My Film Simulation Recipes are popular, but programming them into your Fujifilm camera can be confusing for those trying to use them for the first time. A little over three years ago I published an article explaining how, but I think, with the new X100VI coming out, it would be worthwhile to try again, and perhaps offer a little more clarity. If you are new to Film Simulation Recipes, then this article is for you!
To start with, there are some variances between models. It’s important to read your camera’s manual, which thankfully Fujifilm makes easy: click here to find your owner’s manual online. For most cameras, within the manual, navigate to the Shooting Menus set, select Image Quality Setting (Still Photography), and finally Edit/Save Custom Setting. For example, click here to view this for the X-T5. Also, I’ve included a screenshot of this section from the X100V manual below. Everything you need to know for your specific camera is found in your manual, so that’s why it’s important to review it first.
There’s an easy shortcut for navigating to the Edit/Save Custom Settings Menu. Simply press the Q-Button, which brings up the Quick Menu, then press-and-hold the Q-Button, which activates the Edit/Save Custom Settings Menu. This shortcut works on most Fujifilm cameras. A shortcut to edit the Quick Menu is to press-and-hold the Q-Button from outside of the Quick Menu.
A Film Simulation Recipe is simply a set of JPEG parameters that produce a certain look straight-out-of-camera, mostly inspired by film stocks. Each Recipe contains a specific set of settings that must be programmed into your camera, either in the Edit/Save Custom Settings Menu or the IQ Menu. The newer the camera, the more options and parameters there are to program.
On the latest cameras, a Film Simulation Recipe contains: Film Simulation, Dynamic Range, Grain Effect, Color Chrome Effect, Color Chrome FX Blue, White Balance and WB Shift, Highlight, Shadow, Color, Sharpness, Noise Reduction, Clarity, ISO, and Exposure Compensation. All of those settings together make up a Recipe. The older the camera, the fewer parameters there are, and might only include: Film Simulation, Dynamic Range, White Balance and WB Shift, Highlight, Shadow, Color, Sharpness, Noise Reduction, ISO, and Exposure Compensation. On the newer models, Noise Reduction was renamed High ISO NR (it is the same thing) and Highlight and Shadow were combined into Tone Curve.
One parameter that cannot be saved is “Typical Exposure Compensation.” On most Fujifilm cameras, there is an Exposure Compensation knob on the top of the camera, which is where this is adjusted (unless you are in Manual Mode, in which case you’ll have to do it manually). An important note is that the suggested Exposure Compensation in each Recipe is only meant to be a starting point, and not a rule; each exposure should be judged individually. Also, most often I use Auto-ISO, but it is certainly alright to manually set the ISO. You might prefer different ISO parameters than what I like, and that is perfectly fine. It’s always ok to “season to taste” any Recipe to make it work better for you.
Most Fujifilm cameras have seven Custom Settings (sometimes called Custom Presets), that are often referred to as C1-C7. The X-S10 and X-S20 have only four (C1-C4), and I believe there are some GFX cameras with six (C1-C6). Edit/Save Custom Settings is where you’ll program Film Simulation Recipes into your camera; however, some older Fujifilm models don’t have Custom Settings. In that case, you’ll program the desired Recipe parameters into the IQ Menu subset. Also, the newest Fujifilm models will allow you to program a Recipe into the IQ Menu subset in addition to the Custom Settings presets (basically, a bonus Recipe).
An important side note is that the Fujifilm X-T3 and X-T30 (however, not the X-T30 II), along with all of the cameras that came before it—X-Trans I, X-Trans II, X-Trans III, and older GFX—cannot save a White Balance Shift within the Custom Settings. Only the newer cameras can: X-Trans IV (except for the X-T3/X-T30), X-Trans V, and newer GFX. For those models that cannot save a WB Shift within the Custom Settings, you’ll have to program it from within the White Balance Menu found within the IQ Menu set. Also, those cameras will only remember one WB Shift per WB type, so choosing Recipes that either share the same WB Shift or use different WB types will make the user experience more enjoyable.
