SIGMA X3F RAW development

• About Affinity Photo
• Conclusion
• Comparison of development results

About Affinity Photo
Affinity Photo is an image editing software available for Cross platform(Mac / Windows / iPad) with a Raw develop function.
This raw development function is compatible with X3F used by Sigma’s SD (SD9/SD10/SD14/SD15/SD1/SD quattro) and DP (DP1,2,3/DP1,2,3 Merrill/dp0,1,2,3 quattro) series.
As of 2023, Affinity Photo2 has been released, but there seems to be no difference in terms of raw development (I tried Affinity Photo2 for a month when it was released, but I could not see any clear difference between it and the older version in my usage, so I did not sign up for the update. I didn’t sign up for the update because I didn’t see any clear difference between the old version and Affinity Photo2.) I did not sign up for the update.

Conclusion
Although SPP can be slow and unstable, it displays a list of images in a folder using thumbnails, from which you can select files to process and develop them, allowing consistent preprocessing in a single software package.
Slight corrections can be made after default or Auto processing to produce a good-looking image.
There are many minor complaints, such as the fact that the develop folder is always the same as the original folder, but this is all that is needed.

Since Affinity Photo is specialized for developing, it is not possible to display a list of images in a folder. Therefore, you need to start SPP, display the list of images in the folder, and develop the images by dragging and dropping the desired files from the viewfinder. Although it is inconvenient to use a single software to complete the process, the software is highly stable, and the operability is easy to use, although it is a matter of familiarity with Affinity.
The default settings have a strong sense of materiality, so it is tempting to change the settings in various ways, but the balance of adjustments is more difficult than with SPP because false colors sometimes occur in the middle of the process, but you can achieve the image you like if you push the settings to the limit.
The price of this software is not that high, so it is worthwhile to have one if you are a Foveon user.

Comparison of development results
Since Affinity is a valuable software that can process difficult X3F images, we compared the development results with SPP6.8.3.
The following figures were captured and scaled down from the results of Affinity using the Apple engine as the development engine and SPP6.8.3 using the defaults at the time of shooting (Auto was not used).

Raw-X3F on DP3 Merrill
The parameters at the time of shooting were as follows.

Comparing the default settings, the SPP default is saturated (entire right side), the cat has a strong reddish tint, and the rendering feels sharp; Affinity has a mild, sleepy feel, although the exposure state is good.

SPP is saturated, so I set the SPP exposure to -0.8.
The detail of the leaf in the lower right corner of SPP appears. The blacks are also tightened.

A magnified view of the cat’s forehead confirms the darker black and higher sharpness of the SPP.

I increased the sharpness of Affinity by 50%. I’m more concerned about black clipping than sharpness.

Affinity black point was changed to 7%, and as I zoomed in, I started to notice some false colors.

I feel that SPP has the know-how on how to increase sharpness and suppress false colors that are characteristic of Foveon.
I feel that Affinity can be driven in the same way, but I believe that research is needed to determine if the parameters once determined can be used universally. I would also like to compare the results with another image when I have time.

Reference links

• Affinity-Raw-Help-documents