> In MacOS and iOS, the procedure for converting images from the Photos format[1] to a free format is so tedious and time-consuming that users just give up if they have a lot of them. [1] https://support.apple.com/guide/photos/export-photos-videos-... This (and a bunch of others) seems poorly sourced. It looks like Photos.app behaves the same as Aperture.app and many others. Your Library is a special folder. Your ori…
PhotoStructure libraries are set up this way, except you can choose to either keep all your assets where they were, or import them into a single, deduplicated directory structure.
The SQLite database schema is commented and straightforward, and migrations between versions are humanly readable (if you want to see exactly how the schema evolves).
I've open-sourced much of the code, but know that I'm hoping it can pay for rent some day soon. The current beta release is free in exchange for feedback. The next version will have both free and paid tiers.
> ... much better than CR2/NEF raw formats other camera makers use.
HEIV/HEIC typically contains one or more lossy, compressed images, much like JPEG.
CR2, NEF, ARW, ORF and DNG formats are all "raw" lossless formats that directly store sensor data along with metadata.
They're for very different use cases.