Capture One 21 (released today) supports HEIC.
Any word from DxO on doing the same?
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But only for import. PL should support export…
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How do I import HEIC into PL4? I have a client that sent me a folder of HEICs are they don’t show up in PL’s browser.
HEIC is not yet supported. On a Mac, I would open them in Preview and then export them as jpeg or tiff or whatever.
I use CopyTrans HEIC for Windows. This free utility will let you view and convert HEIC to JPG
Regards, Joseph
iMazing HEIC converter is free: https://imazing.com/heic
I’ve compared HEIC images with converted images from the HEIC original. There’s no image quality benefit for now in the HEIC original vs an iMazing conversion.
HEIC benefit for now is in Apple Photos only which is able to edit multiple lens versions from the same original (wide and ultra wide for instance). Tempest here in a teapot. And as I wrote above, deliberately very expensive for mid-size pro software like DxO Photolab. The open source guys’ support has been bought off with free licensing. The giants like Apple and Adobe love the extra fencing they’ve been able to put up with an expensive new proprietary format.
Let HEIC improve the licensing conditions before DxO jumps into these shark-infested waters.
On the other hand, DxO should be supporting iPhone DNG files pronto. It’s terrible that the support for iPhone DNG lapsed.
Ok, to add HEIC support DXO would have to pay a license fee for every sold copy of Photolabs, which would make the software more expensive even for those, who have no need for HEIC.
What about a seperate HEIC export plugin that integrates seamlessly into the Photolabs UI like the View Point plugin. Those who need HEIC support can buy it whatever it will cost to pay for the HEIC license.
Would please both sides, those who need HEIC support and those who don‘t.
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From my point of view, HEIC support has two different aspects (already discussed here in deep).
If DxO PhotoLab wants to be seriously regarded as a DAM system, there is no alternative to support the most widespread image formats for import into their database including keywords, GPS data, … I take a lot of pictures also with my iPhone. In the moment I still use Apple Photos app as DAM for this pictures. In the meanwhile, I bought Photomechanic Plus and use this SW as DAM and use .dop sidecars for all edits in DxO Photolab. It supports HEIC for cataloging and even supports sidecars (.xmp, .dop) in renaming procedures oder batches.
For me, the second step could then be support also for exporting of HEIC format.
DxO should decide about their focus (RAW developer / DAM software) and be the best in class for their focus.
My priority in the moment is:
- Photmechanic for ingesting and culling and also for tagging the raw photos (very fast)
- DxO Photolab for adjusting and developing (including assigned tags) the remaining raw photos (very good).
- Import the generated jpegs into a Photomechanic catalog (some room for improvement, but fast and powerful)
The new sony A1 has the possibility of shooting in HEIC format
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I’d be very interested in the licensing terms PhotoMechanic received from HEVC Advance. There’s apparently a software licensing initiative to make it more attractive to include HEIC support in software:
Under the software initiative, HEVC Advance will not seek a license or royalties on HEVC functionality implemented in application layer software downloaded to mobile devices or personal computers after the initial sale of the device, where the HEVC encoding or decoding is fully executed in software on a general purpose CPU. Examples of the types of software within the policy include browsers, media players and various software applications.
I seem to recall some awful limitations on this program which would exclude Photolab.
Otherwise my objection is not to the technical implementation or the support but to DxO spending absurd fees (for a smaller developer) on licensing. There’s apparently two patent pools to pay, MPEG LA maxing out $25 million/year and HEVC Advance maxing out at $40 million/year. This is serious money for a small or medium sized developer. Rushing to conclude unattractive patent royalty agreements only emboldens the patent brigands (mostly multinational giants trying to create barriers to entry for smaller enterprises).
Thanks for all the details Alec we get your point but like several other posters you are spending a lot of efforts explaining why we don’t need HEIC quality-wise and not really listening to the dozens of users explaining that the reduced file size is important to them (and the planet will say thanks too btw because these pictures pile up on cloud for the most part, so 50% less size compared to a JPEG with identical quality is not something you can ignore). I’m not interested in the details of the HEIC license, and couldn’t care less if they’re license sharks or not, business is business. Either DXO can/want do it or they can’t for whatever reason (economics, technical, whatever), but I’d like them to speak up, they promised it long ago, it’s been two PL versions since, we are still waiting, and their staff hasn’t chimed in this thread for a long time now.
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Having recently acquired an iPhone 12, I now also need HEIC support to be able to read my photos.
I don’t get all this talk of royalties, etc. I’ve just downloaded iMazing HEIC Converter for free!
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@Marie The current version of PL4 seems still to be unable to read HEIC files. When will this issue finally be solved? This threat is from 2019! You proposed this feature for PL3, later postponed to PL4, than Oct/Nov 2020, and now it’s Oct 2021 and I still can’t open HEIC images (not speaking about exporting them)
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HEIC licensing is hugely expensive. On the other hand, support for iPhone DNG (and probably ProRAW, I haven’t checked) is free and would be far more useful.
As Joanna (and first I) pointed out, iMazing has a free converter which creates jpegs no worse than the original HEIC files (tested with extreme photo processing). There’s no extra information in the HEIC files. The theoretical 16-bits aren’t there. HEIC files on iPhones at this point are just jpegs in a different container.
sorry, Alec, but I disagree
for clarification: I was asking for READ capabilities. According to the web, this part is free of charge. Only the encoding part is covered by royalty fees.
Although I would love, to store all my TIFFs in a compressed file without losing quality.
Avalon, it’s not possible to disagree that HEIC licensing is very expensive. The licensing is also based on the device/software price. For PhotoLab HEIC support would be more than €1 per unit sold.
If it’s true that PhotoLab could read HEIC for free, then I’m all for immediate implementation. My argument is against paying huge royalties for a minor format. It would be nice if PhotoLab would support LZW compression for TIFFs (I don’t see an option in the export settings).
LZW compression is patent-free from 2004 apparently.
Again, why do you push this post in the wrong direction?
I’m asking for READ capabilies. Btw. Even the freshly released PL5 does not support newer iPhone DNGs (> X) despite the format is device-independent. Even old software can read DNGs created by iPhone 13.
Nevertheless, are you an employee of DxO? You’re attacking me so harshly like someone tries to pay the due royalty fees from your private account. I want to have an official statement regarding READ capabilities of PL for HEIC files. @Marie: please take over!
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Disappointed me again, no HEIC/HEIF support in DXO 5.
When do you start listening to your customers, this features has the most votes for quite some time now ?
Do you really like to force me to an other tool ?
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Just returning to this topic, after nearly 2 years of promises, to see if we finally got it. Seems not….unbelievable
I remember Marie (Dxo Staff) posting in Nov 2019 that it would be, and I quote, “definitely before Photolab 4”…
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Happy to pay an additional 1 EUR/USD to have HEIF lol. PhotoLab isn’t cheap anyhow…They could even make it exclusive for the most expensive version.
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