Notes on the Panasonic S1R RAW RW2 File Format
Related: exposure, histogram, LibRaw, Panasonic, Panasonic Lumix DC-S1R, Panasonic mirrorless, RawDigger
First, I am not entirely happy with the file sizes from the Panasonic S1R; they are larger than need be as compressing with zip shows.
Every photographer keen on exposing optimally should be using RawDigger by LibRaw. Get RawDigger.
RawDigger will be supporting the Panasonic S1R file formats. Notes from the RawDigger folks on the Panasonic S1R raw file formats:
Panasonic S1R Multi-Shot High-Res mode and the (optional via settings) single-shot images associated with the multi-shot image: lossless, uncompressed 14-bit.
Panasonic S1R single shot mode: delta encoding, 14-bit base, 10-bit delta, same idea as in other Panasonic cameras, though older cameras are 12-bit base/8bit delta. Delta is scaled separately for each 3 pixels. Formally, this is lossy compression, but this will give precise results on smooth details, in worst case compression-related errors will be less than photon noise (and no Sony-style artifacts).
All crops are really same resolution, 8392x5620 visible area. The crop is performed via EXIF tags (instructing software to crop).
Lack of good compression in some formats aside, it looks like Panasonic has done well what Sony did and does not so well (see Sony raw file format and lossy compression).
