X3F to F4V Converter

How to Convert X3F to F4V Online

1. Upload Your X3F Files: Drag and drop or click "Add Files" to select Sigma Foveon RAW captures from an SD9, SD10, SD14, SD15, SD1 Merrill, DP Merrill, or dp Quattro. Batch is supported — drop in an entire session and each.x3f becomes a frame in the output video (or its own F4V, depending on Merge strategy).
2. Pick Merge Strategy and Image Duration: Default Merge strategy is "Merge images" — every X3F becomes one frame of a single F4V slideshow. Switch to "Video per image" to emit one F4V per source file. Set Image Duration ("5 seconds per frame" by default — pick anywhere from 1/60 second for a stop-motion playback up to 10 seconds for a slow gallery). Choose a Background Color (Black default) to pad letterboxed frames.
3. Set Quality Preset and Resolution (Optional): Under File Compression, keep Quality Preset on "Constant Quality" with the "Very High (Recommended)" Preset for visually-lossless H.264 output, or switch to "Constraint Quality" for capped variable bitrate (predictable file sizes). Under Video resolution, choose Keep original (uses the X3F's native dimensions — typically 2640×1760 for SD15 or 5424×3616 for dp Quattro), Fixed Resolutions, or pick a Preset Resolution (2160p / 1440p / 1080p / 720p / 480p). Aspect ratio locks unless you enter Width × Height explicitly.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert. 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. Download as a single F4V or as a ZIP if you used "Video per image."

Why Convert X3F to F4V?

X3F is Sigma's RAW format, written by Foveon X3-sensor cameras since the SD9 launched in 2002 and continuing through the dp Quattro series before Sigma discontinued Foveon-equipped bodies in 2022. Unlike Bayer-mosaic RAW (CR2, NEF, ARW, DNG), Foveon stacks red, green, and blue photodiodes vertically at every pixel location, so X3F captures full RGB per site without demosaic interpolation. The catch: outside Sigma Photo Pro, support is thin. Most players, browsers, NLEs, and web embeds cannot open.x3f directly.

F4V is Adobe's 2007-era video container — informally "Flash MP4" — built on the ISO base media file format with H.264 video and AAC audio. It is essentially MP4 with Flash-era extensions. Converting an X3F gallery to F4V turns a stack of unviewable RAW files into a single H.264 video that plays anywhere a modern H.264 decoder exists. Common reasons to convert:

• Resurrect an old Flash-era portfolio site — Photography sites built between 2008 and 2015 often hard-coded <object> tags pointing at F4V files. If the portfolio CMS or template still expects F4V (and you still maintain the site, perhaps for an SEO-grandfathered domain), generating new F4V slideshows from current X3F captures keeps the layout intact.
• Adobe Animate / legacy Flash Professional projects — Animate (the rebranded Flash Pro) still imports F4V via its FLVPlayback and FLVPlaybackCaptioning components for AIR-based deliverables. Photographers cutting an interactive AIR portfolio or kiosk app need F4V input, not raw.x3f.
• AIR SDK and kiosk deployments — Adobe AIR is still maintained by Harman and runs on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. F4V is the native NetStream format for AIR's Video and StageVideo classes; an X3F→F4V pipeline feeds high-resolution photo loops into kiosks and digital signage rigs that were built on AIR.
• Legacy archive normalization — Studios that delivered F4V masters between 2008 and 2015 sometimes need fresh F4V renders from current shoots to match the existing library's container, codec settings, and metadata layout before re-archiving everything to MP4 later.
• Quick frame-rate slideshows from a Foveon shoot — Even outside Flash workflows, batching a hundred X3F captures into a 5-second-per-frame H.264 video is a fast way to share an entire session with a client without uploading hundreds of huge RAW files. F4V plays in VLC, PotPlayer, MPV, and ffmpeg-based tools.
• Web rewrap to MP4 later — Because F4V is structurally an ISO base media file with H.264/AAC, renaming or remuxing F4V to MP4 is usually a stream-copy operation with zero re-encode. Generating F4V now keeps the door open to either Flash-era playback or modern MP4 distribution.

X3F vs F4V — Format Comparison

Quality Preset and Image Duration Quick Guide

If you would rather output an MP4 the modern web can stream natively, see X3F to MP4. For JPG or PNG stills from a Foveon RAW, use X3F to JPG or X3F to PNG. If your portfolio already has F4V files that need to shrink, Compress F4V handles re-encoding without rebuilding from RAW.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is F4V still useful in 2026?

