a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

There is an article in Digital Camera World that says Canon is starting to move to HEIF from JPG. It also notes that HEIF is 10 bit vs. 8 bit for JPG.

It also notes that this mirrors Apple's earlier move.

One of the benefits is said to be...
.."the camera is designed specifically for rapid-fire burst shooting. Capturing images with twice as much data without increasing the file size is a huge boon for the camera – especially with the adoption of CFexpress memory cards to handle their 10-bit fidelity."

No, it did not mention raw or it skips over it.

fbeaston Loc: Vermont

Here's the link: https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/canon-abandoning-jpg-weve-moved-on-to-heif-files

BebuLamar

So if you shoot RAW it doesn't matter. Whatever the file format is, if it's not RAW it's cooked.

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

LOL! But, yes, I think that is accurate. I only know what it said in one brief article.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I wonder when other camera companies will jump on board.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

Just have to wait and see

BebuLamar

As I said earlier if you shoot RAW it doesn't matter but I wonder if standard photo processing software like Photoshop can save files as HEIF?
Just checked and Photoshop 2018 and newer you can save files as HEIF so well I can shoot with my Nikon in NEF format and save as HEIF. No need to buy the Canon.

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

Perhaps as important or even more important will be the time it takes for the shops which make prints for us from digital images to handle HEIF. Many only take JPG, not even TIF/TIFF at this time.

But BebuLamar is correct that if you shoot raw and output JPG from your post processor then it is a non-issue.

Jerry G Loc: Waterford, Michigan and Florida

With the popularity of jpg and heif not a widely used format could this possibly be a Beta Max decision?
For those too young to remember Beta Max was a superior format but could never overcome the dominance of VHS.

jak86094

I’m told there is no problem saving images in HEIF on your computer then outputting an image as JPEG for printing or sending to lab. You could then dump the JPEG exported copy to recover that storage space after a successful print is made. You could also export to TIFF, a lossless format, for printing if concerned about lossy JPEG format.

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

There are lots of options if you are willing to use applications. The printer-shop problem will be a possibility for those who want to print SOOC.

PhotogHobbyist Loc: Bradford, PA

I have PSE 2019 and looked into the possibility of saving an image in HEIF and it is not indicated in the choices for saving an image. Does it require a plug in or is it hidden in the menus somewhere?

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

These technology wars are quite common and go back a long time. There's a movie coming out this week about probably the biggest one ever fought...Thomas Edison and General Electric vs. Nicholas Tesla and Westinghouse over Direct Current and Alternating current power distribution. Like many other examples of these battles, proponents of the superior (and sometimes winning) technology didn't necessarily win the financial or economic battle. And the march of technology can sometimes ignore limitations and prohibitions. In the case of the Universal Serial Bus (USB) supplanting the old serial ports sending and receiving 9 or 10 bit serial data over links built around the RS232-C protocol, I have a friend who had a boss who owns a patent detailing exactly why serial data communications at speeds greater than 2400 baud is physically impossible. I also clearly remember when 10 megabit/second "10 Base T" was considered the ultimate speed limit for local area network based communication.

Sometimes these decisions end up not being technical at all. The Beta vs. VHS eventuality, which was truly a tragedy (because Beta was significantly and intrinsically more capable in delivering special effects, like slow motion and stop action) fell back on control of content and refusal to handle one particular genre of programming which turned out to be the primary driver of volume and revenue for the individual video industry.

In summary...the reality here is that HEIF is really just another "mirrorless" revolution. Some will adopt it voluntarily and some will not, but the masses will likely eventually be forced to change. Some will, like some of us, stubbornly refuse to change. A few will refuse with good reason, but the industry will move forward (or whichever direction you consider it to be).

Kristian Loc: Monrovia, CA

"Sometimes these decisions end up not being technical at all. The Beta vs. VHS eventuality, which was truly a tragedy..."

My real career was as an audio engineer. I'm like one of those pilots whose career spanned from flying prop planes through f-4's. When I started everything was analog. Gradually digital got good enough to be viable. I ended my career working with high end digital systems. Much like with digital photography, it took took time for both the technology and people's tastes to catch up but they did.

Early on in digital recording SONY came up with a system they called F1. The analog to digital processor outputted the encoded digitized audio as bar code transitioning at the sampling rate of 44.1khz. This was recorded onto a VCR. BETAMAX, on a well maintained machine, was quite reliable. VHS was a problem, it couldn't resolve the signal at a sufficient resolution. But, due to the possibility that even the BETA machine would have uncorrectable errors I always ran an analog backup. Occasionally I could use a top end analog recorder (which blew the early digital away, but I did what I was being paid to do,) but on many occasions I ran my backup on VHS hi fi. The BETAMAX couldn't come close for audio quality.

kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy

This is still a compressed image format. 10 bit is better than 8 bit but nowhere near as good as 14 bit, plus, as an image format, it throws away a lot of data just as jpg does. NOT a substitute for raw, though clearly better than jpg.