Dpreview pulls apart Sony’s RAW compression: Indeed reduces dynamic range in certain situations!

A7r (not new A7rII) vs D810 RAW comparison by Photographylife

Dpreview analyzed Sony’s 11-7 bit RAW compression to see if there are any issues with those files:

Overall, the effects of this compression aren’t often visually significant. Their impact should mostly be understood as a reduction in processing latitude, since it tends only to be when you push and pull the Raw files that the missing data becomes visible. The compression curve throws away more shadow data than would be ideal: reducing dynamic range. There’s a further reduction if you shoot in a mode that drops the camera into 12-bit readout mode. Meanwhile, the localized compression of tonal differences only has an impact near high-contrast edges.

I am 100% sure Sony will fix this on future cameras. There is simply too much talk about it to avoid the problem. I just hope it’s really possible to add “real 14 RAW” via firmware update on the current cameras. Hopefully Sony is not using some kind of unavoidable hardware compression on our cameras…

More articles about that matter at Diglloyd, Photographylife, Kasson.