Ecosystems & Compatibility

A hub for understanding how gear and software work together—mounts, adapters, media standards, file formats, connectivity, power, wireless/tethering, and cross-platform workflows—so you can build a cohesive setup and avoid incompatibilities.

Why LZW Compression Breaks Your RAW Footage (And What to Do About It)

LZW compression creates a frustrating paradox for photographers: it drastically reduces TIFF file sizes from RAW conversions, yet many professional editing applications refuse to open these files or display error messages during import. This compression algorithm, named after its creators Lempel-Ziv-Welch, has been around since 1984 and works brilliantly for storing high-quality images efficiently. The problem isn’t the compression itself—it’s that video editing software and some asset management systems treat LZW-compressed TIFFs as incompatible formats, leaving you staring at error dialogs when deadline pressure is already …