I don’t have any step-by-step instructions to program a Film Simulation Recipe into your specific camera, because there are variances between some models, and each step can be slightly different. It’s not difficult to program a Film Simulation Recipe, and once you’ve done it a couple of times it becomes quite easy. It’s just getting through the first time or two that can be confusing. Should you find yourself stuck, there are a few videos on YouTube that walk you through the process. If you are a visual learner, you might find these especially helpful to you: How to Save Fujifilm Simulation Recipes by Scott Dawson, Fujifilm Film Simulation Recipes — How to Find & Save Them by Craig Pitts, and What are Fuji Film Simulation Recipes — Getting Started by TB-Photography. Even if you have a different model than what’s in those videos, the process for most cameras is similar enough that you should be able find your way through.
For those with the newest cameras, Custom Settings saves more than just your Recipes, but literally most camera settings, including focus preferences and even sound settings. My best recommendation is to program C1 with everything just as you want it to be, then copy that preset to the other C2-C7 (or C2-C4), so that they’re all exactly the same. Then, you just have to update them with the Film Simulation Recipe parameters for the specific Recipes that you wish to program. I also recommend disabling Auto Update Custom Setting. If your camera doesn’t have those options, then disregard this paragraph.
A common question is what about the settings that aren’t in the Film Simulation Recipe? What should those be set to? There are some options that are user-preference, so I don’t provide those as Recipe parameters. Choose whatever works for you. Let me touch on a few of them real quick, though.
I most often choose Image Size Large 3:2. I used to shoot with Image Quality Fine, but now choose Fine+RAW, as the RAW files can be reprocessed in-camera, which makes creating new Film Simulation Recipes much easier. My RAW files are Uncompressed. I choose JPEG over HEIF because Clarity isn’t available with HEIF (by the way, Clarity causes a short storing pause when set to anything other than 0). I don’t like Smooth Skin Effect personally, so I set it to Off. Lens Modulation Optimizer is often set to On, but it can be interesting when set to Off. Color Space is sRGB, as I had a bad experience once many years ago with AdobeRGB and have avoided it ever since. I usually use Multi Mode for metering (Photometry), but sometimes I use Spot.
There are over 300 Film Simulation Recipes in the Fuji X Weekly App, which is free (consider becoming an App Patron to unlock the best experience and to support this website), and available for both Android and Apple. Otherwise, find them here:
EXR Recipes
Bayer Recipes
GFX Recipes
X-Trans I Recipes
X-Trans II Recipes
X-Trans III Recipes
X-Trans IV Recipes
X-Trans V Recipes
If you are not sure which Film Simulation Recipes to try first, no problem! I have several articles that might help with this, including:
Which Film Simulation Recipe, When?
The Essential 7 Film Simulation Recipes to Program Into Your Fujifilm Camera First
Try These 3 Film Simulation Recipes, No Matter Your Fujifilm Camera
Helping You Decide Which Film Simulation Recipes to Choose
See also: Answers to the 10 Most Common Fujifilm How-To Questions
One could only dream that FujiFilm one day would update their Xapp to allow storing presets. If one could store their presets (Film Sim Recipes) in the Xapp and wireless transmit it to the camera to easily and quickly update one of the 7 Custom Presets this would be great. If FujiFIlm had this feature they would kill the competition.
If your camera is supported by the new Fujifilm XApp, then you can save and restore camera settings, which include the C1-C7 custom settings. I have several sets of settings containing different sets of film recipes: a standard set, a set with Kodak colors, a nighttime set, and an experimental set.
Simply set up your preferences and save them under a specific name. Then restore whichever set you want at the time.
You can backup your camera on XApp, and save as many backups as you’d like. You could, in theory (and know people who have in actuality), save a number of backups, each with a different set of C1-C7 presets, and recall those to your camera anytime that you want.
The issue with this is that it is a full backup of your camera, and not just C1-C7. So if you made a change to an AF or fn-button or sound setting or anything else, you’ll lose that when you restore your backup. So anytime you make any sort of change that you want to keep, you have to go back and replace all of your backups, which is a hassle for sure.
