X3F to FLV Converter

How to Convert X3F to FLV Online

1. Upload Your X3F Files: Drag and drop or click "+ Add Files" to load Sigma Foveon raw photos from your device. Batch is supported — drop a whole folder from an SD9, DP2 Merrill, or SD Quattro and the converter treats each frame as one shot in the output reel.
2. Pick Merge strategy and Image Duration: Choose Merge images to stitch every X3F into a single FLV slideshow, or Video per image to emit one short FLV per file. Set Image Duration per frame — defaults to 5 seconds, with presets from 1/60 second up to 10 seconds. Pick a Background Color (default Black) for any letterbox bars when the raw aspect ratio doesn't match the chosen output frame.
3. Set Quality and Resolution (Optional): Under Quality Preset, leave Constant Quality at "Very High (Recommended)" or switch to Constraint Quality for a bitrate cap. For Video resolution, keep original Foveon dimensions or pick a Preset Resolutions (1080p, 720p, 480p, etc.) or enter custom Width x Height — aspect ratio is preserved when only one dimension is set.
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.

Why Convert X3F to FLV?

X3F is Sigma's proprietary raw container, written by every camera built around the Foveon X3 sensor — SD9 (2002) through SD Quattro H (2016), plus the DP1/DP2/DP3 fixed-lens compacts and the Merrill and Quattro variants. The file holds unprocessed sensor data from Foveon's three-layer stacked photosite design, plus an embedded JPEG preview and EXIF metadata. FLV is Macromedia/Adobe's Flash Video container, launched September 2003, that wraps Sorenson Spark (H.263), On2 VP6, or H.264 video alongside MP3, AAC, Nellymoser, or Speex audio. Sigma never published a "Foveon-to-Flash" pipeline because the two formats served opposite ends of the chain — one is sensor raw, the other is web playback. Converting X3F → FLV stitches your stills into a legacy Flash-compatible reel for use cases like:

• Legacy LMS and CD-ROM archives — Corporate training courses authored in Articulate, Adobe Captivate, or Lectora before 2017 frequently embedded .flv assets. Re-publishing an old course module with updated photography means matching the original container so the SCORM package still validates.
• Museum and archive kiosks — Touchscreen exhibits built between 2005 and 2015 commonly shipped with Flash Projector binaries that play FLV from local disk. Replacing a faded reel without rebuilding the whole kiosk app is a real ongoing need.
• Older video editor ingest — Sony Vegas 10–13, Adobe Premiere CS4–CS6, and Avid Studio import FLV natively. If your editing rig hasn't been updated since Flash Player's December 31, 2020 EOL, FLV is still the path of least resistance for a quick photo-roll.
• Migrating Foveon portfolios off cameras with no factory video — The SD and DP series are stills-only bodies; building a "video reel" from a shoot has always meant external conversion. FLV was the de-facto web reel format of the late-2000s portfolio era.
• Re-encoding source for emulation and preservation — Internet Archive's flashpoint and ruffle projects play .swf and .flv content for cultural-heritage preservation. A clean, codec-conformant FLV is easier to ingest than an exotic raw.

Most modern workflows should target MP4 or WebM instead — see X3F to MP4 for H.264/H.265 output or X3F to WebM for VP9/AV1. Use FLV only when a downstream system specifically demands it.

X3F vs FLV — Format Comparison

FLV Codec Quick Guide

Frequently Asked Questions

Why would anyone still want an FLV in 2026?

Almost no new project should. Adobe ended Flash Player support on December 31, 2020, and began blocking Flash content on January 12, 2021. The remaining demand for FLV is archival: re-publishing legacy e-learning SCORM packages, swapping assets inside old Adobe Captivate or Articulate courses, refreshing museum-kiosk reels that run on Flash Projector, or ingesting into pre-2017 video editors like Sony Vegas 10 or Premiere CS6 that still treat FLV as a first-class import. If your downstream system isn't one of those, target MP4 or WebM instead.

Does this preserve the Foveon color depth?

No — and nothing that outputs a video container can. The Foveon X3 sensor captures up to 14 bits per layer at every pixel; FLV video (Sorenson Spark, VP6, or H.264 inside FLV) encodes 8-bit YCbCr. The conversion bakes the raw into 8-bit display-referred frames before compression. If you need the Foveon depth preserved, convert X3F to a still format like PNG or DNG via Sigma Photo Pro first, then build the video — or keep the originals around and treat the FLV as a derivative.

Which FLV video codec should I pick?

If maximum playback compatibility with old Flash Player versions matters, pick Sorenson Spark (FLV1) — every Flash Player from 6 onward decodes it. For best quality inside the .flv container, pick On2 VP6 (FLV4) which was Adobe's recommended FLV codec from Flash Player 8 onward. H.264 inside FLV works but Adobe themselves recommended switching to the .f4v/MP4 container for new H.264 work; some legacy Flash players won't decode H.264-in-FLV.

What cameras produce X3F files?

Every Sigma camera with a Foveon X3 sensor, spanning two camera lines: the SD series DSLRs — SD9, SD10, SD14, SD15, SD1, SD1 Merrill, plus the mirrorless SD Quattro and SD Quattro H — and the DP series fixed-lens compacts including DP1/DP2/DP1s/DP2s/DP1x/DP2x, the Merrill trio (DP1/DP2/DP3 Merrill), and the Quattro lineup (DP0/DP1/DP2/DP3 Quattro). Sigma discontinued the last Foveon body, the SD Quattro H, in production runs winding down around 2022; as of 2026 Sigma has not released a new Foveon-sensor camera.

How long should each X3F frame stay on screen?

It depends on what the FLV is for. Use 1/24 second or 1/30 second if you're animating a burst into smooth motion (a 24-frame burst from a DP2 Merrill becomes one second of video). Use 2–5 seconds per frame for a portfolio reel — long enough to register detail in a Foveon image without lingering. Use 8–10 seconds for archival reference where viewers might pause and inspect. The picker exposes presets from 1/60 second up to 10 seconds.

Can I add background music to the FLV?

Not in this single-step converter — it produces silent video from a stills batch. To add an audio track, convert to FLV first, then mux audio in a desktop editor that handles FLV input (ffmpeg, VLC, or Premiere CS6). A common alternative for new projects: convert to MP4, which most current web editors will accept alongside an audio file in one step.

What's the difference between FLV and F4V?

FLV is the original Flash Video container Adobe shipped in 2003 around Sorenson Spark and VP6. F4V is Adobe's later container (December 2007) built on the ISO base media file format — essentially MP4 with Adobe extensions — and is what Adobe recommended for H.264 video. F4V has better support for chapter markers and AAC audio, but FLV is older and more widely accepted by legacy tooling. Pick FLV when your target system specifically expects .flv; otherwise prefer MP4.

Will the FLV play in a modern browser?

No browser plays Flash Video natively. Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari all removed Flash support in step with Adobe's December 2020 EOL — none of them ship an .flv decoder. Desktop playback still works through VLC, MPV, or ffmpeg-based players. For web playback in 2026, transcode to MP4 (H.264 + AAC) or WebM (VP9/AV1) — both are supported by every major browser via HTML5 <video>.

Where does my X3F file go after upload?

It's processed on our servers and removed when the session ends. No account, no email, no watermark, no file-count cap. Source X3F files are usually large (40–80 MB each for Quattro-era cameras); batch a folder once and download the resulting FLV files.