ORF Converter
FileFlip converts ORF files into 62 other formats entirely inside your browser, using ImageMagick, MuPDF and Pandoc compiled to WebAssembly. The ORF file is never uploaded to a server: it is read off your disk, converted on your own machine, and saved back by the browser. There is no file-size limit and no account to create.
How do I convert an ORF file?#
- Drop your ORF file onto the converter at the top of this page, or click it to pick one from your computer.
- Choose the format you want out of it. FileFlip downloads the engine that conversion needs, once, and your browser caches it.
- Conversion starts the moment you pick the format, and the result is yours to download. The work happens in this tab, so nothing is uploaded and nothing is queued.
Is it safe to convert ORF files online?#
Yes, because nothing is uploaded. FileFlip converts ORF files inside the browser tab you already have open, using WebAssembly builds of the same engines a desktop converter would install. Your file is read from your own disk into the page's memory, and no request carrying it is ever made.
You do not have to take that on trust. Open your browser's network panel, run a conversion, and you will see the engine come down and your file go nowhere. There is no upload, no server-side copy, no retention window, and no account tied to what you converted.
How FileFlip works lists every engine, its version and its download size, and shows how to check for yourself that nothing leaves your machine.
What happens to a ORF file#
FileFlip converts ORF into 62 formats with ImageMagick, MuPDF and Pandoc, all of it inside the browser tab. Each conversion below names the engine it uses, what it downloads, and exactly what that conversion keeps or drops.
| Category | Image Files |
|---|---|
| File extension | .orf |
| FileFlip support | Read only, so it is a source rather than a target |
| Conversions available | 62 |
| Engines | ImageMagick, MuPDF and Pandoc |
| Downloaded to your browser | 14.1 MB on the first conversion, then cached |
What is an ORF file?#
An ORF file holds the unprocessed sensor readout from an Olympus or OM System camera in a TIFF-based container with Olympus maker note metadata, and the same extension was used across Olympus compacts, the Four Thirds E-series DSLRs that began with the E-1 in 2003, and the Micro Four Thirds PEN and OM-D bodies that followed from 2009.
ORF is what an Olympus or OM System camera writes when you shoot raw, so it is the file you keep if you want to redevelop the shot later rather than accept the camera's JPEG.
Convert ORF to JPEG when the picture has to be shared or printed, or to DNG when you would rather archive in a documented format than depend on reverse-engineered readers for a discontinued Olympus body.
The ORF file format reference covers the specification, the programs that open one, and what each conversion keeps or drops.
ORF questions people ask#
What software opens ORF files?
OM Workspace, the manufacturer's own application and the successor to Olympus Workspace, opens ORF files, and so do Adobe Lightroom and Camera Raw, Adobe Photoshop, Capture One, and the open source darktable and RawTherapee. OM Workspace has one thing the others do not: on bodies like the OM-1, OM-1 Mark II, OM-3 and E-M1 Mark III it can send an ORF back to the camera over USB and let the camera's own processor develop it.
Are Olympus ORF files and OM System ORF files the same thing?
Yes. Olympus agreed in September 2020 to hand its imaging division to the investment fund Japan Industrial Partners, the transfer completed on 1 January 2021, and the new company was named OM Digital Solutions and began selling cameras under the OM System brand. The raw format did not change with the ownership, so an ORF from an OM System OM-1 and an ORF from an Olympus E-M1 are the same kind of file and the same software reads both.
Does converting ORF to DNG lose anything?
Converting an ORF file to DNG keeps the sensor data exactly as the camera recorded it, so image quality is unchanged and the picture is still fully editable afterwards. What can be lost is Olympus-specific metadata in the maker notes, along with any adjustments already stored by OM Workspace, since settings written by one company's software are rarely understood by another's. Adobe DNG Converter leaves your ORF files where they are rather than replacing them, so keeping both is an option.
Why do Olympus and OM System use ORF instead of DNG?
OM System keeps ORF for the same reason Canon, Nikon, Sony and Fujifilm keep their own raw formats: the manufacturer can record whatever a new sensor or a new feature needs without waiting for Adobe to revise the shared DNG specification, and its own software then reads that data with no translation. Olympus and OM System cameras have never offered DNG as an in-camera option, so converting is always a step you take afterwards.