It would be great if Fujifilm allowed you to store just the C1-C7 IQ settings, and push those from the App to the camera.
thank you for reintroducing the nuts and bolts procedure for creating,saving,recalling the custom presets. I do have a question though – can these custom presets be used or ‘loaded’ into the drive mode 3 filmsim-bracket function? i.e. instead of only having say acros/velvia/chrome, one can chose instead custom1/custom3/custom5 presets for the drive mode 3 image bracket function…. thanks in advance, john s.
No, unfortunately, unless the rest of the Recipe settings are identical.
https://fujixweekly.com/2021/11/09/creative-collective-002-when-film-simulation-bracket-is-actually-useful/
Are these new simulations that are added to the simulations already present in camera or do they replace some of them?
Film Simulation Recipes take existing camera settings and adjust them in order to create a certain look. All of the settings are provided in-camera by Fujifilm, but the photographer needs to set them a certain way in order to achieve specific looks.
C1-C7 come preprogrammed with film simulations, but all of the settings are preset to Auto, Off, or 0. Those are the factory defaults, and they’re ok, but a few adjustments can make them much better.
I hope this answers your question.
Many thanks Ritchie! So can we have 8 recipes in the newer cameras? I have an X100VI and I managed to have 7 recipes, how can I add the “bonus” one? Thank you!
When you’re switching between C1-C7 in the Q-menu, in-between C7 and C1 is the shooting mode, indicated by A, S, P, or M. When it is set to that, the other settings are whatever is in the IQ Menu set. So whatever you have programmed into the IQ Menu is your bonus 8th Recipe. I hope that makes sense.
https://fujifilm-dsc.com/en/manual/x100vi/menu_shooting/image_quality_setting/#gsc.tab=0
I see, thank you very much!!
You are welcome!
Hey Ritchie,
Just hopped on the Patreon-Train and wanted to say thanks for the great work and inspiration!
I have one question that bothers me – it’s not exactly related to how to setup the recipes but it kinda is somehow.
Problem.
The viewfinder selector switch won’t let me toggle between ovf/evf after I changed some personal settings and added recipes.
Yes – I did safe the settings to the x app and reset to factory settings and after that der switch works again – so I assume it isn’t a hardware flaw. Custom settings of the related button works fine all the time.
Did you or any other community member experience the same issue in their X100VI?
Might there be a setting that disables the hybrid viewfinder?
You guys are my last hope :p
Thanks in andante and happy shooting
I don’t (yet) have an X100VI, but on my X100V, the viewfinder switch toggles between OVF/EVF flawlessly. I messed with some of the settings to see if I could replicate it, but couldn’t. Is it remaining on OVF or EVF?
Hey Ritchie – thanks for your answer. It remains on EVF.
Maybe its a bug in the software – didnt get a usable answer from the camera store either since they dont have a lot of feedback regarding this.
I think i figured it out – maybe this is helpful to others:
Somehow there seems to be a problem using the 3D spirit level and the hybrid viewfinder at the same time. I started from scratch, turning all setting i altered and tried the viewfinder lever after every step and the spirit level did the trick.
Dont know if this is a software bug or if there is a hardware problem behind this.
Hope this helps.
Oh, interesting. I would never have thought of that. It’s probably a bug; or possibly it’s on purpose that you cannot use the OVF with that enabled. I’m not sure. Thanks for letting me know!
Really love the film simulations but was wondering what the best way to shift back to the standard/stock film simulations would be? I can switch back to the standard film simulation (eg Provia) but it keeps the other custom settings. Is there a simple/recommended way to shift back to standard settings/stock film simulations?
I set up one custom slot with practically no changes to the standard simulations. In this slot i use the q menu to switch modes. Maybe this helps
The factory default settings are everything set to Auto, Off or 0. You can manually set the parameters to those, or reset and leave one C1-C7 for that purpose.
