raw files (.fff) from a Hasselblad-Flextight Scanner are not recognized by rawtherapee

Ach, du bist ein MacMensch?!?
Guck mal hier:

MfG
Claes in Lund, Schweden

I don’t even see the file names.
But I researche a little more. There is a hasselblad plugin for converting fff-files in Photoshop. It might be that there has to be one for rawtherapee as well. If it is so then this should be known here in the forum. Since nobody says anything about it, my problem probably has other reasons. Gruß, Harald :frowning_face:

Which version RT are you using? fff appears to be a valid rawtherapee mime type.

So called “raw” files from a scanner are not like raw files from a digital camera! They are just linear scans. They do not need demosaicing. I would suppose that this is the reason RT does not recognize them.

Hermann-Josef

Moinchen!

First idea: rename (a copy of) your .fff to .tiff
Try to open it in rawtherapee.
Will experiment more after breakfast…

MfG
Claes in Lund, Schweden

During the years, there has been a lot of noise regarding Hasselblad’s .fff and .3fr files. Easy to find discussions on the Web. Best “solution” – or at least best way to circumvent the problem – seems to be to rename .fff to .tiff

For those wanting to test themselves, here is an official source for .3fr and .fff images: https://www.hasselblad.com/learn/sample-images/

Viel Spaß!
Claes in Lund, Schweden

Hi, Claes,

thank you for being so involved in this. The idea of simply renaming an fff file to tiff seems a little strange to me. It’s like when someone doesn’t eat bananas and you write a sign saying it’s apples.

What I’m going to do now: my scan service, a decade-long provider of high-end scans with Hasselblad Flextight, should have an opinion about this problem. I have a contact person there, to whom I will describe the problem. As soon as I have an answer from there, I will contact you again. Have a nice day …

Harald

Claes, thank you for the link with the sample-images. I downloaded one and threw it in the same folder as my flextight-scanner fff files. It immediately showed up in rewtherapee. This means that there are definitely differences between fff-Raws by Hasselblad cameras and fff-Raws by Hasselblad Scanners. That already makes it easier to describe the problem to the people at my scan-service. We’ll talk …

Harald

1 Like

@Harald Is it possible for you to share one of your fff raw files? From the RawTherapee software perspective, it would be interesting to take a closer look at why they aren’t decoded / recognized.

Maybe use https://filebin.net to share the (large) file.

2 Likes

@Thanatomanic No problem, everything that helps … But: Filebin is currently unavailable. Please retry later. (316.4MB); so either we have to wait, or alternatively you give me an email address and I send you a copy of the image via WeTransfer.

@Thanatomanic Here you will find downloadable scans to play with:

Have fun!
Claes in Lund, Sweden

FYI: The link on the bottom of that page to the “3F Package” doesn’t work for me. But after some looking around I found that this is the correct link. https://www.knowhowtransfer.com/download/sample-files/3F_Package.zip (~400 MB)

This is the actual solution. The 3F files from the scanner are simply TIFF files, but with a different extension. This can be verified easily by looking at the first few bytes of the files, it tells me “MMx0*” which is the file signature for TIFF (source: List of file signatures - Wikipedia).

@heckflosse I’m not sure how this could be implemented in RT…

1 Like

Well, fact is: At my scan service I ordered tiffs and I giot tiffs, which were not satisfying for certain reasons. I talked to them and they offered me to make a second try and if I would appreciate they’d send me the raws in addition. This will happen within the next days. But then I remembered that in this first CD-Rom there were also a raw (fff) for each tiff in a seperate folder. So maybe this brought me on a completely wrong track, 'cause these files have a fff ending but are no raw files but tiffs. Don’t ask me why they even put those on the CD-Rom, but I promise to find out. Just give me time. But so far I don’t see much sense in researching these strange files.

Please look at the Flexcolor Scanners Manual (English). On Page 10 they quite literally tell you that 3F is simply a fancy TIFF file. “The 3f file is an extended TIFF-file (…)”. Hasselblad probably doesn’t use the TIFF file extension because they embed proprietary stuff in the metadata, that may get lost when the file is processed in other software.

As for calling these images “raw”. Well, the data in the 3F file consists of 16-bit RGB pixel values. These are not raw sensor output values, which is what you’d normally expect in a photographic raw file (e.g. from a Hasselblad X1D or something).
I cannot find any information on the exact type of CCD-sensor that is used in the Flextight scanner, so some guesswork is involved. But my hunch is that it’s most likely a common Bayer-pattern color filter array sensor. That means tha they demosaic the sensor output internally and provide you with a demosaiced image.

Now for many applications and post-processing such files are perfectly fine. But if you want to do your post-processing in RawTherapee, you won’t have access to some tools, because, well, the image isn’t “raw”.

@Harald

The idea of simply renaming an fff file to tiff seems a little strange to me.

My favourite Chinese philosopher, Confused [according to Kelly Bundy], states that
Method that Works is Good Method.

It’s like when someone doesn’t eat bananas and you write a sign saying it’s apples.

Well, it sounds as if you do not have any small children:

Young son: I do not like hamburgers!
Clever mother: But these are flattened meat balls.
Young son: Wow, thank you, Mommy. They are delicious!

Have fun!
Claes in Lund, Sweden

Yeah, I just forgot. My son is already getting 30.

But seriously: The background of my concern is that postproduction on raw level is less destructive… Shame on me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that the reason to take pics in RAW?

Harald

1 Like

Yes. But your scans are not RAW. They are “enhanced tiffs”.

1 Like

O.k., here ist the statement from the professional (means, my scanservice).

English:

RAW files produced with scanners are in fact just modified TIF data. However, with the right program, they offer the same advantages.
In case of 3f data it is the FlexColor program with which the files can be processed. The program can be downloaded for free from the Hasselblad homepage.
Due to the line-by-line scanning of the image, they cannot be true raw files. The processing step that joins all the lines into one image must always be done. So scans are never “real” RAWs.

German (Original)

Mit Scannern produzierte RAW Dateien sind tatsächlich einfach modifizierte TIF Daten. Diese bieten jedoch mit dem richtigen Programm die gleichen Vorzüge.
Im Fall von 3f Daten ist es das FlexColor Programm mit dem die Dateien verarbeitet werden können. Das Programm ist kostenlos auf Hasselblad Homepage zu finden.
Echte Raw Dateien sind aufgrund der zeilenweisen Abtastung des Bildes nicht möglich. Der Bearbeitungsschritt, der alle Zeilen zu einem Bild zusammenfügt, muss immer passieren. Scans sind also niemals “echte” RAWs.

So I think we are at the end of this thread. The confusing thing is, that a fff file is not necessarily an ordinary fff file unless you know whether it was created by a camera or a scanner.
And it is now also understandable why Rawtherapee can process fff files from a camera, but not those from a scanner.

Ladies and gentlemen, it was a pleasure meeting you. See you sometime with the next problem :sunglasses:
Harald

4 Likes

It may not be the “raw” output, as the scanmeister stated, but do the fff’s from the scanner offer better bit depth/resolution, or is it really just a data reshuffle?