Image and audio lossless file format

Question

Hello,

I know that JPG and MP3 always apply some kind of compression which losses data. Then I have to questions: - Which are the lossless file formats for image, audio and video? - Why, as far as I know, any photocamera does not offer the possibility to store images in a lossless file format? - I know that the data lost is really small but, what can I do if HQ is extremely important? Can I take a picture in a lossless way?

THANKS

Answer 1

For audio .WAV is lossless format.In images .PNG is a lossless format.

Answer 2

For lossless compression of audio, FLAC is the encoder of choice.

Video, especially HD video is extremely data intensive with lossless data rates in excess of 40Mb/s. Outside of tape, it is pretty hard to sustain those data rates so mostly all digital video entails some compression scheme of which H.264 is becoming a dominant standard.

Answer 3

Audio: please consider FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec)

Image: please consider JPEG2000 that supports lossless encoding too.

I just came back from IBC Amsterdam, and I met some guys specialized in JPEG2000 lossless video compression. Impressive.