HEIF Format (New With iPhone)

Jim talks with Jeff about the HEIF image format newly adopted by AppleWhat it is and technical info:

* Tried to import iPhone to Lightroom.  Only brought half my photos.
* Tried Airdropping and it said “Converting” for ages and timed out.
* HEIC is pronounced “HEEK”, HEIF is “HEEF”
* HEIF stands for High Efficiency Image Format.  HEVC stands for High Efficiency Video Coding but is also known as h.265 or MPEG-H.
* 16 bit color (jpg is only 8), supports transparency, can have multiple shots (animated gifs, anyone?), depth data
* Neither formats were developed by Apple.  In fact, it looks like Microsoft has had quite a bit of involvement with these.
* They were developed by the “Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding” or JCT-VC.
* Video format used to be h.264.  Now it’s HEVC codec (also called h.265).
* These are not really very new standards as the first version of the HEVC was published in 2013.
* Both formats offer better compression algorithms that produce smaller file sizes to take up precious space on your phone or tablet, yet maintain if not improve the image quality
* Both formats are encumbered by patents.  Licensing of HEVC is currently more expensive than the format than the AVC (h.264) format that it is attempting to replace.  This is why many large tech companies have joined and are backing the Alliance for Open Media working on a competing format called AV1 slated for release by the end of 2017 that will be royalty free.
* You also have a lossy image format called “Pik” that Google has been working on aiming to replace JPEG with smaller file sizes.

Dealing with HEIF and the future:

* https://www.imore.com/how-take-jpeg-pictures-ios-11-instead-heif
* Lightroom does not support HEIF
* Settings > Camera > Format > Most compatible. Changes back to JPG
* Quality vs JPG is much better.  JPG has always had banding issues.
* Web browsers support it?  Not yet.
* JPEG was launched in 1992.
* Incredible potential for the web. What if it took half the time to access a web page?

Doodads of the Week!

* Jim: Taotronics Bluetooth headphones
* Jeff: SanDisk Extreme PRO CZ88 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive