Fujifilm Dynamic Range Explained: What DR100, DR200, and DR400 Actually Do

Fujifilm’s Dynamic Range (D-Rng) system is one of the most useful tools for handling high-contrast scenes, especially if you shoot JPEGs. It helps protect your highlights so bright areas hold color and detail instead of washing out to pure white.

Think of Dynamic Range as a built-in highlight recovery step. The camera captures an intentional underexposure, then brightens only the darker tones during JPEG processing. This lifts the shadows and midtones while leaving the highlights mostly untouched.

It is not as strong as what you can do in Lightroom or Capture One, but it works well when you need good JPEGs straight out of the camera or when the contrast is just a bit too high.

The Dynamic Range setting is not the same as Dynamic Range Priority found in newer Fujifilm cameras. Read this post for the differences between Dynamic Range and Dynamic Range Priority.

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How Dynamic Range Differs from HDR

Dynamic Range uses one exposure. HDR uses multiple exposures merged together.

D-Rng is quick, subtle, and meant for real-time shooting. HDR is more heavy-handed and better suited for tripod work or extreme contrast scenes. Fujifilm also offers in-camera HDR processing on newer bodies, but that is a different feature entirely.

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How Fujifilm Dynamic Range Works

Dynamic Range is simple once you understand the basic idea:

1. The camera captures an underexposed image (for instance, using a faster shutter speed).
2. During JPEG processing, the camera brightens the midtones and shadows.
3. The brightest highlights remain mostly unchanged, preserving detail.
4. Film simulation and tone settings shape the final contrast.

The result: a JPEG with more highlight detail and slightly softer contrast.

DR Settings

• DR100%: Off. No adjustment.
• DR200%: Underexposes by one stop. Requires a minimum ISO (varies by model).
• DR400%: Underexposes by two stops. Requires a higher minimum ISO.
• AUTO DR: Chooses between DR100 and DR200 automatically.

If you use Auto ISO with Dynamic Range, the camera will raise ISO as needed for DR200/DR400 as long as your ISO ceiling is high enough.

It’s easiest to see how Fujifilm Dynamic Range works by looking at photos. The differences are subtle, so I’ve included the histograms.

Please note that these photos use Lightroom to simulate DR400 processing, to illustrate the steps that the camera processor takes.

Dynamic Range processing example

1 – This is the image that you’re exposing for, having set your aperture, shutter, and/or ISO.

2 – This is what’s recorded by the sensor, an overall underexposure.

3 – During JPEG processing, the darker areas of the image are then increased to bring the image back to what you expected, without “blowing out” the bright areas.

DR400 can look a bit flat depending on your film simulation, so it’s worth experimenting.

If the contrast is extreme, you may prefer to shoot RAW and handle recovery manually. But for JPEG shooters who want strong straight-out-of-camera results, Dynamic Range is a powerful tool.

Using Dynamic Range Bracketing

You can bracket DR settings to compare results. Find your camera’s bracket settings (either in the Shooting Menu or Drive button menu) and set up the Dynamic Range Bracket.

As long as you’ve set the minimum ISO required for DR400 (camera-dependent), the camera will make three exposures at all D-Rng levels.

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Does Dynamic Range Affect RAW Files?

Yes, but not in the same way it affects JPEGs.

Two important points:

1. The underexposure is real. DR200 and DR400 use faster shutter speeds or smaller apertures (depending on the mode), so the sensor records less light.
2. Your RAW converter may apply the curve. Some software (like Capture One) automatically applies Fujifilm’s DR tonal curve to the RAW preview. Others do not, so you may initially see a darker file.

A DR400 capture preserves more highlight detail than DR100 because of the intentional underexposure. But the tradeoff is more noise in the shadows once you brighten them.

If you consistently shoot bright, high-contrast scenes, DR200 or DR400 can give you a better RAW starting point. Just be aware of the noise tradeoff.

The comparison below is from Capture One with a Linear Response curve applied to the RAW files. I didn’t adjust anything else; it’s all “zeroed out.” DR100 is on the left, and DR400 is on the right.

You can see that the DR400 RAW file starting point retains more detail in the highlight areas than the DR100 RAW file starting point. Looking at the exposure information (shutter speed), the sensor captured two stops of underexposure when the camera ISO setting was raised to 640 to use DR400, and this faster shutter speed is what helped preserve those highlights. Capture One then applied the DR400 curve.

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How to Use Fujifilm Dynamic Range for JPEGs

Dynamic Range works best when you expose for the shadows and let the DR system protect your highlights.

Here is a simple approach:

1. Start at DR100%. This turns the feature off so you can judge contrast naturally.
2. Adjust exposure until shadows are not crushed. Keep the bulk of the histogram slightly left of center, but not piled up on the left wall.
3. Check your highlights. If highlights are stuck to the right wall, note how many clicks of Exposure Compensation/exposure variable change you need to pull them back.
4. Return to your original exposure. Then set DR200 (for one stop) or DR400 (for two stops) to compensate.

Step 1 & 2: Shadows aren’t crushed, but highlights are fairly bright:

Step 3: Pull the highlights down and count how many stops of change you made.

Step 4: Push your exposure back up to where it was and set DR200 for one stop or DR400 for two stops.

If the scene requires three stops or more of highlight protection, it is simply too contrasty for Dynamic Range. Choose which tones matter most or shoot RAW.

Using the Q Menu for RAW Files

When viewing RAWs in playback, you can press Q and reduce DR settings during in-camera RAW conversion.

You cannot increase the DR level; only lower it.

When to Use Fujifilm Dynamic Range

Use DR200 or DR400 when:

• The sky is bright and you want color, not white patches
• You are shooting street scenes with strong sun and shade
• Your film simulation has high contrast (Velvia, Classic Chrome, Acros)
• You need usable JPEGs immediately
• You want a cleaner highlight starting point for RAW

Use DR100 when:

• The scene is low-contrast
• You want maximum shadow detail with minimum noise
• You prefer to handle tonal adjustments in RAW

Dynamic Range will not fix every contrast problem, but it is a valuable tool for Fujifilm shooters, especially if your goal is strong images straight out of the camera.

If you want to go deeper into in-camera JPEG workflows and film simulation control, the Perfect Fujifilm In-Camera JPEGs course covers this in much more detail.