I've been considering moving from Canon to Sony and had pretty much decided to move. Now I read that there is no way to shoot a RAW file with lossless compression or no compression on the A7R-IV. If this is true it's almost unbelievable.
What's the point of having such high resolution and DR if you're throwing away data just to make the files smaller? I'd assume that anyone buying a 60MP camera expects big files. I could easily give up a couple FPS to get all the data the camera is capable of providing. This seems like a very fundamental flaw. Please correct me if I have this wrong.
What some people complain about in Sony is they can't have best of both world
Comression (lossless)
And maximum 14 bit no loss of detail.
This ain't possible, and is with Nikon. I use at the moment Nikon and am considering Sony strongly (already bought 24-70mm gm).
My thought are simple, mid range sd cards are waaaay cheaper then XQD, so much cheaper so, that it balance back the not having such option. As for computer, 8tb just got cheaper (my last one is 6gb), so not much extra cost. As for buffer: Sony one is much bigger. Only after buffer is full, nikon keeps up higher fps (albeit still low) then Sony.
So for me, i would love if sony ever makes it, but it's not a priority. I hear people converting to DNG files to half the megabytes on files. Problem is i use capture one, not sure if you can compress it for them. It also might make lightroom/other editor slower cause it has to 'uncompress' all the files first.
Only in hi+ 10 fps mode, and few others, you have no choice but 12 bit (but usually those fast moving targets dont require shadow + highlight super dynamic range combo of 14-bit imo. Landscape is an easy 14-bit.
Compressed raw has more noticable artifacts than on other cameras (on high DR edges) and in sequence modes degrades to 12bit.
Uncompressed is big. In my case 49MB on my a7iii.
However I have found reasonable workaround for reducing long term storage. I convert to DNG. DNG supports lossless compression. I have to convert to it anyway as I'm using old non-subscription version of LR that does not support a7iii.
If I'm understanding this correctly, uncompressed RAW is available but lossless compression is not available. It seems odd, but not nearly as bad as my misunderstanding made it out to be!
dmcphoto wrote:
If I'm understanding this correctly, uncompressed RAW is available but lossless compression is not available. It seems odd, but not nearly as bad as my misunderstanding made it out to be!
Thanks, all.
That is correct. The only issue is the uncompressed are 100MB+. But that may not be a big deal if you aren't shooting action with lots of images per shoot. I was surprised Sony didn't come out with a lossless compressed RAW for the A7RIV considering how big the files are.
In average my uncompressed A7R4 files are around 120MB and if converted to DNG in post, they are reduced to half. Basically you get half the size for the same exact high IQ.
The difference is that it's done is post as opposed to in camera.
I always feel like I'm taking crazy pills when this issue comes up. I shoot compressed RAW, edit on a 4K monitor, and never see anything that I'd feel is worth complaining about during post. Does anyone have some concrete examples they can share images of?
RoamingScott wrote:
I always feel like I'm taking crazy pills when this issue comes up. I shoot compressed RAW, edit on a 4K monitor, and never see anything that I'd feel is worth complaining about during post. Does anyone have some concrete examples they can share images of?
Interesting. I do a ton of pixel peeping and have NEVER seen an example like that from my R3 files. I'd notice something like that in heartbeat. Not saying it's not happening but it seems like an overblown concern IMO.
RoamingScott wrote:
Interesting. I do a ton of pixel peeping and have NEVER seen an example like that from my R3 files. I'd notice something like that in heartbeat. Not saying it's not happening but it seems like an overblown concern IMO.
It occurs on high-contrast edges and typically requires raising the shadows to see it although not always.
RoamingScott wrote:
Interesting. I do a ton of pixel peeping and have NEVER seen an example like that from my R3 files. I'd notice something like that in heartbeat. Not saying it's not happening but it seems like an overblown concern IMO.
It's very, very rare. That's why you never saw it.
I saw the RAW compression artifacts when first reviewing the original Sony A7R (scroll down to about half the page) https://www.fredmiranda.com/A7R-review
RoamingScott wrote:
Interesting. I do a ton of pixel peeping and have NEVER seen an example like that from my R3 files. I'd notice something like that in heartbeat. Not saying it's not happening but it seems like an overblown concern IMO.
I tried it a few years back and had to squint the hell out of my photos to figure it out, and that's after heavy processing of like files under typical shooting conditions of golden hour. It was like comparing an F5.6 vs F8 landscape, too difficult to tell apart, so I stopped bothering.
For my enlightenment, what is the best practice for converting to DNG? Do you convert straight from the card and save on your hard drive or download the raw files onto the hard drive and convert later?
At one point I think I knew the answer to this, but now I've forgotten: setting aside the potential compression artifacts, are there any IQ differences between Sony's uncompressed raw and compressed raw (14 vs.12 bit, dynamic range, etc.), everything else being equal? Thanks.
Chris Crevasse wrote:
At one point I think I knew the answer to this, but now I've forgotten: setting aside the potential compression artifacts, are there any IQ differences between Sony's uncompressed raw and compressed raw (14 vs.12 bit, dynamic range, etc.), everything else being equal? Thanks.
The compression drops the bit depth from 14-bits but does so in areas that aren't perceptually noticeable. Jim K did a nice article on this back in 2014:
mudlake wrote:
For my enlightenment, what is the best practice for converting to DNG? Do you convert straight from the card and save on your hard drive or download the raw files onto the hard drive and convert later?
