Microsoft Announces HD Photo - DPChallenge Forums

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

03/09/2007 12:16:31 AM · #1

"Microsoft Announces HD Photo, a New Imaging File Format With Advanced Features for Todayâ��s Digital Photographers"

"Plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop and HD Photo Device Porting Kit to help speed usage and adoption."

LAS VEGAS â�� March 8, 2007 â�� Today at the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) 07 International Convention and Trade Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft Corp. formally announced HD Photo, a new file format for end-to-end digital photography that offers higher image quality, greater preservation of data, and advanced features for todayâ��s digital-imaging applications...(read the full press release)

sabphoto

Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+

03/09/2007 12:32:37 AM · #2

sounds interesting. I didn't get the entire concept of how it will be better but did see the higher quality at smaller size item...very nice. Can't wait to see what it is like.

kenskid

Nikon D700

03/09/2007 12:33:37 AM · #3

Seems like a nice new format. From what I gather, you will be able to scale down your images w/o losing any detail or pixel info...am I reading this right?

Message edited by author 2007-03-09 00:34:02.

crayon

Samsung Galaxy S24, S24+, S24 Ultra

03/09/2007 01:09:38 AM · #4

this will be exciting. it's about time something new replaces JPEG.

RainMotorsports

Nikon D60

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR

03/09/2007 05:00:45 PM · #5

Originally posted by crayon:

this will be exciting. it's about time something new replaces JPEG.

Thats Like replacing MP3... MP4 hasnt Mpeg 1 Layer 7 is even in development and they have already said it wont replace MP3 in popularity despite Layer 7 being superier.

Jpeg 2000 hasnt even replaced JPEG and never will.

I replaced JPEG with Lossless PNG permanently in my book and use JPEG because well I have to to submit here and myspace.

Ive replaced all audio formats with Apple Lossless.

Gordon

RIM BlackBerry Curve

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM

03/09/2007 05:06:05 PM · #6

Originally posted by RainMotorsports:

Originally posted by crayon:
this will be exciting. it's about time something new replaces JPEG.

Thats Like replacing MP3... MP4 hasnt Mpeg 1 Layer 7 is even in development and they have already said it wont replace MP3 in popularity despite Layer 7 being superier.

Jpeg 2000 hasnt even replaced JPEG and never will.

I replaced JPEG with Lossless PNG permanently in my book and use JPEG because well I have to to submit here and myspace.

Ive replaced all audio formats with Apple Lossless.

Well. MPEG4 is something entirely different to MP3 (which is actually MPEG1, Audio-Layer3)

The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) come out with a variety of formats aimed at a variety of usage - MPEG4 is a packaging format for providing mobile multi-media. mp3 (MPEG-1Audio-Layer3 is a particular audio codec that was part of the MPEG1 standards)

So it isn't any wonder that a packaging format hasn't replaced an audio codec format.

Though Apple Lossless is stored in MPEG4 container formats...

The most interesting/ commonly used part of MPEG4 is the H.264 video codec standards, coming to almost every mobile device real soon now.

Message edited by author 2007-03-09 17:07:35.

RainMotorsports

Nikon D60

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR

03/09/2007 05:08:17 PM · #7

OKay maybe I should have specificed MP4 AAC? WHich is what Apple iTunes delivers its content in. Im not too worried about the Apple Lossless Container format, It's almost as bad as AVI which is known to house a thousand formats.

Gordon

RIM BlackBerry Curve

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM

03/09/2007 05:10:01 PM · #8

Originally posted by RainMotorsports:

OKay maybe I should have specificed MP4 AAC?

Though mostly mp3 hasn't been replaced by aac because of the DRM issues.
People doing their own ripping use mp3 because its common and works reasonably well. People selling and protecting their content hardly ever use mp3 these days.

JPEG2000 never really got the browser support it needed to take off and also there is no real need for it. Sort of like this HD photo format from microsoft (nice marketing the HD is meaningless, but tries to catch the HDTV wave I guess)

Disk space isn't exactly scarce and JPEGs are already small and good enough quality.

Message edited by author 2007-03-09 17:11:37.

SteveJ

Canon EOS-7D

Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM

03/09/2007 05:16:21 PM · #9

Originally posted by RainMotorsports:

Yep!! My Ipod stores as MP4, not mp3 anymore.

Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS for Canon

03/09/2007 05:22:37 PM · #10

Not sure if I want MS software on my camera. Maybe Nikon should go first :-)

Message edited by author 2007-03-09 17:22:57.

magnus

Canon EOS-30D

03/09/2007 05:41:17 PM · #11

HD PhotoÂ´s program manager at Microsoft, Bill Crow, has a blog with some interesting reading on this new format. I'm no fan of Microsoft, but I have to admit that it looks like there's solid research behind this format. It's a good sign that they've already promised plugins for both CS2 and CS3, on both platforms. Now they just need to convince all the camera manufacturers...

PhantomEWO

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

03/09/2007 06:30:07 PM · #12

Here's the PS Plug-in link:
HD Photo Plugin for Photoshop

03/09/2007 06:32:07 PM · #13

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:

Not sure if I want MS software on my camera. Maybe Nikon should go first :-)

I don't believe it would be ~~our~~ MSFT software on your camera. Each OEM (Nikon, Pentax, Canon, etc.) would support the HD Photo format in their own software.

03/09/2007 06:35:27 PM · #14

Originally posted by formerlee:

Originally posted by RainMotorsports:
OKay maybe I should have specificed MP4 AAC? WHich is what Apple iTunes delivers its content in. Im not too worried about the Apple Lossless Container format, It's almost as bad as AVI which is known to house a thousand formats.

Yep!! My Ipod stores as MP4, not mp3 anymore.

Just about all protected audio uses a form of MP4 (Microsoft's Zune, Apple's Ipod, Creative Lab's Zen, etc.), at the same time they also all support unprotected MP3.

03/09/2007 06:43:38 PM · #15

Here's brief introduction of the new HD Photo format taken from this site:

Introducing HD Photo

HD Photo is a new file format for continuous-tone still images that surpasses the limitations of existing image formats. HD Photo supports a wide range of features including:

o Multiple color formats for display or print
o Fixed or floating point high-dynamic-range image encoding
o Lossless or high-quality lossy compression
o Efficient decoding for multiple resolutions and subregions
o Minimal overhead for format conversion or transformations during decode

HD Photo delivers a lightweight, high performance algorithm with a small memory footprint that enables practical, in-device encoding and decoding. It delivers compression quality comparable with JPEG-2000 and more than twice the quality of JPEG.

HD Photo is the new name for Windows Media Photo. Both names refer to the exact same file format. The Windows Media Photo name is still used to describe the implementation of HD Photo in existing Windows products.

03/09/2007 06:45:17 PM · #16

Originally posted by lesgainous:

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:
Not sure if I want MS software on my camera. Maybe Nikon should go first :-)

I don't believe it would be ~~our~~ MSFT software on your camera. Each OEM (Nikon, Pentax, Canon, etc.) would support the HD Photo format in their own software.

I'm sure you are right, but I couldn't resist taking a jab at both MS and Nikon in one post ;-)

DjFenzl

03/09/2007 06:56:15 PM · #17

ya can't help but wonder if MS will be putting some sort of DRM in the format...

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

03/09/2007 07:34:24 PM · #18

Originally posted by Megatherian:

ya can't help but wonder if MS will be putting some sort of DRM in the format...

Now that would be cool! No longer would we have to worry about other websites and other folks illegally lifting our images from here or from our personal sites!

Message edited by author 2007-03-09 19:35:03.

violinist123

Canon EOS-6D

03/09/2007 07:36:29 PM · #19

Spoken like a denizen of the evil empire.

There is nothing cool about DRM.

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

03/09/2007 07:45:39 PM · #20

Well done DRM is awesome for the artist/publisher... sucks for the user (especially illegitimate ones).

Bad part about DRM in a photo file would be that I'd suspect only IE would be able to view them on the web.

violinist123

Canon EOS-6D

03/09/2007 07:49:32 PM · #21

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:

Bad part about DRM in a photo file would be that I'd suspect only IE would be able to view them on the web.

And then completely unsupported ten years from now.

File formats should be open source. As the world moves to completely digital archiving, it is imperative that the formats not be proprietary and tied to one company or another's business practices.

How cool will DRM be when your MS-HD photo can't load into the digital frame you bought Grandma for Xmas because the frame isn't made by MS and will not support their tagging?

ralph

Nikon Z9

03/09/2007 07:52:07 PM · #22

i already have one proprietary format why would i want another ?
this will be adopted as fast as DNG was ..
no camera will have this as part of their output but MS programs will & end up locking you into another MS program

stay away far away

03/09/2007 07:56:03 PM · #23

The biggest drawback I see is how much is MS going to want to tack onto the price of a camera so that it can write HD Photo files? $20, $50, $100. Or will they allow the cameras to write them for free then be the only software provider that can read them?

RAW and PSD are looking better by the minute. Sorry, I just don't trust MS to be fair with a format.