The biggest issue with the A7r4 that can be fixed very easily...

[lattesweden]

Try Rawsie by Dotphoton which produces DNG.

For BIF, uncompressed RAW file size is 117 MB and DNG file size is 17MB.

For landscape, uncompressed RAW file size is 130 MB and DNG file size is 30 MB.

It is very fast and there is no degradation in quality.

That is all very good except I want to keep my RAW-files in their original format as I wrote so it is still not useful for my purpose.

 

[Adam Palmer]

The reason why they don't is that the camera has a weak processor so it would take too long. They need a compression that can be done at 10 frames per second with the cameras weak processor

 

[toughluck]

The reason why they don't is that the camera has a weak processor so it would take too long. They need a compression that can be done at 10 frames per second with the cameras weak processor

A dedicated ASIC costs cents, but any general purpose CPU these days will compress data at a higher rate than can be written to storage.

61 megapixels at 10 fps? Barely 7.32 Gbit/s. Or 8.54 Gbit/s at 14 bits instead of 12. If you align data per color channel, you can reach high compression even with deflate and other simple algorithms.

--
http://www.adamapalmer.com

 

[SQLGuy]

The reason why they don't is that the camera has a weak processor so it would take too long. They need a compression that can be done at 10 frames per second with the cameras weak processor

A dedicated ASIC costs cents, but any general purpose CPU these days will compress data at a higher rate than can be written to storage.

What do you mean by general purpose CPU?

Bionz X is using a quad core 1.5GHz (probably) Cortex A5. Basically bottom of the ARM lineup.

61 megapixels at 10 fps? Barely 7.32 Gbit/s. Or 8.54 Gbit/s at 14 bits instead of 12. If you align data per color channel, you can reach high compression even with deflate and other simple algorithms.

 

[Adam Palmer]

Maybe they tested it and it was cutting into the battery life too much.

If it was really just a cheap $2 chip you could throw into any camera wouldn't every single camera have lossless compression on par with a modern PC

There has to be some technical reason that's holding them back because the compression achievable via PC is lossless and saves more file space. I if it were simple to implement wouldn't they just skip the compressed raw completely

--
http://www.adamapalmer.com

 

[John Mason]

I am a happy owner of an A7r3 and I loved the specs of the A7r4, but, I will not get it. Why? Because of the uncompressed RAW files SIZE...

Seriously, I have no idea why Sony cannot add a single LZW compression on their firmware. I am not talking about fancy proprietary compression, I am talking about open-source industry standard ones.

Just do a simple test: get ANY RAW file from a Sony camera and run on a ZIP software in your computer. Completely lossless and makes the file actually smaller then the "lossy" compressed RAW that Sony offers.

I just don't get it. A7r3 RAW files are already a nightmare for my backup drive. I just cannot handle 61mp of that ...

If Sony just comes out tomorrow with a firmware across the board (A7iii, A7r3, A9 and A7r4) offering lossless compressed RAW (like everyone else, and like their customers are asking for ages), then I will be tempted to get the A7r4. Until then, I am not planning to spend the cameras worse in more external drives, thank you

I'd love it if they'd do that with a firmware update. I'd also love if they had a binning option for when you don't need the resolution but could use the lower noise from binning.

In my case, I built a fault tolerant monster synology box and store on that with backups to external usb stored off-site.

I will check that zipping or even Raring option. If they compress well, I could free up a lot of space on the synology box but still get to the raws when needed - great idea!

Raring with max takes an compressed raw and shrinks it to about 1/2 the size.

Now to try an uncompressed raw....- takes them down also to about 1/2 the size.

I think you just saved me my next couple of hard drive purchases!