Hi, let’s assume I’ve configured a few custom settings with different film simulation recipes in my Fuji X-100VI, is it then possible to apply those in the in-camera raw conversion process to create out of a single raw file different jpegs which reflect these custom film simulations?
Yes… with exceptions.
You can’t one-click do so, you have to adjust all of the individual parameters to the new Recipe (Highlight, Shadow, Color, etc., etc., etc..).
You cannot choose a Dynamic Range setting greater than what you shot with. So if you used DR100 at time of capture, you can only select DR100. If it’s DR200, than DR100 and DR200 will be available. For DR400, DR100, DR200, and DR400 will be available.
Otherwise, you can in-camera (or with X RAW Studio) convert the RAW file to a different Recipe if you’d like to.
Hi, I got my new X-T50 coming from a X-T30 and I am really frustrated to find out the Custom settings works differently.
I really don’t get it why they implemented the way it works.
1) The selection or the Edit/save of custom settings is in the IQ setting menu section. Why then a Custom setting keep other settings of the camera you find in other menu setting sections? Like AF/MF, Shooting, Flash,… That’s not logical at all. I’m in the IQ setting menu section, I expect that only what’s inside it is going to be stored/saved.
2) Fujifilm is well aware about the community and the success of their film simulation and the recipes created on the top of them. Why make it harder to use the camera along with its “magic”?
They could have decided to make it work in a kind of “hybrid” way (without changing it so much).
That means you could have some “global settings” (for Shooting, AF/MF, Flash) that you can decide to keep or not in the Custom profiles.
A simple addition of the option “use global setting” would solve it, so you can select it or if you want it to be different you just set it whatever you want.
It´s ridiculous that you have to go through EVERY custom profile you would like to use to change certain things that could just be “global”.
I mean, I install a manual lens and I should go through EVERY custom profile to edit the “mount adaptor setting”? Really?
That should be a global setting, once I set it, I expect it to be the same in every custom profile.
Or how I was saying, make it the best of the two world, and when you edit a custom profile just add the option to select “global setting” for it.
I find it very VERY frustrating.
It was so easy to use different recipes, now I only see it as a pain in the ass if I want to just try to shoot with them and change them on the fly in case I make some “global adjustment”.
I mean “oh, let’s set the flash this way, let’s set the focus area this way, let’s set the photometry this way”…then you shoot, and “oh, let’s try another recipe I’ve saved in another custom setting” and you have to go through everything once again (or edit the IQ settings of that custom setting).
Depressing…really.
Also, they call them “custom setting” but would be more user friendly to call them Custom profile. Then there should be the possibility to save some sets of IQ custom settings the way it was, and recall them inside whatever Custom profile you are using.
“oh, let’s select the custom profile Sport, and yeah let’s use it with…let’s see….Kodak portra 400”
That would be something practical and that would make a difference in a positive way for everybody (because I’m well aware about the fact that some people don’t care about films simulation and recipes, and they are fine with the new way the custom settings work).
Am I missing something?
PS: I also found out a problem with the focus peaking not working with manual lenses (samyang 8mm in this case), while there is no issues with X-T30. Also no issue with other AF lenses used in manual mode. And on the X-T30 the red peaking dots are easily visible, a lot more than on the X-T50 on which is almost difficult to see them. Don’t know if the resolution might have anything to do with it…
I think beginning with the X-S10 (I first saw it personally on my X-E4), the C1-C7 is indeed different than on the earlier models. Not only are there many more options that can be saved (beyond just the typical IQ settings that make up a Recipe), but they MUST be saved. Things like focus and even sound settings. There are, of course, advantages and disadvantages to this change. Personally, I would prefer them to be separate, but that’s not what Fujifilm has done. My strategy is to spend a little time on C1 and get it to be just as I want it, and then copy-and-paste C1 into the C2-C7, so that all of the settings are completely identical. After that, I just have to change the Recipe parameters of C2-C7 to whatever Recipes that I want to use. If there is some option that I find myself changing somewhat frequently, I will assign an FN button for that feature. After a little bit you get used to it and it becomes less of an issue. It doesn’t bother me anymore, anyway, personally. It is what it is, as they say.