For new web video, no — Adobe Flash Player was discontinued December 31, 2020, and Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari all removed Flash playback by January 26, 2021. Adobe Connect dropped FLV and F4V support in version 12.2 (released March 2023). F4V is still useful in three specific contexts: (1) Adobe AIR applications, which Harman continues to maintain and still use NetStream/StageVideo for F4V playback; (2) Adobe Animate projects that need F4V input via the legacy FLVPlayback components; and (3) matching the container of an existing archive of F4V masters from a 2008–2015 production library. For anything else, MP4 is the right target — F4V and MP4 share the same ISO base media file format and the same H.264 + AAC codecs underneath.

Why convert an X3F image to a video format at all?

X3F is a single still capture from a Sigma Foveon-sensor camera; F4V is a video container. The conversion makes sense when you have a batch of X3F captures (a portfolio set, a time-lapse, a product shoot) and want to bundle them into one playable video file rather than ship dozens of individually-incompatible RAW frames. Each X3F becomes a frame, the Image Duration setting controls dwell time, and the result is a slideshow or time-lapse F4V that plays in any H.264-capable player.

Does the converter preserve Foveon's three-layer color depth?

Not in the literal sense — F4V output is 8-bit-per-channel H.264 Y'CbCr, the same as any consumer video. The conversion process develops each X3F to RGB internally (similar to what Sigma Photo Pro does), then encodes those RGB frames into H.264. Foveon's distinctive per-pixel color completeness is preserved in the demosaic stage and shows up as cleaner edges and color transitions in the resulting video than you would get from a comparable Bayer RAW source, but the 14-bit RAW data itself is collapsed during encode. For archival, keep your original.x3f files and only convert to F4V for delivery.

What X3F resolutions does the converter accept?

Any X3F written by a Sigma Foveon body — SD9 / SD10 (3.4 effective MP, 2268×1512 per layer), SD14 / SD15 / DP1 / DP2 (4.7 MP, 2640×1760), SD1 / SD1 Merrill / DP Merrill series (15.36 MP effective from a 46 MP sensor, 4704×3136), and dp Quattro / SD Quattro (19.6 MP effective from a 39 MP sensor, 5424×3616 top layer). Mixed sets work — the converter scales each frame to the chosen output resolution.

How long should I set Image Duration?

Match it to the source. A burst-mode stop-motion of 60 X3F frames at 1/30 second becomes a 2-second clip — fine for animation, useless as a slideshow. A 30-image portfolio at 5 seconds per frame gives 2.5 minutes — natural pacing for viewing. For a time-lapse where each X3F is one minute of real time, 1/24 or 1/30 second per frame plays at film or video rate. Pick "Video per image" with a single duration if every frame needs an identical hold time and you want one F4V per still.

What's the difference between F4V and FLV?

Both are Adobe Flash video containers. FLV (Flash Video, 2002) used Sorenson Spark or VP6 video with MP3 or Nellymoser audio, with a custom packet-based file structure. F4V (2007) is Adobe's update built on the ISO base media file format — identical underlying container as MP4 — and supports H.264 video with AAC or MP3 audio. F4V can play in everything that handles MP4 because the structure is the same; FLV cannot. F4V deliberately dropped support for the older Spark, VP6, ADPCM, and Nellymoser formats. If a system asks for "Flash video" today and is anything newer than 2008, it usually wants F4V.

Can I re-export the F4V as MP4 later without quality loss?

Yes. Because F4V is structurally an ISO base media file with H.264 video and AAC audio, the conversion to MP4 is a container remux — the audio and video streams move into the.mp4 container with no re-encoding and zero quality loss. The same ffmpeg -i in.f4v -c copy out.mp4 operation handles it. So generating F4V now does not lock you out of MP4 distribution later.

Why not just convert X3F directly to a still image?

If you only need one image per X3F, do that instead — X3F to JPG, X3F to PNG, or X3F to BMP for higher fidelity. The X3F-to-F4V pipeline exists because video output is genuinely useful for batched stills: one playable file instead of dozens of incompatible RAWs, controllable pacing, and a container that drops cleanly into AIR/Animate workflows.

Will the F4V play in modern browsers?

No browser plays F4V natively as of 2026 — Flash Player is gone and no browser ever shipped HTML5 F4V playback. Use a desktop player (VLC, MPV, PotPlayer, ffplay) or an AIR-based runtime. If you need a browser-playable result, convert to MP4 instead via X3F to MP4; the H.264/AAC streams transfer with no quality loss because F4V and MP4 share the ISO base media file format under the hood.