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Phocus 4.0

mristuccia

mristuccia

Well-known member
As much as I like the idea of ditching the FFF format in favor of the original 3FR, unfortunately right now the new version of Phocus does not seem to fully support it.
Problems I've found so far when editing 3FR files:
  • Star voting:
    it simply does not work.

  • Color voting:
    My color voting has been lost more than once when I close and reopen Phocus.

  • Size:
    I’ve discovered that FFF files are usually smaller because they contain a loss-less compressed RAW version of the image, while 3FRs contain uncompressed images. At least this is true for 100mpx RAW images.

  • 3FR editing:
    Despite the common belief, I’ve always found Phocus to be pretty fast and responsive when working with FFF files (when there are no TIFFs in the working folder!!!). However, editing 3FR files is significantly slower and more cumbersome. The visual feedback to any slider change is not immediate, sometimes taking several seconds.

  • Adjustment Browser:
    The "Embedded" tab of the "Adjustment Browser" tool, which I always use to keep different editings of the same image, does not list export events anymore. Moreover, it starts with a first status saying "Failed to read settings!". It seems however that each editing step is still tracked and that manual "snapshots" can still be created. So, I'm not sure how much of a problem this one is in particular.

  • Editing history storage:
    I never liked having sidecar files around. I've always found the original concept of storing the full editing history within the FFF brilliant.

  • Copy development settings (Modify):
    Currently, it seems not possible to copy development settings from one image to another through the usual "Modify..." option of the right-button context menu. The item is greyed out.

  • Thumbnails:
    Image thumbnails are not updated according to the current editing.
Now, since FWIK with this new version there is no way to generate FFF files from 3FRs, except when tethering, one is forced to live with all these new issues.
I think I'm rolling back to version 3 till 3FR support is well working and stable.

Any experiences from the few braves who use Phocus instead of LR?

Edit: other forum members reported that by not mounting the digital back as "mass storage" and browsing camera images under the "Devices" area of Phocus 4.0's left sidebar it is still possible to import in FFF format.
 
Last edited:
T

TimothyHyde

Subscriber Member
Interesting, thank you. Two things. When I upload images directly from the camera, they come in as FFFs. Not sure why. I only get the 3FRs when uploading from a card. Second, I prefer the 3FRs for HNNR noise removal, which is not available in FFF . I do most my editing and conversion in LR anyway, where I haven't noticed sluggish behavior.
Tim
 
KlausJH

KlausJH

Well-known member
mristuccia said:
As much as I like the idea of ditching the FFF format in favor of the original 3FR, unfortunately right now the new version of Phocus does not seem to fully support it.
Problems I've found so far when editing 3FR files:
  • Star voting:
    it simply does not work.

  • Color voting:
    My color voting has been lost more than once when I close and reopen Phocus.

  • Size:
    I’ve discovered that FFF files are usually smaller because they contain a loss-less compressed RAW version of the image, while 3FRs contain uncompressed images. At least this is true for 100mpx RAW images.

  • 3FR editing:
    Despite what someone always said, I've always found Phocus very fast and responsive when working with FFF files (and when no TIFFs are in the working folder!!!). Instead, editing 3FR files is slow and cumbersome. The visual feedback to any slider change is not immediate, sometimes it takes many seconds.
  • Despite the common belief, I’ve always found Phocus to be pretty fast and responsive when working with FFF files (when there are no TIFFs in the working folder!!!). However, editing 3FR files is significantly slower and more cumbersome. The visual feedback to any slider change is not immediate, sometimes taking several seconds.

  • Adjustment Browser:
    The "Embedded" tab of the "Adjustment Browser" tool, which I always use to keep different editings of the same image, does not list export events anymore. Moreover, it starts with a first status saying "Failed to read settings!". It seems however that each editing step is still tracked and that manual "snapshots" can still be created. So, I'm not sure how much of a problem this one is in particular.

  • Editing history storage:
    I never liked having sidecar files around. I've always found the original concept of storing the full editing history within the FFF brilliant.

  • Copy development settings (Modify):
    Currently, it seems not possible to copy development settings from one image to another through the usual "Modify..." option of the right-button context menu. The item is greyed out.

  • Thumbnails:
    Image thumbnails are not updated according to the current editing.
Now, since FWIK with this new version there is no way to generate FFF files from 3FRs, except when tethering, one is forced to live with all these new issues.
I think I'm rolling back to version 3 till 3FR support is well working and stable.

