Compress RAW file after the fact

[ulankford]

I have recently bought a new Sony a7 II after using the the a7 for a while. However, I am after being stung by the uncompressed RAW files. It seems there is no difference, so am going to shot compressed going forward, however, I have about 200 shots with the uncompressed files and my Lightroom version 5 does not seem to support these files.

One option is to upgrade to Lightroom 6. However, is there anyway to compresses these files after the fact so that my current LR5 will recognise these files?

Does Sony or Adobe have some software for this?

 

[ulankford]

There is hardly any point of using compressed RAW. SD cards are so big and cheap.

You run out of battery before SD card.

There is if there is no determinable or discernible difference between the two, so why waste valuable diskpace?

 

[ajshutter]

Last year when acquiring my A7Rii, I tested by overexposing a scene with white clouds in the sky using both Compressed and Uncompressed RAW.

I did not observe any more recoverable detail from the Uncompressed RAW file.

With the test, you won't see any difference; the photon noise from the clouds is enough to provide plenty of dither for even the compressed file, and you don't have sudden light/dark transitions that trigger delta modulation artifacts.

http://blog.kasson.com/the-last-word/can-you-see-the-sony-raw-compression-artifacts/

Yet, there are 40 mb of data being compressed, so is there another practical use for this larger file?

There are a few shooting scenarios where the compression can cause artifacts. They are unlikely, and, if you understand the ins and outs of the compression algorithm, you can turn compression off when you encounter those scenes.

I wonder if one scenario might be birds against a bright sky. I've noticed this on occasion - a tiny halo around the bird. Very annoying...

I've never seen craw cause halos. I don't see how it could. I suspect that is the result of oversharpening in raw development. I don't think the Lr and C1 default settings are tuned for this shooting scenario.

Any other scenarios that you've recognized?

Interior shots with windows and extreme shadow boosting to bring up interior details.

Star trails.

Jim

 

[ajshutter]

I have recently bought a new Sony a7 II after using the the a7 for a while. However, I am after being stung by the uncompressed RAW files. It seems there is no difference, so am going to shot compressed going forward, however, I have about 200 shots with the uncompressed files and my Lightroom version 5 does not seem to support these files.

One option is to upgrade to Lightroom 6. However, is there anyway to compresses these files after the fact so that my current LR5 will recognise these files?

Does Sony or Adobe have some software for this?

Hi,

Yes, there is. You can convert your Uncompressed Raw to DNG files using the free downloadable software called Adobe DNG Converter. It is a little bit long winded method to get to DNG files on a regular basis, but if you are looking to do it only once, it should do the trick.

Cheers!

Edit: Apologies, should have read the above replies before jumping to answer! Looks like it worked for you!

 

[JimKasson]

Last year when acquiring my A7Rii, I tested by overexposing a scene with white clouds in the sky using both Compressed and Uncompressed RAW.

I did not observe any more recoverable detail from the Uncompressed RAW file.

With the test, you won't see any difference; the photon noise from the clouds is enough to provide plenty of dither for even the compressed file, and you don't have sudden light/dark transitions that trigger delta modulation artifacts.

http://blog.kasson.com/the-last-word/can-you-see-the-sony-raw-compression-artifacts/

Yet, there are 40 mb of data being compressed, so is there another practical use for this larger file?

There are a few shooting scenarios where the compression can cause artifacts. They are unlikely, and, if you understand the ins and outs of the compression algorithm, you can turn compression off when you encounter those scenes.

I wonder if one scenario might be birds against a bright sky. I've noticed this on occasion - a tiny halo around the bird. Very annoying...

I've never seen craw cause halos. I don't see how it could. I suspect that is the result of oversharpening in raw development. I don't think the Lr and C1 default settings are tuned for this shooting scenario.

Any other scenarios that you've recognized?

Interior shots with windows and extreme shadow boosting to bring up interior details.

Star trails.

Hi Jim,

Do you convert your images to DNG when you import them to LR?

No.

I understand that converting to DNG is also a form of compression, although Adobe claims that the data loss is minimal?

Adobe DNG, as Prof Hank has pointed out here many times, does not preserve all of the information in the original raw file.

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www.dpreview.com

I would like to know your thoughts on it

I am not a believer. One school of though says that DNG files will be readable after raw converters have forgotten how to read the originals. I dunno about that.

The lack of lossless compression in a7x files is not a practical problem for me, since I use uncompressed mode so infrequently.

Jim