no over-clocking)
NVidia GTX 1080 GPU
fast NVMe drive

For fastest video mode (Upsample: No Resample; Downsampling: None)
- 8.8 fps during sequential forward browsing (limits the unpacking speed)
- 14.3 fps for "repeat forward browsing" (the raw files from the test set are already decoded and put to cache)
For default video mode (Upsample: Bilinear; Downsample: Low res previews)
- 12.5 fps for "repeat forward browsing"

We would be very grateful for testing and feedback.
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: fdisilvestro on June 22, 2018, 12:14:25 am
I have been using this new version for a couple of days and it is really faster than the previous one (1.4.6)

I don't have measured figures, but it is working well and stable. Basically there is no wait between images while browsing 36Mpix images (Nikon D800).

I can run through the CPU - MIX - GPU and see how the usage of resources shift from CPU to GPU (Windows 10 task manager)

Anyway, I don't think I'm near those figures (14fps) you mention as my gpu is not as powerful as a GTX1080

just in case the hardware: HP Zstudio G4, i7-7700, Nvidia Quadro M1200, NMVe drive
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on June 22, 2018, 12:18:18 pm
I have been using this new version for a couple of days and it is really faster than the previous one (1.4.6)

I don't have measured figures, but it is working well and stable. Basically there is no wait between images while browsing 36Mpix images (Nikon D800).

I can run through the CPU - MIX - GPU and see how the usage of resources shift from CPU to GPU (Windows 10 task manager)

Anyway, I don't think I'm near those figures (14fps) you mention as my gpu is not as powerful as a GTX1080

just in case the hardware: HP Zstudio G4, i7-7700, Nvidia Quadro M1200, NMVe drive

Could you please create a log file, to see if we can improve the speed further or something can be tuned up in Preferences:

- FastRawViewer Preferences -> Other -> Debug Log messages: All
- restart FastRawViewer
- browse a few raw files
- FastRawViewer Main Menu -> Help -> Debug Log, Save to file and e-mail the resulting file to support@fastrawviewer.com
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: fdisilvestro on June 22, 2018, 10:05:09 pm
Sure, mail sent!
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on June 22, 2018, 10:16:53 pm
Sure, mail sent!
Thank you, mail received!
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: fdisilvestro on June 23, 2018, 04:17:47 am
Just wanted to comment on this. I received feedback from the Fast Raw Viewer team on the log I sent. After implementing their recomendations the speed increase was notable. This on top of the performance that I was already considering as very good.

This new version is incredibly fast, especially considering that it is displaying the RAW files (36MP) and not a jpeg or a reduced version.

Highly recommended!
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Iliah on June 23, 2018, 02:34:05 pm
Just wanted to comment on this. I received feedback from the Fast Raw Viewer team on the log I sent. After implementing their recomendations the speed increase was notable. This on top of the performance that I was already considering as very good.

This new version is incredibly fast, especially considering that it is displaying the RAW files (36MP) and not a jpeg or a reduced version.

Highly recommended!

Thank you, based on the logs we are receiving we tune the defaults for better performance from the start.
Title: Fast Raw Viewer 1.4.7 RC1
Post by: Iliah on June 27, 2018, 04:27:32 pm
Big thanks to all of the testers for Technology Preview I and II, your feedback was invaluable.

If you’ve already used the Technology Preview I/II, then the main difference is that RAW GPU Processing doesn’t need to be turned on additionally through a hotkey; it’s turned on as soon as that’s set in the Preferences.

Download links:

More details: https://www.fastrawviewer.com/blog/FastRawViewer-1-4-7-release-candidate
Title: Fast Raw Viewer 1.4.7 RC3
Post by: Iliah on July 05, 2018, 11:34:29 am
Automatic selection of video and rendering modes is optimized, small bugs are taken care of.
Download links:

User manual: FastRawViewer-Manual-ENG.pdf (https://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/beta/FastRawViewer-Manual-ENG.pdf)
Title: Re: Fast Raw Viewer
Post by: Lundberg02 on July 17, 2018, 06:43:08 pm
1.4.8+ is available on the site