DSLR Noise Reduction

I'm assuming the \"DSL Noise Reduction\" is the problem but...

I have a \"test image\" of a friend of mine - an older pock marked face that needs to be shaved with strong pores. It turns out to be an excellent image for comparing image detail.

What I found is that if I convert it with Adobe Camera Raw I get the maximum amount of detail (and it looks very natural), next is Fuji EX software (less detail, but also less natural), then C1 (very natural, less detail), then Bibble (by far the worst). Note that ACR beating Fuji EX is contrary to what I've read - EX is supposed to be the best by far.

The C1 image isn't bad - it's acceptable, but in general I want the absolute amount of detail, even if I'm going to blur it out later.

In any case, I tried every combination I could - exposure, contrast, saturation, and of course sharpening and could not get as much detail as ACR. Using sharpening I could get closer, but to get it there, the sharpening started to look unnatural.

Based on posts in other forums and the fact that the detail actually looks a bit, well, \"softened\", I'm inclined to think it might be the DSLR noise reduction, which has no \"off\" setting (just \"minimum\").

I know there have been requests to have an \"off\" for this DSLR noise reduction. Is this going to happen soon? The posts requesting it that I saw went back to 2002!

Or is there something else in the Fuji S2 engine that just doesn't yield quite as much detail as ACR?

Thanks.