Any experiences from the few braves who use Phocus instead of LR?
Click to expand...
All that above and screen calibration doesn't work with 3FR either. 4.0 seems to be in a very early beta stage. I go back to 3.8.6
 
mristuccia

mristuccia

Well-known member
TimothyHyde said:
Interesting, thank you. Two things. When I upload images directly from the camera, they come in as FFFs. Not sure why. I only get the 3FRs when uploading from a card. Second, I prefer the 3FRs for HNNR noise removal, which is not available in FFF . I do most my editing and conversion in LR anyway, where I haven't noticed sluggish behavior.
Tim
Click to expand...

By "upload images directly from camera" I assume you're meaning when tethering. That's correct, this is the only case where you still get FFFs, I've mentioned it in my post. I think this will change very soon.

I don't think that 3FR file specs are changed, so LR works as usual. The news is that Phocus now allows 3FR editing, and it seems that there is the intention to shift towards the exclusive use of 3FRs and the discontinuation of FFFs as a legacy format.
 
P

pflower

Active member
I think that has always been the case. The difference in v4.0 is that having downloaded the 3FR files you can't then export them as 3fff files within the current v4.0 release. At least that is the case with my new X2D ii. The solution is that if you connect the camera but choose "skip" as opposed to "Mass Storage" you can export the 3FR files as 3fff files. Why on earth that works is beyond me. From early tests I cannot detect any difference in adjusting in Phocus 3FR files (which is now available) and adjusting 3fff files. Of course you then have to export as Tiffs if you want to edit in Lightroom or Photoshop. And you can't do that unless you download with the "skip" option.

Plus the Reproduction


KlausJH said:
Downloading (not tethering) files via USB-C cable results in 3FR files by me.
Click to expand...

 
KlausJH

KlausJH

Well-known member
It was a typo error, 3.8.5 can be found under previous version below the 4.0 download link.
Downloading images via USB-C:
when connecting a CFV 50C to a Mac running Phocus 4.0 it shows the two SD cards under file system AND under devices.
When importing from the file system, only 3FR files get imported. When importing from devices you get .FFF files.
That is different from previous versions and seems to be undocumented.
 
Knorp

Knorp

Well-known member

NEW FEATURES IN PHOCUS UPDATE 4.0.1 (MAC)​

  • Exposure Tool: EV input text field now accepts values from –4.00 EV to +4.00 EV.
  • Fixed compare mode functionality for 3FR files.
  • Fixed star rating functionality for 3FR files.
  • Corrected vignette adjustment for the XCD35–100E lens, which previously could cause overly bright corners after export.
  • Reduced excessive memory consumption when opening folders containing many JPEG files.
  • Resolved stability issue when using Export as Previous.
  • Fixed issue where some JPEG images could not be displayed or exported.
  • Exporting 3FR files in Fast Preview format now correctly applies image settings.
 
KlausJH

KlausJH

Well-known member
Create screen calibration still doesn't work with 3FR. I wished they had an easy bug report feature.
Phocus desktop and phocus mobile still don't play nicely together. It would be a dream if edited files in the mobile version could be imported in the desktop version as 3FR or FFF with all changes for further editing.
 
bab

bab

Active member
HEIF files are strange they have the same naming as the tiff files when exporting confusing to say the least also I CANT SEEM to figure out how the editing of them in Phocus works and IPHONE doesn't yet support them.....
 
KlausJH

KlausJH

Well-known member
usm said:
My Phocus 401 on a MacBook Air M2 chrashes when editing 3FR files.
Click to expand...
MacBook Pro, Phocus 401, 3FR crashes sometimes when exporting a HEIF. Exported HEIFs can be imported to iCloud and opened on an iPhone/iPad.
.
 
usm

usm

Well-known member
I can do some adjustments, but when clicking on an other image, the thumb nail isn’t yet updated, the spinning wheel starts and ends with a crash. No side car is written.
 
mristuccia

mristuccia

Well-known member
On my MBP M3 MAX it works without crashing, but 3FR editing it is slow and cumbersome. Thumbnails get updated, but again it is a slow update.

I think they were not ready to enable 3FR editing, I suspect it was a last-minute decision and they needed to rush to have it covered for the date of X2D II release.
Let's hope they will release fixes as fast as possible, and make this new approach at least as smooth as the FFF editing was.
 
usm

usm

Well-known member
Am I doing something wrong, but the Scene calibration (LCC) doesn't work on imported 3FR files in Phocus 4?
 
KlausJH

KlausJH

Well-known member
usm said:
Am I doing something wrong, but the Scene calibration (LCC) doesn't work on imported 3FR files in Phocus 4?
Click to expand...
As I said before, it didn't work in 4.0.0 and still doesn't work in 4.0.1. I hope they will fix it.
 
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