Compressed NEF vs non-compressed NEF question

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Leen Koper
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Compressed NEF vs non-compressed NEF question

Post by Leen Koper »

I wonder if there is any noticable difference between a non compressed NEF file and a compressed one. Can anyone enlighten me?
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Stany Buyle
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Re: Compressed NEF vs non-compressed NEF question

Post by Stany Buyle »

Hi Leen,
I would like the opinion of an expert like Iliah Borg on this but I think it doens't influence IQ much, totally different though is 12bit or 14bit where you increase the headroom for highlight and shadow detail recovery significantly by using the 14bit mode. With my D700 I always shoot 14bit. Memory card space is cheap... ;)
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Iliah Borg
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Re: Compressed NEF vs non-compressed NEF question

Post by Iliah Borg »

Lossless Compressed are the same quality as non-compressed, lossy compression results in some very minor posterization in the highlights.
Leen Koper
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Re: Compressed NEF vs non-compressed NEF question

Post by Leen Koper »

Then it will be pretty easy: I 'll use the compresssed kind in the future. Iliah, thanks a lot for this answer.
compur
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Re: Compressed NEF vs non-compressed NEF question

Post by compur »

Leen Koper wrote:Then it will be pretty easy: I 'll use the compresssed kind in the future. Iliah, thanks a lot for this answer.
On D700 you don't have a correct N of shots with compressed NEF.
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Re: Compressed NEF vs non-compressed NEF question

Post by Stany Buyle »

compur wrote:On D700 you don't have a correct N of shots with compressed NEF.
What do you mean by this? :roll:
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James
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Re: Compressed NEF vs non-compressed NEF question

Post by James »

With any truely lossless compression you will not know the filesize until it is created - some files will be the same size as the uncompressed file, others could be a tiny fraction of the size, it is all about how repeatable the information is. Imagine that you take an image that is completely pure white (I know that's not likely but for the sake of argument!)

You could make that filesize almost zero by recording the level of one pixel and then recording the information that this should be repeated at every location.

Now assume that you have a different random colour at every photosite, you will likely not be able to compress this at all as there is no repeat and no simple formula that you could use to recreate the information more efficiently than the uncompressed version.

I hope that's clear - let me know if I need to explain it more!
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