Sony A1 A1 Compressed Raw vs Uncompressed Raw

[Bryan Carroll]

Has anyone tested the difference between compressed and uncompressed raw on the A1? Also roughly what is the reduction in size of the compressed raw vs uncompressed?

 

[Reciprocum]

Has anyone tested the difference between compressed and uncompressed raw on the A1? Also roughly what is the reduction in size of the compressed raw vs uncompressed?

This review has a file size table comparing several cameras and several compression modes

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I am not interested in lossy compressed and, unfortunately, Capture one RAW developer software currently only supports lossy compressed and fully uncompressed, so A1 users are unable to use lossless compressed RAWs on A1 cameras for the moment (unless Adobe supports lossless compression).

 

[AlphaWorld]

I used uncompressed Raw for my first two days shooting with the A1, and files varied a little in size, but around 102-103MB.

Adobe Camera RAW supports lossless compressed RAW now, and I am seeing more variation in file size, from about 60MB to about 75MB, or thereabout.

I am not using lossy compressed RAW files.

 

[Bryan Carroll]

I used uncompressed Raw for my first two days shooting with the A1, and files varied a little in size, but around 102-103MB.

Adobe Camera RAW supports lossless compressed RAW now, and I am seeing more variation in file size, from about 60MB to about 75MB, or thereabout.

I am not using lossy compressed RAW files.

Will Lightroom handle lossless compressed RAW as well, or only Camera Raw?

 

[AlphaWorld]

Will Lightroom handle lossless compressed RAW as well, or only Camera Raw?

Yes, Lightroom too, as long as you have the current version.

 

[AlphaWorld]

I thought it was funny - my wait for the A1 to arrive meant that Adobe released RAW support for it just before I had the camera in my hands. no complaints bout that!

 

[brockgs]

Ok, well this thread answers my question about why I can't import any of my photos into anything other than Sony Edit. Sigh. Will switch to fully uncompressed RAW images for now until updates come out (hopefully soon) to allow using compressed and/or lossless RAW on Mac OS 11 / iOS 14.

 

[Reciprocum]

Ok, well this thread answers my question about why I can't import any of my photos into anything other than Sony Edit. Sigh. Will switch to fully uncompressed RAW images for now until updates come out (hopefully soon) to allow using compressed and/or lossless RAW on Mac OS 11 / iOS 14.

Capture One also accepts lossy compressed RAWs. They are not as bad as I thought.

 

[brockgs]

Capture One also accepts lossy compressed RAWs. They are not as bad as I thought.

Thanks, will maybe use that for now. While Lightroom and, as you point out, Capture One support ARW 4.0, it looks like I’ve got a bit of a wait until Mac OS natively supports it so all apps can work with them equally. It was just a bit jarring to go from shooting on my A7R4 to the A1 and all of a sudden lots of apps couldn’t open the files. HOWEVER, the A1 is already so amazing, that I really should not complain about a small thing like this.

 

[Reciprocum]

Capture One 14.1.1. now supports importing of A1's lossless compressed RAWs. Almost doubling the pics per card without loosing any IQ
Probably there will be some battery hit as the CPU now has to do compression, but might be a good trade off because smaller/shorter memory card writting required.

EDIT: now an APS-C mode lossless RAW occupies 26mb, a FF one 57mb, before lossy FF RAWs occupied around 45mb, APS-C lossy around 21mb.

Now, with RAW file type set to "lossless compressed" on a freshly formatted 128gb SD card, A1 reports 1720 FF 50mpx pics will fit, or 3650 APS-C 21mpx pics. Before, shooting lossy compressed RAWs, reported numbers were 20% higher.

In 2 months I needed 30fps only twice, so will stick with lossless compressed and 20fps as default setting from now on.

 

[pointreyes]

Great news about C1 supporting lossless compressed raw files. Thank you for the update.
I'm still waiting for the A1 but at least I now know that I can use the format I wanted to use. Looking forward to 20 fps in this file format. I have already experienced 30 fps back in 2019 and just have little reason to use it - but 20 fps seems to be a sweet spot for me.

 

[AlphaWorld]

Great news about C1 supporting lossless compressed raw files. Thank you for the update.
I'm still waiting for the A1 but at least I now know that I can use the format I wanted to use. Looking forward to 20 fps in this file format. I have already experienced 30 fps back in 2019 and just have little reason to use it - but 20 fps seems to be a sweet spot for me.

Which camera was able to shoot at 30fps in 2019? I'm curious, because I didn't know there was one.

 

[Reciprocum]

Which camera was able to shoot at 30fps in 2019? I'm curious, because I didn't know there was one.

I think Olympus m43 did even more than 30fps, only not continuous AF and AE like A1

 

[pointreyes]

Which camera was able to shoot at 30fps in 2019? I'm curious, because I didn't know there was one.

Fujifilm X-T3 - AF obviously not the same but it was blackout free. I heard claims that the electronic shutter sensor readout was faster than the typical non stacked sensors at that time. I do know that I could do more with the electronic shutter with the X-T3 over the X-H1 in certain lighting conditions so I suspect there might be some truth to that claim.

 

[AlphaWorld]

I wasn't aware of either of those. Cool!

Still, I don't think I'll trade my A1 for either of those