RAF to MTS Converter

Convert RAF to MTS: What This Tutorial Covers

A RAF is a Fujifilm raw capture — one still photograph stored as unprocessed sensor data. An .mts file is a video stream, the extension camcorders write when they record AVCHD. Turning one into the other means rendering the raw frame and then holding that single picture on screen for a set number of seconds, which produces a static, silent clip rather than moving footage.

This tutorial covers the settings that matter, the codec in the list that cannot work from a still, and the one thing most pages about this conversion get wrong: the file you get is an H.264 transport stream named .mts, which is not the same thing as an AVCHD-compliant recording.

How to Convert RAF to MTS

1. Upload Your RAF File: Drag and drop your Fujifilm .RAF files onto the page or click "+ Add Files" to browse. Queue several at once — "Merge strategy" opens on "Merge images", which lays every upload into one clip in sequence; switch it to "Video per image" to get a separate MTS for each photo.
2. Set the Image Duration: Under "Image Duration", choose how long each still is held. The dropdown runs from a single frame at 60 fps up to 10 seconds per frame, and opens on 5 seconds.
3. Pick the Video Codec and Quality: "Video Codec" offers DivX, H.264, H.265, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and Xvid, and opens on H.264 — the codec AVCHD itself uses. Leave "Quality Preset" on "Very High (Recommended)" unless you have a reason to move it.
4. Convert and Download: Click "Convert" and save your MTS. Files upload over an encrypted connection, are processed on our servers, and are deleted automatically after a few hours. No sign-up, no watermark.

Walk-through: What Actually Comes Out

Before encoding, our pipeline re-renders the raw frame as a clean PNG and clamps it to 4,096 px on the long edge, rounding both dimensions down to an even number. That matters because Fujifilm sensors are far bigger than that ceiling: a 40.2 MP X-T5 writes a 7728 × 5152 raw file, so the sanitised frame lands at exactly 4096 × 2730 before anything is encoded. The clip is then written at 1 frame per second with B-frames disabled, because identical frames gain nothing from bidirectional prediction and B-frames add a start-time offset at that rate.

Three settings do most of the work:

• If your photo does not fill the frame you asked for, the leftover space is filled with the "Background Color", which opens on White for image sources. Set it to Black if the clip is going into a dark timeline — the same colour fills the letterbox bars.
• If you want a specific frame size, "Video resolution" opens on "Keep original". Use "Fixed Resolutions" for a literal width × height such as 1920 × 1080, or "Preset Resolutions", which sets the height only and lets the width follow the photo's aspect ratio.
• If you picked a non-CRF codec, the rate control changes character. Only Quality Preset, Constant Quality and Constraint Quality are offered here — every bitrate and target-size mode is hidden on the image-to-video path — and on DivX, MPEG-4 and Xvid the Quality Preset has nothing to scale, because a still image has no source bitrate. Use Constraint Quality on those. On MPEG-2, Constant Quality is accepted and then discarded, leaving resolution as the only real control.

MTS Here vs a Real AVCHD Recording

Source for the left column: the AVCHD Format specification published by the format's co-promoters.

RAF and MTS Side by Side

Common Errors and How to Fix Them

• "The conversion failed and I had picked MPEG-1" — MPEG-1 cannot encode this path. Its bitstream only allows a fixed table of broadcast frame rates (23.976 through 60 fps), and a still is encoded at 1 fps, so the encoder rejects the stream outright. Choose H.264 instead.
• "There are white bars around my photo" — your 3:2 Fujifilm frame does not match the output shape you chose. Change "Background Color" to Black, or set a "Fixed Resolution" with the same 3:2 proportions.
• "The clip is silent" — expected, and not fixable here. A photograph carries no audio, and the audio codec control is hidden on this path. Add a soundtrack in a video editor afterwards.
• "My camcorder or Blu-ray authoring tool rejects the file" — very likely, see the table above. AVCHD players expect AC-3 or LPCM audio, a 1920 × 1080 ceiling and a disc folder structure; a single silent H.264 stream satisfies none of those.
• "Quality Preset does nothing" — you are on DivX, MPEG-4 or Xvid. Those are qscale codecs, and the preset works by scaling a source bitrate that a still image does not have. Switch to Constraint Quality, or move to H.264.
• "The colours are flatter than my camera preview" — Fujifilm Film Simulations are render-time instructions, not pixels stored in the RAF. A neutral render will not reproduce Velvia or Classic Chrome.

