Converting Sony RAW (ARW) to 8 bit when viewing?

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enzofsilva
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Joined: Sat May 06, 2017 4:30 pm

Converting Sony RAW (ARW) to 8 bit when viewing?

Post by enzofsilva »

Hi.

Why is XNView MP asking me to confirm "converting file to 8 bit RGB" > OK before being able to work on RAW files from Sony cameras?

Should I click OK? Will I lose quality on my Sony A7 camera photos if I click OK?

What's happening?

Thanks.
cday
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Location: Cheltenham, U.K.

Re: Converting Sony RAW (ARW) to 8 bit when viewing?

Post by cday »

enzofsilva wrote:Why is XNView MP asking me to confirm "converting file to 8 bit RGB" > OK before being able to work on RAW files from Sony cameras?

Should I click OK? Will I lose quality on my Sony A7 camera photos if I click OK?
XnView software only opens and processes images at 8-bit per pixel...

An image with a higher bit depth that is opened at 8-bits per pixel will necessarily in principle have lost something, but whether the loss is acceptable in any particular circumstance is for the user to decide, and for many purposes it may not be noticeable.

But your original files won't be altered in any way unless you resave the opened image to the original filename and extension, which probably isn't possible in this case, although you might test that on a copy of a file to be sure that an original file couldn't be inadvertently overwritten.

Can anyone add anything useful to the above?
enzofsilva
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat May 06, 2017 4:30 pm

Re: Converting Sony RAW (ARW) to 8 bit when viewing?

Post by enzofsilva »

Are other formats (e.g. 16 bits) supported soon?

So, it is only converting to 8bit for viewing, not for editing > Saving?

I want to work directly on RAW, tired of the duplicates apps like Aperture, Lightroom create when editing files...

Thanks.
cday
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Location: Cheltenham, U.K.

Re: Converting Sony RAW (ARW) to 8 bit when viewing?

Post by cday »

enzofsilva wrote:So, it is only converting to 8bit for viewing, not for editing > Saving?
Once a file has been opened at 8-bits per pixel all further processing is at 8-bits per pixel, and the file can only be saved at 8-bits per pixel...
enzofsilva wrote:Are other formats (e.g. 16 bits) supported soon?

I want to work directly on RAW, tired of the duplicates apps like Aperture, Lightroom create when editing files...
Support for higher bit depth formats and processing is requested periodically, but I don't recall Pierre, the sole developer, indicating that it likely to be introduced soon... :(
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XnTriq
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Re: Converting Sony RAW (ARW) to 8 bit when viewing?

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