HEIF images

jonbeeza

jonbeeza

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I did do a search on the forum, but I was surprised to find nothing about the file format. But if it has already been talked about, I do apologise. But as I say, nothing came up in the search function.

I was just watching a cameralabs video clip by Gordon Laing. He talks about the long overdue replacement for the aging Jpeg file format. It is called, High Efficiency Image File Format, or HEIF, for short. Does that mean all our old Jpegs will one day become obsolete? Also what about all the existing cameras, or will you be able to simply be able to convert to HEIF, instead of Jpeg, via RAW conversion software?
 
HEIF is just another compression algorithm - like JPEG but supposed to be more efficient in terms of the image output and the processing power required to take the RAW image and do the compression.

Will JPEGs be obsolete? The knowledge of how to form them and manipulate them not - in fact in the short term when people encounter HEIF is going to be more problematic because not all software supports them - so you have to convert them before you start and every conversion introduces a potential quality drop. (I seem to remember a multitude going ape when Canon introduced RAW 2.0 because it broke Photoshop etc that could only handle RAW 1.0)
 
hunnymonster said:
HEIF is just another compression algorithm - like JPEG but supposed to be more efficient in terms of the image output and the processing power required to take the RAW image and do the compression.

Will JPEGs be obsolete? The knowledge of how to form them and manipulate them not - in fact in the short term when people encounter HEIF is going to be more problematic because not all software supports them - so you have to convert them before you start and every conversion introduces a potential quality drop. (I seem to remember a multitude going ape when Canon introduced RAW 2.0 because it broke Photoshop etc that could only handle RAW 1.0)
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So it is something not worth worrying, or thinking about then. :)
 
JPEG is going to be around for some time, how long no one can say but certainly at least a few decades. I think the issue with the new formats revolves around the royalty payments not so much the quality. Apple I believe uses this new format as well as the latest Android operating system.
 
Mintchocs said:
JPEG is going to be around for some time, how long no one can say but certainly at least a few decades. I think the issue with the new formats revolves around the royalty payments not so much the quality. Apple I believe uses this new format as well as the latest Android operating system.
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I think it is the Canon 1DX MK3 that uses the HEIF format, not too sure as I know nothing about Canon DSLRs. I think he is saying "Time for JPEG to retire? Canon believes the future is HEIF".
 
There are vast billions of stored pegs in the world. In order for jpegs to become obsolete, every photo agency - Getty, Shuttercock, etc - is going to gave to convert their entire library stock. One day that will happen but there will be great resistance to it and once an agency has decided to do so it will take decades to I implement.

For amateurs like us on this forum it can be quicker. Jpegs are already obsolete in my practice.
 
jonbeeza said:
So it is something not worth worrying, or thinking about then. :)
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I'm certainly not worrying - people are still using GIF files from a spec released in 1987... And TIFF from before that

Mintchocs said:
I think the issue with the new formats revolves around the royalty payments not so much the quality.
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That's probably the nearest to the truth... Same reason Gillette released the G II razor in 1971 (they could patent it, ratchet up the price) then just as the patent expires have a revolutionary new razor (with a patent on it)... Rinse & repeat.
 
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Tony Northrup puts forward a good argument for HEIF in this video link, basically because HEIF files are half the size of JPEGs (but better quality). It sounds very like JPEG 2000 (remember that?) which fell flat on its face because few people saw the need for it and no manufactures adopted it.

And personally I still don't need HEIF - because I don't have problems with buffering, or tethered shooting, or rapid web transfer, and I'm not paying for TBs of cloud storage. But I can see that others might, like professional sports photographers and those irritating video people that keep messing with our cameras. I can see that they would want it, and a significant difference now is that Apple has already adopted HEIF in more recent smartphones, Adobe has introduced HEIF compatibility to Lightroom, and Canon has slipped a HEIF option into the 1DxIII with a promise of extending that to more new cameras. So HEIF has got some significant momentum already with hardware and software manufacturers, and that might avoid the chicken & egg scenario that probably killed JPEG 2000.

They key to it is surely the conversion from HEIF to JPEG during the lengthy transition period, with easy and automatic switching from one file type to the other, in all applications. That's essential, and if HEIF gets a reputation for being a PITA for most of us, which is probably the case for the few people using it right now, it'll simply be rejected by consumers. JPEGs are not going away and will likely remain the dominant file format for many years, probably decades.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF7MJOSXO0w&t=879s
 
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