ORF to HEVC Converter
Initializing... drag & drop files here
Supports: ORF
Advanced Options - Our defaults are optimized for the best results. We recommend you keeping the defaults unless you have a specific need.
Reset to defaults
Need help?ORF to HEVC Converter
ORF is Olympus Raw Format: a single undeveloped still, written by Olympus and OM System cameras, structured like a TIFF but with a custom signature (MMOR, IIRO, or IIRS) that stops ordinary viewers from opening it. HEVC is not a still format at all — it is a video codec, ITU-T H.265 / ISO/IEC 23008-2. So this conversion renders your raw photograph into one video frame and holds that frame on screen as a short, silent clip. It is a legitimate thing to want when a still has to enter a video timeline, and a bad idea if what you actually wanted was a viewable photo. This page documents exactly what comes out, because the .hevc extension is misleading in a way worth spelling out. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours — no sign-up, no watermark, never shared or made public.
ORF Format at a Glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Full name | Olympus Raw Format |
| Structure | TIFF-based container, but with MMOR, IIRO, or IIRS in place of the standard TIFF signature bytes |
| Payload | Undemosaiced Bayer sensor data, an embedded preview, standard EXIF, and Olympus MakerNote tags |
| Bit depth | 12 bits per channel on current bodies — DPReview lists the OM System OM-1 as 12-bit lossless-compressed |
| Typical pixel dimensions | 4608 x 3456 on 16-megapixel Four Thirds bodies; 5184 x 3888 on 20-megapixel bodies such as the OM-1 |
| Compression | None, or lossless |
| Written by | Olympus E-system, OM-D, PEN, and Tough cameras, and by OM System bodies since OM Digital Solutions took over the imaging business on 1 January 2021 |
| Native browser support | None — every browser refuses it |
| Best for | Keeping the negative so you can re-develop the picture later |
What the .hevc File Actually Is
The single most useful fact about this page: the file you download is a Matroska container. Our encoder maps the .hevc output extension onto ffmpeg's Matroska muxer, so the bytes are identical to an .mkv — only the file name differs. There is no raw H.265 elementary stream involved.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Extension you get | .hevc |
| Actual container | Matroska — byte-for-byte the same kind of file as .mkv |
| Video codec | H.265 / HEVC (ITU-T H.265, ISO/IEC 23008-2) |
| Audio track | None. An image source carries no audio, and the audio control is hidden on this page for that reason |
| Frame rate | 1 fps |
| B-frames | Disabled |
| Default clip length | 5 seconds per image |
| Frame size ceiling | The still is normalised to a PNG capped at 4096 px on its long edge before encoding |
| Opens in | VLC, mpv, and anything ffmpeg-based. Players that decide by extension usually refuse it until you rename the file to .mkv |
How to Convert ORF to HEVC
- Upload Your ORF File: Drop your
.orffiles on the page or click "+ Add Files". Olympus raws run tens of megabytes each, so upload time dominates; several files can be queued and encoded with one shared set of settings. - Set Merge strategy and Image Duration: Merge strategy offers "Merge images" (selected — every uploaded photo becomes one clip, shown in sequence) or "Video per image" (a separate file each). Image Duration sets how long each still holds, defaulting to 5 seconds per frame, with everything from a single frame at 60 fps up to 10 seconds per frame available.
- Choose Quality Preset, Video resolution, and Background Color: File Compression offers Quality Preset (Very High is selected), Constant Quality, and Constraint Quality with a max-bitrate field. Video resolution starts on "Keep original" and also offers fixed width x height pairs, height-only presets, or your own dimensions. Background Color defaults to White and fills any letterbox area when the photo's shape does not match the video frame.
- Convert and Download: Click Convert. The Video Codec menu is already on H.265 for this target, and the clip comes out silent. No sign-up, no watermark.
What the Pipeline Fixes and What You Control
Several things on this page are decided for you and cannot be changed, which is worth knowing before you go looking for a control that is not there. The frame rate is 1 fps. B-frames are off. Every uploaded image is re-encoded to a clean PNG, capped at 4096 pixels on its long edge, before it reaches the video encoder — so a 20-megapixel Olympus frame arrives as roughly 4096 x 3072 no matter what. And because the source is a still, the audio codec group is hidden outright rather than merely defaulted to silence.
The bitrate and file-size compression modes are hidden too. Image-to-video conversions expose only Quality Preset, Constant Quality, and Constraint Quality, because a still has no source bitrate to scale from. That restriction bites hardest on old qscale codecs; here it does not, because H.265 is a CRF codec, so the Quality Preset genuinely moves the output.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the downloaded .hevc file a raw H.265 elementary stream?
No, and this trips people up. Our converter routes the .hevc output extension to ffmpeg's Matroska muxer, so what you get is an ordinary MKV file wearing an unusual name. That is good news for playback quality — Matroska carries proper timestamps and seeks cleanly — but it means tools that sniff the extension will complain. Rename it to .mkv and it behaves like any other Matroska file.
Why does my ORF to HEVC clip have no sound?
Because a photograph contains no audio to encode. On image sources the pipeline hides the entire audio codec group rather than picking a silent default, so there is no control to change and no empty audio track in the output. If you need music or narration, import the clip into a video editor and add the audio there.
How long is the clip and what frame rate does it use?
The runtime comes from Image Duration, which starts at 5 seconds per frame; the encode itself runs at 1 fps, so a five-second clip is five identical frames. If you upload several ORFs with Merge strategy on "Merge images", each photo holds for its set duration and they play back to back in one file.
Does my 20-megapixel Olympus raw keep all its pixels in the video?
No. Before encoding, each image is re-rendered to a PNG capped at 4096 pixels on the long edge, so a 5184 x 3888 OM-1 frame becomes about 4096 x 3072 even on "Keep original". Anything you set under Video resolution then scales that further. If preserving every pixel is the point, do not put the photo in a video container at all — use ORF to TIFF or ORF to PNG.
Does the Quality Preset actually change anything on this page?
Yes. H.265 is a CRF-based encoder, so the preset maps onto a real quality target and moving it visibly changes size and detail. That is not true of every video target we offer — on older fixed-quantiser codecs such as MPEG-2 or Xvid, a still image gives the preset no source bitrate to scale from and it goes inert. Here it works, and Constraint Quality with a max-bitrate ceiling is available if you need a hard cap instead.
What colour fills the edges if my photo does not match the video frame?
Background Color, which defaults to White on image sources and offers 26 choices including Black. It fills letterbox or pillarbox bars whenever the aspect ratio you pick under Video resolution differs from the photo's own. A Four Thirds frame is 4:3, so pushing it into a 16:9 preset leaves white pillars on both sides unless you change the colour or the target shape.
Should I be converting an Olympus raw to HEVC at all?
Usually not. HEVC earns its efficiency on motion, and a single frozen frame gives it nothing to compress, so you pay slow encoding and awkward playback for no gain. Convert to a still — ORF to JPG for something that opens everywhere, ORF to PNG for a lossless render. HEVC is the right call only when a video timeline needs an H.265 asset and you accept the .hevc-named Matroska file that comes with it. The ORF converter hub lists the other targets.
What happens to my ORF after the conversion finishes?
It is uploaded over an encrypted connection, rendered and encoded on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours, along with the output file. No account is required, nothing is watermarked, and your photos are never shared or made public.