RAW file - Zip

khc

Hi,

Can anyone tell me the best way to compress a folder of RAW files (about 300MB) to a zip? I'm using Vista and when I compress as a zip the size barely decreases.

Thanks

nilhg

If they are already compressed in camera it's not surprising they won't compress much more, many cameras compress their RAWs as a matter of course.

khc

so Vista is compressing my NEF files, not the actual folder itself? I found an open source program called 7zip but I don't think it'll compress RAW files

nilhg

Vista is trying to compress your folder and contents, if the contents are already compressed no matter which zip software you use you are unlikely to get much extra space.

khc

oh dear...this is a nightmare. thanks for the answer

davmigil

Zip isn't much good for compressing raw files. I am presuming you need to send them losslessly as raw files and nothing else will do? Have a look at www.rawzor.com. You are still looking at a 3 figure mb size though! If you can cope with some loss of image info, you would better off converting them down.

CabanSail

The Nikon NEF has various options, which can vary with different bodies.

On my D70s it was just RAW which was the 12 bit lossless compressed.

On the D300 there is a choice of 12 or 14 bit files.

Then you can choose Lossy Compressed, Lossless Compressed & Lossless Uncompressed (IIRC)

If you already have the NEF's compressed in the camera you will not get more from a ZIP program.

melekalikimaka

i believe nikon of all raws are least likely to zip as they use quite complex compression even in 'lossless' from my meandering research into ot a while back. if desperate, maybe zip them and split the zips

SinisterDexter

Computer side to it:-

Zipping can not compress images or audio any further.
Zipping works on getting rid of all the spaces in coding and documents, see as there is no spaces in images or audio it can't get rid of anything to compress.