Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Mirrorless Cameras => Topic started by: labirdman on June 15, 2015, 03:24:24 pm

Title: Lossless RAW compression possible on A7RII?
Post by: labirdman on June 15, 2015, 03:24:24 pm
Sony's lossy RAW compression was explored at length in a thread here (http://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=87260.0) last year.

Have we learned any more about the ASICs and imaging pipeline since then, as to be able to hazard a guess as to whether a firmware change to the A7RII could offer a lossless RAW compression mode, even if it comes at the expense of speed?

To this point, Sony has indicated that the A7RII will use the same lossy compression as previous cameras, although supposedly the leader of their mirrorless group has indicated that a firmware change could rectify this shortcoming.

Title: Re: Lossless RAW compression possible on A7RII?
Post by: Telecaster on June 15, 2015, 05:41:01 pm
Not enough info (so far) to do anything other than guess. So, my guess: if it is possible to bypass Sony's loss-y RAW compression it'll come with a significant speed/throughput penalty. This assumes the compression scheme exists for the sake of speed rather than, say, plain orneriness.  :)

-Dave-
Title: Re: Lossless RAW compression possible on A7RII?
Post by: BernardLanguillier on June 15, 2015, 07:06:42 pm
For what it's worth, I am still waiting for the firmware upgrade that will allow me to play Audio CDs on my PS4 although it was promised more than a year ago... ;)

Cheers,
Bernard
Title: Re: Lossless RAW compression possible on A7RII?
Post by: E.J. Peiker on June 16, 2015, 11:59:02 am
I think it's time the Magic Lantern folks got busy on this.
Title: Re: Lossless RAW compression possible on A7RII?
Post by: sbay on June 16, 2015, 03:04:54 pm
Have we learned any more about the ASICs and imaging pipeline since then, as to be able to hazard a guess as to whether a firmware change to the A7RII could offer a lossless RAW compression mode, even if it comes at the expense of speed?

Have you read this article: http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2015/06/16/sony-qa-the-must-have-sensor-tech-of-the-future

It seems to imply that Sony is working on uncompressed RAW (there is a language barrier in the interview) and it would be available in firmware.
Title: Re: Lossless RAW compression possible on A7RII?
Post by: E.J. Peiker on June 16, 2015, 03:19:56 pm
From an Interview with Kimio Maki - Sr. Manager Digital Imaging Group - Sony

"Sony RAW is compressed, not uncompressed. But if we’re getting a lot of requests for it, we should make such a kind of no-compression raw. We recognize the customer’s requirement, and actually we are working on it. And yes Sony could provide that via simple firmware upgrade!"

I don't actually want uncompressed RAW.  I want losslessly compressed RAW like everyone else uses.
Title: Re:
Post by: Torbjörn Tapani on June 16, 2015, 06:27:24 pm
Thank you for that link. That answered my question about 42 mp. Nice multiple of 4k resolution.
Title: Re: Lossless RAW compression possible on A7RII?
Post by: Telecaster on June 17, 2015, 10:38:15 pm
From an Interview with Kimio Maki - Sr. Manager Digital Imaging Group - Sony

"Sony RAW is compressed, not uncompressed. But if we’re getting a lot of requests for it, we should make such a kind of no-compression raw. We recognize the customer’s requirement, and actually we are working on it. And yes Sony could provide that via simple firmware upgrade!"

I don't actually want uncompressed RAW.  I want losslessly compressed RAW like everyone else uses.

I imagine by "no-compression raw" the Sony guy is referring to data compression (loss-y) rather than file size compression (loss-less). Sony surely already does the latter…in addition to the former.

-Dave-
Title: Re: Lossless RAW compression possible on A7RII?
Post by: Paulo Bizarro on June 18, 2015, 04:09:15 am
For what it's worth, I am still waiting for the firmware upgrade that will allow me to play Audio CDs on my PS4 although it was promised more than a year ago... ;)

Cheers,
Bernard


You still use CDs? :)