FastRAWviewer is not just an imageviewer like there are so many on the market today. Fastrawviewer lets you view RAW files really fast and the latest Beta version also supports the smaller Sony A1, A7IV and A7R5 RAW files. The support by the developper is really good! Finally someone who listens to customers.

You can view the exif data and even customize what is important to you in a seperate window.

Why would you use another viewer while we can view our images in Adobe Bridge, Lightroom, Capture One or any other application supporting RAW files?

Time is money and I don’t need any fancy viewer with a modern gui but a tool that gets the job done and I don’t need an application where I first have to import the files to be able to view them.

I do all my RAW editing in Capture One Pro 23. It is my favorite RAW editor but I also use it to finalize the finished photoshop files and export them in several formats.

But… As a viewer and for fast culling I use FastRAWviewer. Even when I want to view RAW files on my synology NAS (with gigabit connection) the viewing speed is top notch.

I do like the “Loupe” function in Capture One Pro. It is something FastRAWviewer does not have.

Maybe the developper can implement this in a future version?

After a shoot the first thing I do is to copy all RAW files to a fast SSD but before doing that I start Capture One Pro.

By default Capture One Pro creates four folders.

• Capture

• Selects

• Trash

• Output

Before I copy the images from SDcard I close Capture One.

Then I copy all RAW files into the “Capture” folder that has just been created by Capture One pro.

For culling images the selected files need to go into the “Selects”' folder. This is done in FastRAWviewer.

FastRAWviewer can display both embedded JPG and the RAW file.

I already told you the RAW images load really fast but you can also check for unsharp pictures by activating the contrast detection. Look how fast this goes.

I rarely rate my photos. When I like a photo I move the RAW file to the selects folder. This is done by selecting the “Move Selects” key on my StreamDeck XL.

I assigned the shortcut (CTRL + Shift + S) to this key.

Bad photos are also moved to the “Trash” folder.

Shortcuts in FastRAWviewer are fully customizable!

Not all software manufactors support this and for this reason not all software is really usable (like ON1 RAW) with a AZERTY Keyboard.

(For example bracket keys [ ] are used a lot as a standard for changing the brush size. Using an AZERTY (Belgian Keyb) you cannot use these bracket keys at all because we first have to combine this key with the ALTGR key.)

To be able to assign the keys you need to go into preferences and modify these two input fields.

..\Trash

..\Selects

These will also be visble when selecting a RAW file and pressing the right mouse button.

You can rotate images, zoom in & out or check for highlights and shadows.

If you want to view your image a stop brighter you can do this in thirds of a stop or even change the white balance.

Changes are stored in an xml file. Your RAW file remains unedited.

I guess the xml file is not fully compatible with Capture One Pro because the xml files are generated by Adobe standards. This is not an issue because I don’t need this anyway.

I also love the layout. Nothing fancy but it shows you what you need.

You can also compare files in one window by activating the Multi-Window.

Conclusion:

This is not an indepth review of FastRAWviewer but my personal experience in every day use and my workflow with Capture One pro.

The software only costs 30 Euro and that is an absolute bargain.

When you quickly want to view your RAW images there is in my opnion no better software available on the market today.

I also tried “Photo Mechanic Plus” but it is far more expensive and less user friendly.

It is a RAW viewer and I understand the developpers goal was to create the best and fastest RAW viewer and he succeeded.

However I would love if one day fastRAWviewer supports Photoshop PSD and PSB files too like Adobe Bridge.

I don’t know if it is possible to configure the mouse wheel as zoom instead of scrolling up or down. Move to the position you want to enlarge and scroll and press the mouse wheel for panning. That would be nice.

The program cannot export to jpg or another format. When I deliver my converted RAW files to JPG to my clients for selection purposes I still need to use Irfanview and it does the job really well. I would love fastRAWviewer would implement an export function but with fully customizable text on top like free text but EXIF info and ratings too.

However, these are not disadvantages or shortcomings in the software, but only wishes to make the software even more complete.

Rating: 9/10.