Dpreview tests the new Sony A7rII 14 Bit uncompressed RAW files.

Image from DPreview showing the absent artifacts on the new 14 Bit RAW file (on the right)

DPreview is the first site having access to Sony’s new 14 Bit uncompressed RAW files. They tested it and those are the benefits they noticed:

1) No Artifacts on high contrast edges: “no longer introduce errors and artefacts around high-contrast edges.”
2) Very small Dynamic range improvement: “There’s possibly a tiny improvement if you try to brighten very deep shadows but the difference is so subtle that we don’t consider it to be photographically significant. But, even without this, the camera’s Raw files are more flexible than they were before.”

The files are twice as big as the previous compressed RAW files. And also very interesting: Sony’s new 14 BIT upgrade offers “uncompressed RAW files” and not “losslessly-compressed Raw”. The reasons are limitations of working with the cameras’ existing processors. But Sony said they will investigate the possibility to add “lossless compression system if there’s sufficient user demand.”

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A7rII store list:
In USA: at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore US, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Wex UK and ParkCameras.
In Asia at Digitalrev, CameraPro.

The A7sII preorder list:
In USA at Amazon, BHphoto, FocusCamera, Adorama.
In Europe at WexUK.
In Asia soon at Digitalrev.