When This Doesn't Work

If the goal is a clip anyone can play, MTS is the wrong container to reach for. Nothing about this file needs a transport stream — RAF to MP4 produces the same rendered frame in a container that phones, browsers and editors all accept, and it is the better default unless a specific tool has told you it wants .mts. If what you actually want is a picture rather than a clip, stop here and use RAF to JPG instead. And if you need the Fujifilm look baked in, develop the RAF in Capture One, Lightroom, RawTherapee or Fujifilm's own software first, export a finished image, and convert that.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the MTS file this produces a real AVCHD file?

No, and it is worth being precise about why. The AVCHD specification requires H.264 video paired with Dolby Digital AC-3 or Linear PCM audio, inside an MPEG-2 transport stream, at 1920 × 1080 or below, laid out in a BDMV folder structure. This conversion gives you the H.264 video and the transport stream, but the clip has no audio track at all, the frame can be larger than 1080p, and it is a single loose file. Call it an H.264 transport stream with an .mts name — that is accurate, and it sets the right expectation for whatever you feed it to.

What is the difference between the .mts I get here and .m2ts?

Packet framing, decided by the output extension. .mts is written as plain 188-byte MPEG-2 transport stream packets, with the 0x47 sync byte at the very start of the file. .m2ts gets BDAV framing instead: 192-byte packets, each prefixed with a 4-byte arrival timestamp, which pushes the sync byte to offset 4. Some Blu-ray-oriented tools care about that difference and some do not, so match the extension your target software asks for.

Why is the clip only 1 frame per second?

Because there is nothing to move. A single photograph held for five seconds is five identical pictures, so the encoder is given one frame per second and told to hold it, with B-frames switched off. The playback duration is what you set under "Image Duration"; the frame rate only affects how the encoder describes the stream. It also has a side effect worth knowing: MPEG-1 refuses to encode at that rate, which is why that codec option cannot succeed here.

Do I lose my raw editing latitude converting RAF to MTS?

Yes, completely. A RAF stores what the sensor measured — 14-bit values on X-series bodies, 14 or 16-bit on GFX — which is why exposure, white balance and highlight recovery stay adjustable while the file is still raw. Encoding to MTS demosaics that data, renders it to 8-bit, and then throws away chroma detail in the 4:2:0 conversion every H.264 stream uses. Keep the original .RAF as your master; treat the MTS as a disposable delivery file.

How do I turn several RAF photos into a slideshow instead of one still?

Upload them all and leave "Merge strategy" on "Merge images". Each photo is held for the Image Duration you set and they play back to back in one clip, which is a slideshow in the literal sense — cuts, no crossfades or motion. If you would rather have a separate file per photo, switch to "Video per image" and each RAF becomes its own one-shot clip.

What resolution will the MTS actually be?

By default, whatever your photo is after the 4,096 px clamp, because "Video resolution" opens on "Keep original". A 40.2 MP X-T5 frame at 7728 × 5152 comes out at 4096 × 2730; a 102 MP GFX100 II frame at 11648 × 8736 comes out at 4096 × 3072. If you need a specific size — and for anything AVCHD-adjacent you do — set "Fixed Resolutions" to 1920 × 1080, or use "Preset Resolutions", which sets the height and lets the width follow your photo's aspect ratio.

Does the film simulation from my Fujifilm camera carry over?

No. Provia, Velvia, Astia, Classic Chrome and Acros are instructions applied when a renderer develops the raw data, not pixel values stored inside the RAF. Any neutral development ignores them, which is why the clip can look flatter than the preview on the back of the camera. If the look matters, apply it in a RAF-aware developer, export a TIFF or JPEG, and build the clip from that file instead.

Will an X-Trans RAF convert differently from a GFX RAF?

Not from your side — both are .raf and both go through the same path. Under the hood they are different sensors: most X-series bodies use the X-Trans colour filter array, a 6 × 6 non-Bayer pattern, while Fujifilm's GFX medium-format bodies use a conventional primary-colour array (the GFX100 II spec sheet lists a "102MP CMOS II HS with primary color filter"). Demosaicing an X-Trans pattern is a harder problem and different renderers reach slightly different answers, so a very close pixel-level match between two converters is not something to expect.

How big can my RAF be, and what happens to it after conversion?

The practical limit is upload size and time rather than anything on your end — Fujifilm raw files routinely run 40-80 MB each, and lossless-compressed 102 MP GFX files are larger still. Your file travels over an encrypted connection, is rendered and encoded on our servers, and is deleted automatically after a few hours. It is never shared or made public, there is no sign-up, and nothing is watermarked.