I have focus peaked with many manual lenses on the X-T50 numerous times without any issues. I’m not sure if the problem is some settings issue, or maybe an issue with the Samyang lens itself? I have no idea what the problem might be, but only that I have not experienced it myself. Sorry that I’m not more helpful resolving the issue. You can reach out to Fujifilm, they might have a solution.
Hi Ritchie!
Yeh you are right, it is what it is….frustrating ahah.
I read about your strategy before posting and I know it make sense and it is helpful (and thank you for that suggestion) especially if you often use similar parameters.
Also a well set FN button, a well set My menu and a well set Q button helps fortunately.
But still, I really think what I wrote make a lot of sense: they could have just kept their way (especially taking in account the success of film sims and recipes) and not copy how other brands works.
You have a special brand that works differently from others, and it is appreciated for it, so be proud and try to make things better and easier in a logical way.
Keep Custom settings for the IQ. And add Custom user profiles, where you can set almost everything else that is not IQ.
Or make it hybrid, Custom profiles the way they are now on newer models, but with the possibility to set each parameters set as “global setting”.
Nobody would complain because it would be perfect for every type of shooters. Unless I miss something…
FOCUS PEAKING WITH MANUAL LENSES
I found the issue: in order to work properly (on the X-T50), the option “Interlock MF assist & Focus ring” has to be OFF. I don’t think it makes sense…but…it is what it is ahah
Cheers from Switzerland
Ideally, I think the way that it should work is IQ settings (Recipe parameters) in one preset, and all the other settings in another. Call the first group Custom Image Settings, and call the other group Custom Camera Settings. For Custom Image Settings, you could have C1-C7 (or increase it to more!), and for Custom Camera Settings, you could have C1-C4. That has it’s own complexities, I suppose, so I guess I can see advantages and disadvantages either way, but I think that is what would make the most sense to me.
Glad that you found the issue. I had that set to Off, but I couldn’t tell you why I chose it to be Off.
Hi Ritchie, thanks for the helpful guide. I have used your recipes for years on my x100v. I just got an x-h2 yesterday in addition to the x100v.
I’m experiencing a similar behavior as Skater with how to best understand and utilize custom settings on my xh2. On the x100, when swapping between c1 thru c7 in the q menu, the camera does not save the exposure settings to the recipe. On the xh2, it does save exposure settings to whatever you had it set at during creation (iso, aperture, ss.)
In the year and a half since publication of this guide, have you had any insights on the best way to get around this? I shoot in manual and if I’m exposing for the current scene (say a sunny day) and I switch to c2 using the dial, my exposure settings are now set to whatever it was at creation (a shady living room.)
Been a tough adjustment coming from other systems I use professionally to this camera (Nikon z series, canon R series) and trying to make it easy. Thanks and take care.
The PASM cameras are a little different because it requires more to be saved, but all of the newer cameras (X-E4 and newer) have a similar issue. I talked about it here:
https://fujixweekly.com/2024/12/15/fujifilm-please-read-a-firmware-update-idea-for-fujifilm-fixing-c1-c7-on-newer-cameras/
What I do—and I don’t have a PASM camera so it’s just a little different—is I make all of the Custom Settings presets completely identical. I get C1 programmed precisely as I want it to be, then I copy-and-paste it into the other slots. Then, I change the IQ settings to the Recipes I want in C2, C3, C4, etc.. I hope this makes sense.
Right on. That’s my plan for right now. The current workaround (not perfect) is after completely programming everything, I switch the auto update setting to “on” so that at least exposure info is retained when I turn the camera off and on. Of course, it doesn’t transfer exposure settings from preset to preset, but if I use 3 or 4 over the course of a single shooting session, at least they will all be pretty close in exposure.
This workflow would also not work for someone who likes to further refine these presets on site, like adjusting white balance and what not, because then it would change the look going forward and not return to the original settings.
Hoping your firmware update idea is heard. Thanks Ritchie and take care.
I hope so, too.