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Compressing Android camera2-DNGs lossless by >60%

Started Sep 23, 2015 | Discussions
Fimagena New Member • Posts: 19
Compressing Android camera2-DNGs lossless by >60%
2

Thought this might be useful for some:

When shooting raw-photos with Android phones, some devices save the resulting DNGs uncompressed, leading to huge file sizes (e.g., 32MB per picture with the stock camera app on the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+). The DNG-format allows for lossless compression, which does not seem to be used by all photo-apps.

This can be alleviated, by "converting" the original DNGs to DNG again, either on the computer in Lightroom or directly on the phone with raw2dng (just-released v2.4 required; disclaimer: I am the author).

For the 16MP camera of the S6 Edge+, this reduces the DNG file-size by >60% from 32MB to ~12MB without losing any quality and while maintaining all metadata.

Nikon 1 V2 Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
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Trevor_S
Trevor_S Regular Member • Posts: 443
Re: Compressing Android camera2-DNGs lossless by >60%

Fimagena wrote:

Thought this might be useful for some:

When shooting raw-photos with Android phones,

Is there a lost of phones that do RAW ?  I read the new Sony Experia Z5 that I had high hopes for doesn't

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Steve Bingham
Steve Bingham Forum Pro • Posts: 27,683
Re: Compressing Android camera2-DNGs lossless by >60%

Look at Samsung! Raw on the Note 5 is instant.

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M4cr0s
M4cr0s Senior Member • Posts: 1,204
Re: Compressing Android camera2-DNGs lossless by >60%

I see there is an option for applying .dcp camera profiles. Would it be possible to implement support for CorneFix .cpf profiles too?

Interesting app, it seems a bit flaky/buggy, but can be made to work

Mac

OP Fimagena New Member • Posts: 19
Re: Compressing Android camera2-DNGs lossless by >60%

M4cr0s wrote:

I see there is an option for applying .dcp camera profiles. Would it be possible to implement support for CorneFix .cpf profiles too?

Not planned as of now but I will have a look into it.

Interesting app, it seems a bit flaky/buggy, but can be made to work

It should be neither. Please report any bugs (/"flakyness") you find to fimagena@gmail.com (or here if you prefer) - that would be very helpful.

M4cr0s
M4cr0s Senior Member • Posts: 1,204
Re: Compressing Android camera2-DNGs lossless by >60%

Fimagena wrote:

M4cr0s wrote:

I see there is an option for applying .dcp camera profiles. Would it be possible to implement support for CorneFix .cpf profiles too?

Not planned as of now but I will have a look into it.

Interesting app, it seems a bit flaky/buggy, but can be made to work

It should be neither. Please report any bugs (/"flakyness") you find to fimagena@gmail.com (or here if you prefer) - that would be very helpful.

Perhaps flaky/buggy is not precise. I've had it randomly closing on me a couple of times, but hard to pinpoint it to specific actions.

A couple of niggles though..

- Cannot write to SD-Cards on a non-rooted phone running Lollipop (contrary to what the Internet will tell you, this is in fact possible it appears, have a look at how ES File Explorer have implementet it).

- I cannot seem to save or "favorite" source and output folders in any way. Have to manually browse to them every time.

Lens profiles for Adobe Lightroom do not correct for color shift in the edges/corners it seems. Most mobile phone lenses have quite serious optical aberrations and very often color shifts. At least I have to use Cornerfix to correct my LG G4 RAWs reasonably well, the ACR compatible profiles I have found do not account for the color shift in the corners. I believe Cornerfix was created originally to correct properly for the color shift experienced with older film-era rangefinder lenses on mirrorless cameras like the Sony A7-series. With properly created profiles it works well with cellphone camera lenses too.

It would be nice to be able to resave .dngs to save storage space and correct them to  before importing to a pc or tablet for editing. Simplifying the workflow on the road.

Mac

Just Another Camera Guy New Member • Posts: 15
Re: Compressing Android camera2-DNGs lossless by >60%

Fimagena wrote:

This can be alleviated, by "converting" the original DNGs to DNG again, either on the computer in Lightroom or directly on the phone with raw2dng (just-released v2.4 required; disclaimer: I am the author).

I have a Note 5.  In Lightroom, when importing the native Note 5 .dng's, the file size is the same when I "ADD" or "Copy as DNG".   I can't tell that Lightroom does anything to the original. Both DNG files are 32 Mb for all photos.

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Steve Cohan Senior Member • Posts: 1,839
Thanks for the discussion. I have a Note5 and shoot all raw with my full size

cameras. I use Capture One and DxO for those. Neither one of those works with the DNG files. Since Adobe created the DNG format, I updated my Adobe Elements to the current 14 version. When I opened the Samsung DNG file, Elements began an update. Apparently it recognizes the Samsung file. Adobe Elements is on sale at the Adobe site for $69.99.

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