From JPEG to RAW: How One Setting Transformed the Way I Edit X-T100 Photos

Let's be honest: the X-T100's JPEGs are genuinely good. Fujifilm has spent decades perfecting its in-camera processing, and those Film Simulation modes — Classic Chrome, Velvia, Eterna — do a lot of heavy lifting before you even open a single editing app. For a lot of photographers, that's enough. Point, shoot, share. Done.

But somewhere along the way, I started noticing a ceiling. A shot I loved compositionally would come back from a golden-hour hike looking a little too orange. A portrait taken indoors under mixed lighting would have a color cast I couldn't fully correct. The JPEG had already made its decisions, and I was stuck negotiating with them.

That's when I flipped the X-T100 over to RAW — and honestly, I haven't looked back.

What's Actually Different About a RAW File

When your X-T100 shoots a JPEG, the camera processes the raw sensor data internally: it applies noise reduction, sharpening, white balance, and whichever Film Simulation you've selected, then compresses everything into a finished image. It's fast, convenient, and the results are often genuinely beautiful.

A RAW file — specifically the .RAF format Fujifilm uses — skips most of that processing. What you get instead is the full, uncompressed sensor data: all 24.2 megapixels of it, with no decisions baked in yet. White balance? Adjustable after the fact, with zero quality loss. Exposure slightly off? You've got significantly more room to push and pull. Highlights blown out on a bright sky? There's a decent chance that detail is still sitting in the file, waiting to be recovered.

The trade-off is real, though. RAF files from the X-T100 typically run between 25–35MB each, compared to roughly 8–12MB for a compressed JPEG. If you're shooting a full day out at a national park or a family event, that storage difference adds up fast. You'll also need editing software — Lightroom, Capture One, or even the free Darktable — to actually view and process them.

The Moment RAW Earns Its Keep

Not every shooting situation screams "switch to RAW." But there are a handful of scenarios where the format genuinely earns its keep.

High-contrast lighting. This is the big one. Think midday sun on a beach, a sunlit window in a darker room, or that classic problem of shooting a subject against a bright sky. The X-T100's sensor does a solid job, but dynamic range is finite. RAW gives you the best possible chance of holding onto detail in both the shadows and the highlights simultaneously — detail that a JPEG might have already discarded.

Mixed or tricky white balance. Shooting under fluorescent office lights, at a venue with colored stage lighting, or during that weird transitional hour when sunlight and artificial light are competing? White balance correction in RAW is lossless. In a JPEG, you're color-grading an already-processed image, which can introduce banding or muddiness if you push it far.

Portraits and skin tones. Fujifilm's skin tone rendering is well-regarded, but if your subject is lit unevenly or the ambient light is doing something funky, having the full RAW data means you can fine-tune color and tone without worrying about degrading the image.

Anything you really care about. Honestly, if you drove three hours to shoot a specific landscape, or you're photographing something that can't be repeated — a wedding, a once-in-a-lifetime trip, a kid's first steps — RAW is cheap insurance.

A Real-World Editing Example

Here's a scenario that sold me completely. I was shooting in the Smoky Mountains around sunset, and I underexposed a wide shot by about a stop and a half because I was trying to protect the sky. The JPEG version looked dark and muddy — the shadows were basically gone, and pushing them in post introduced visible noise and a greenish cast.

The RAF file from the same shot? I pulled the shadows up in Lightroom, brought the highlights down slightly, and had a fully usable image with clean detail across the frame. The color noise was minimal and easy to manage. That shot ended up being one of my favorites from the whole trip. The JPEG version was trash.

That's the RAW advantage in a nutshell: it gives you a second chance to get it right.

Does the X-T100's Sensor Handle RAW Well?

Short answer: yes, surprisingly well for a camera in this price bracket. The 24.2MP APS-C sensor has decent dynamic range — not class-leading, but genuinely capable. In Lightroom, I consistently get usable shadow recovery of two to three stops, and highlight recovery is solid too, especially if you're not wildly overexposed.

One thing worth knowing: Fujifilm's X-Trans color filter array (used on higher-end X-series cameras) is NOT on the X-T100. The X-T100 uses a more conventional Bayer sensor, which is actually great news for RAW shooters — Bayer files are better supported across editing software, and you won't run into the occasional softness issues that X-Trans files can have in some apps.

When to Stick With JPEG

RAW isn't always the right call, and there's no shame in leaning on the X-T100's excellent JPEG engine when it makes sense.

If you're shooting casually — street photography, everyday snapshots, travel moments you want to share immediately — JPEG is faster, smaller, and often genuinely great. The Film Simulations are part of the X-T100 experience, and there's something to be said for a finished image that looks exactly how you envisioned it without any post-processing.

Sports or burst shooting? JPEG makes more sense because the X-T100's buffer handles JPEG sequences better than RAW, and you'll generate thousands of files that you probably don't need to individually tweak.

The sweet spot for many photographers is shooting RAW+JPEG simultaneously — the X-T100 supports this — so you get the immediate usability of the JPEG alongside the safety net of the RAW file. Yes, it eats storage faster, but a couple of extra SD cards are a lot cheaper than missing a shot you can't fix.

Making the Switch Without the Overwhelm

If you've been JPEG-only up to this point, the jump to RAW doesn't have to be dramatic. Start with free software like Adobe Lightroom (subscription) or the one-time-purchase Capture One Express for Fujifilm. Import a handful of RAF files and just play around — push the exposure slider, try the white balance dropper, see what the shadow recovery actually looks like.

You don't have to overhaul your entire workflow overnight. Shoot a weekend in RAW, compare the editing flexibility to what you're used to, and see if it changes how you think about exposure while you're shooting. For a lot of X-T100 users, that's the real hidden benefit: knowing you have more latitude in post actually makes you more confident behind the camera.

And that confidence? That shows up in the photos.