Convert 3FR to APNG Online
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Supports: 3FR
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Need help?Convert 3FR to APNG Online
3FR is Hasselblad's medium-format RAW format — minimally processed sensor data from cameras like the X1D II 50C, straight off the studio's image pipeline. This tool renders that RAW into the APNG (Animated PNG) container: upload a set of 3FR frames and they stack in order into one lossless animated PNG — a timelapse or sequence in a single file. Upload one 3FR and you get a clean single-frame APNG. Either way, the demosaiced output is 24-bit color with alpha, lossless, and plays in nearly every modern browser.
How to Convert 3FR to APNG
- Upload Your 3FR Files: Drag and drop or click "Add Files" to add your Hasselblad RAW shots. To build an animation, add several 3FR files — they play in the order you upload them, so name or arrange them in sequence first.
- Set the Framerate: Pick how fast the frames advance (10 FPS is the recommended default). A higher framerate makes the loop quicker and smoother; a lower one slows it down. This only matters when you upload more than one file.
- Adjust Colors, Image Quality, and Resolution: Leave Colors on the default to keep the full 24-bit range, or pick "By Color Reduction + Dither" to shrink the file. Tune Image quality (%) and set a Preset Resolution or resize by percentage to cap the output dimensions — useful, since full-resolution Hasselblad frames are large.
- Convert and Download: Click Convert and download your APNG. Files upload over an encrypted connection, are processed on our servers, and are deleted automatically after a few hours — no sign-up, no watermark.
3FR vs APNG — What Changes
| Property | 3FR (input) | APNG (output) |
|---|---|---|
| Origin | 2006, Hasselblad (H2D camera) | 2004, Mozilla |
| Type | Camera RAW (unrendered sensor data) | Rendered, displayable image |
| Based on | TIFF | PNG |
| Compression | Lossless, but RAW (large files) | Lossless PNG DEFLATE (compact) |
| Animation | None — one capture per file | Multiple frames in one file |
| Color | 16-bit linear RAW per channel | 24-bit RGB (8-bit per channel) + 8-bit alpha |
| Where it opens | Hasselblad Phocus, Photoshop, Lightroom | ~94.7% of browsers; first frame shows where unsupported |
| Best for | Editing, color grading, archival masters | Web loops, timelapses, animated stills |
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I control the order my 3FR frames play in?
Frames play in the order you add the files, top to bottom in the upload list. Because RAW filenames carry sequence numbers from the camera (for example B0001234.3FR, B0001235.3FR), they usually already sort in shooting order — upload the whole set together and they assemble into one APNG in that order. If you shot out of sequence or merged cards, rename them so they sort the way you want before uploading. The Framerate you choose then sets how long each frame stays on screen.
Will I lose image quality converting 3FR to APNG?
You move from a 16-bit-per-channel RAW master to an 8-bit-per-channel rendered image, so this is a render step, not a copy — that is inherent to turning any RAW into a viewable format, the same thing happens exporting to JPEG or web PNG. Within that rendered output APNG is lossless: nothing is recompressed or thrown away unless you ask for it. Quality only drops further if you choose "By Color Reduction + Dither," lower Image quality (%), or shrink the resolution. Keep your original 3FR files as the editable masters — APNG is the deliverable, not the archive.
Why convert a Hasselblad RAW to APNG instead of GIF?
APNG carries full 24-bit color and 8-bit alpha transparency, where GIF is capped at 256 colors per frame and only 1-bit (on/off) transparency. For the smooth gradients and skin tones a Hasselblad capture produces, GIF banding is obvious and APNG is not. The tradeoff is reach: GIF plays literally everywhere, while APNG is supported in about 94.7% of browsers — and even there, the fallback is graceful (the first frame shows as a static PNG). If you need a universal fallback, also make a 3FR to GIF copy.
Which browsers and apps support APNG?
APNG plays in roughly 94.7% of browsers worldwide: Chrome 59+, Firefox 3+, Safari 8+, Edge 79+, and Opera 46+, on desktop and mobile. Internet Explorer and Opera Mini never supported it. Where APNG isn't understood, the first frame is shown as an ordinary static PNG, so the image is never broken — it simply doesn't animate. Most image editors treat an APNG as a normal PNG and show only that first frame.
Can I convert a single 3FR, or do I need several?
Either works. Upload one 3FR and you get a valid single-frame APNG. In our testing, a single 50-megapixel Hasselblad frame rendered to a full-resolution single-frame APNG runs large, so lowering Image quality (%) or picking a Preset Resolution is usually worth it for a one-shot. Upload several and they're stitched into an animation in upload order. There's no minimum beyond one file and no fixed frame cap; the practical limit is upload size and time, not a set number of frames. If you only want a still web image, convert 3FR to PNG gives you a single compressed lossless frame without the animation chunks.