Phocus 4.2 Fixed Import Presets but Won't Tell You Which One It Applied!

If you read this blog, you know the refrain: stay on Phocus 4.1.1, skip 4.1.2. The two 4.1.2 regressions were bad enough to avoid, and Phocus 4.2 cleared them, so the wait is over. I walked through that upgrade in an earlier post.

The regression fixes weren't the whole release, though. Hasselblad's notes led with new features and never mentioned the regressions at all, and they skipped a quieter fix too, one I'd been tracking since Phocus 4 first shipped last August. If you import your .3FR files with an HNCS preset selected, this one is for you. The Import dialog's Adjustment dropdown finally does something. The catch is that Phocus won't tell you it did.

Key finding: Phocus 4.2 finally applies the HNCS preset you choose in the Import dialog's Adjustment dropdown, a control that did nothing since Phocus 4 launched. The catch: 4.2 gives no clear sign of which preset is active, even though that preset sets the baseline for every edit you make afterward.

Did Phocus 4.2 fix the import preset bug?

Yes. In Phocus 4.2 the HNCS preset you select in the Import dialog's Adjustment dropdown is applied to every image as it imports. I tested it with Portrait and Nature on .3FR files from the X2D II, and both arrived rendered with the chosen preset, not the Standard baseline.

For the better part of a year, that dropdown did nothing. You picked Nature, you picked Portrait, you imported, and every file landed at the plain Standard rendering anyway. I documented the original behavior in my Phocus 4.x guide; the short version is that import-time preset selection had no effect at all. If you are still on 4.1.x, it is still broken, which is one more reason to update.

Why can't you tell which preset is applied?

Because Phocus 4.2 does not surface it anywhere obvious. The preset shapes the render, but nothing in the interface tells you whether you are looking at Nature or Standard. The preset's RGB curve does not appear in the Curves tool even though it is bending the image, and the edit history notes that an adjustment exists without naming which preset it was.

The only reliable way I have found to confirm a preset is in effect is to switch the Adjustments dropdown to Standard and watch the histogram jump. That works, but it is a strange way to check that a feature did what you asked. The preset sets the baseline for every adjustment you make after it, so not seeing it is more than cosmetic. The preset name is recorded in the image's sidecar file once you commit an edit, so the information exists, it just never makes it back to the interface.

The bottom line

One more reason 4.2 is the version to be on. The import preset fix closes a gap that had been open since launch, even if Phocus still won't tell you which preset it applied. I track the full fix-and-bug status on the Phocus known issues page.

References

1. Phocus 4.2 Fixes Both 4.1.2 Regressions
2. Phocus 4.x for Mac: Known Issues and Bug Reports
3. Phocus 4.x for Mac User Guide