Canon Full Frame vs Fujifilm APS-C for Landscape Photography – Long Live DxO Pure RAW
The story starts like many other stories: a full frame camera, in this case the high resolution Canon EOS R5 gets compared with a Fujifilm APS-C camera, in this case the high res Fujifilm X-H2.
I hear many of you say now “no, not again!”
But hear me out.
This time it’s a bit different.
This time, the magic of DxO Pure RAW comes into play.
Here is what happened.
Ian Worth used the following gear side by side with the goal to compare the details on large prints:
- Canon R5 + Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM
Price of combo: $6,700 - Fujifilm X-H2 + Fujinon XF 50-140mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR
Price of combo: $3,600
But he went an extra step. He did not simply load the files into Lightroom to process the RAW files (with Lightroom standard settings) and then print the images.
Nope, he wanted to “help” Lightroom to deal with X-Trans files, and hence used DxO Pure RAW to transform the files into a DNG and only then processed them in Lightroom.
Unfair?
Well, he did the same with Canon files, but DxO did not bring any benefits in terms of sharpness to the Canon files, as opposed to Fujifilm X-Trans files, which definitely saw an improvement if passed through the DxO engine.
The result: the Fujifilm X-H2 and the Canon R5 both delivered very comparable results. Sometimes in certain areas he preferred the details on the X-H2, sometimes on the R5. But overall, both delivered absolutely excellent results.
Not bad for the Fujifilm combo, which costs about half as much as the Canon combo.
Look, RAW files are intended to be processed. And it’s up to everyone to decide how to do that.
But if you own X-Trans cameras and use Lightroom, then using DxO as a plug-in is definitely a recommended step to take into your post processing workflow.
Not mentioned by Ian in the video is the new DxO “DeepPRIME XD” support for X-Trans files, which is clearly superior to the more basic “DeepPRIME”. Now it really handles noise especially in dark areas much better.
The Gear