Why is the Fuji RAW file bigger than Sony and Olympus?

Started 4 months ago | Questions thread
nixda
Contributing MemberPosts: 991
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Re: Why is the Fuji RAW file bigger than Sony and Olympus?
In reply to Amnon G, 4 months ago

Amnon G wrote:

Browsing through DPReview image quality comparison pages I noticed that with same resolution files, the Sony NEX-6, MEX-5N and Olympus OM-D EM-5 are about 14MB-16MB whereas Fuji X-E1 RAW files are about 25MB.

What's the reason for that?

Potential reasons (without knowing):

  1. More bits per pixel in RAW format (the Fuji would have to have 66% more bits, e.g. 12 vs 20 or 8 vs 13, which is obviously not the case)
  2. Better lossless compression (aren't all using pretty much the same lossless Lempel-Ziv compression?)
  3. Lossy compression (I remember at least the Nikon D90 threw away some RAW data compared to the more professional models, don't remember the details).

Anyone knows for sure?

I think it is 2) The Fuji files can be compressed, using something as simple as bzip2, by up to 80% (depending on the scene). Nikon losslessly compressed files can't be further compressed; they seem to have figures it out quite well.

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