Image MIME Reference
DPX
Digital Picture Exchange
image/dpx
VS
Kodak Digital Camera Raw
image/x-kodak-dcr
Kodak-DCR
A complete technical comparison of Digital Picture Exchange and Kodak Digital Camera Raw — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.
Equal browser support
Feature Support
| Feature | DPX | Kodak-DCR |
|---|---|---|
| Transparency (Alpha) | Yes | ✕ No |
| Animation Support | ✕ No | ✕ No |
| Progressive Loading | ✕ No | ✕ No |
| HDR Support | Yes | Yes |
| EXIF Metadata | ✕ No | Yes |
| ICC Color Profile | ✕ No | Yes |
Digital Picture Exchange
image/dpx
Extension
.dpx
Container
DPX (SMPTE ST 268)
Compression
Uncompressed / RLE (Rarely used)
Algorithm
Uncompressed
Color Depth
8-bit, 10-bit, 12-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit (Float)
Developed by
SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers)
Released
1994
Magic Bytes
53 44 50 58 (Big-endian) / 58 50 44 53 (Little-endian)
Kodak Digital Camera Raw
image/x-kodak-dcr
Extension
.dcr
Container
TIFF/EP
Compression
Uncompressed / Lossless JPEG
Algorithm
NoneLossless JPEG (ITU-T81)
Color Depth
12-bit (Per Channel)
Developed by
Eastman Kodak Company
Released
1998
Magic Bytes
49 49 2A 00 or 4D 4D 00 2A
Browser Support Comparison
| Browser | DPX | Kodak-DCR |
|---|---|---|
Chrome
|
✕ | ✕ |
Firefox
|
✕ | ✕ |
Safari
|
✕ | ✕ |
Edge
|
✕ | ✕ |
IE (Legacy)
|
✕ | ✕ |
DPX
DPX Strengths
- Industry standard for transferring uncompressed, high-fidelity film and VFX data
- Rich industry-specific metadata including timecode, keykode, and film stock information
- Supports logarithmic color spaces (LogC, Cineon) to preserve the massive dynamic range of film negatives
Limitations
- Massive file sizes (e.g., a single 4K 10-bit frame is ~50MB, resulting in ~1.2GB per second at 24fps)
- Zero native support in web browsers or consumer OS image viewers
- Requires heavy-duty, fast storage infrastructure (RAID/NVMe) to playback in real-time
Kodak-DCR
Kodak-DCR Strengths
- Preserves the full dynamic range and uncompressed raw sensor data captured by foundational professional digital cameras
- Utilizes the standard TIFF container structure, ensuring that open-source decoders like LibRaw can easily parse and interpret the files long after official vendor support has ended
Limitations
- Completely obsolete proprietary format tied to camera hardware that is no longer manufactured
- Shares the TIFF magic header, leading to widespread misidentification by automated MIME detection libraries
- Cannot be natively viewed in web browsers or standard operating system image viewers without specialized codecs
When to choose which format
DPX
Use DPX when…
- Film Scanning
- Visual Effects (VFX)
- Digital Intermediate (DI)
- Color Grading
- Archival
Kodak-DCR
Use Kodak-DCR when…
- Vintage Professional Digital Photography (Kodak DCS series)
- Non-destructive Image Post-Processing
- Raw Imaging Archival