Survey Lossless Compressed DNGs

[LUF Admin]

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Once again we have a survey for you - it's about DNGs, more precisely about lossless compressed DNGs:

DNG files store photos in particularly high quality and offer a lot of scope for post-processing - but they require a lot of storage space.

The lossless compression of DNGs reduces the file size without losing image information (as with a ZIP file). Many camera manufacturers take this approach; at Leica, the format is available from the Leica M11, Leica SL3 and Leica Q3 onwards.

Lossless compression saves storage space and makes archiving easier, but requires more processing power and can affect speed and energy consumption.

We would like to know how important this function is to you and how you rate it.

We have a survey with four short questions that you can answer in less than five minutes.

Survey Lossless Compressed DNGs

Thank you very much for your support!

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The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[pedaes]

I have completed the survey but it didn't make sense to me as the questions read that it is available in the M11. Is 'lossless compression' dng's an option on the M11? If so, where do I find it in Menu?

Edited May 12 by pedaes

[Simone_DF]

On 5/12/2025 at 9:41 AM, pedaes said:

I have completed the survey but it didn't make sense to me as the questions read that it is available in the M11. Is 'lossless compression' dng's an option on the M11? If so, where do I find it in Menu?

It's not a menu option. It's implemented by default. Uncompressed 60mp DNGs would result in files in the 100mb range.

[Alf Steg]

Unless I am missing something the DNG format forces me to use photoshop or the other $$ software.  I just want the best file to import into my Apple photos app.  That is either a Tiff or RAW.  If you can help me see what I am missing ... I will not send back my Q3 and DLUX8.   The menu system is MUCH easier than my Fuji X system and I thank you for that.  But this conversion is a PIA.  

[BernardC]

15 minutes ago, Alf Steg said:

Unless I am missing something the DNG format forces me to use photoshop or the other $$ software.  I just want the best file to import into my Apple photos app.

Apple Photos supports the Q3, but not the D-Lux8:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/120534

Lots of people complain online about Apple's slow support for new cameras. The D-Lux 8 has been out for a year, so maybe it's in the works.

You'll find suggestions for less expensive raw converters in the Digital Post Processing Forum. Some of them are even free.

[Simone_DF]

On 6/20/2025 at 7:56 PM, Alf Steg said:

Unless I am missing something the DNG format forces me to use photoshop or the other $$ software.  I just want the best file to import into my Apple photos app.  That is either a Tiff or RAW.  If you can help me see what I am missing ... I will not send back my Q3 and DLUX8.   The menu system is MUCH easier than my Fuji X system and I thank you for that.  But this conversion is a PIA.  

Not at all. While DNG is a format developed by Adobe, the format is open source and royalty free, so it can be used in all software that decide to implement it, including Apple photos. FYI pictures shot in Apple ProRes format use .DNG format too.

https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/file-types/image/comparison/dng-vs-raw.html#:~:text=What is a DNG file,Learn more about DNG files

TIFF files are very inconvenient due to size requirements.

Can you elaborate why it is a pain to use DNG for you?

If you, for whatever reason, really really want to use TIFF as your format of choice, you could create a simple automated workflow with either the Shortcut or Automator app of your Mac to automatically convert all files in DNG format into your format of choice when they are imported in a specific folder, and you could also automatically feed that folder into Photos app if you so wish.

[zeitz]

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I looked at the Adobe page that is referenced.

Regarding .dng without a sidecar and raw with a sidecar, when you save a .dng without a sidecar, the date of the file changes.  I prefer to have the file date remain the same as the date when the photo was taken.  Lightroom allows selection of whether or not to use sidecars with .dng files.  I don't know why Adobe did not mention this.

Raw is not an image file; TIFF is an image file.  They are different beasts.  (Adobe owns the TIFF format too.)