ORF to GIF Converter
FileFlip converts ORF to GIF entirely inside your browser, using ImageMagick compiled to WebAssembly. The file is never uploaded to a server: it is read off your disk, converted on your own machine, and saved back by the browser. That means no file-size limit, no queue and no account.
How do I convert an ORF file to GIF?#
- Drop your ORF file onto the converter at the top of this page, or click it to pick one from your computer. You can add as many as you like.
- Leave the target set to GIF and the conversion starts on its own. FileFlip downloads 14.1 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, then runs ImageMagick on your own machine.
- Save the GIF file. Your browser writes it straight to your downloads folder, because there was never a server holding it.
Does converting ORF to GIF lose quality?#
No. Converting ORF to GIF writes the data out again without discarding any of it, so nothing that was in the ORF file is lost on the way. What changes is the size of the file, not what is inside it.
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 ORF to GIF actually does to the file#
Converting ORF to GIF runs on ImageMagick, downloads 14.1 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, writes the data out again without discarding any of it.
| Engine | ImageMagick |
|---|---|
| Conversion path | One step: ORF → GIF |
| Downloaded to your browser | 14.1 MB, once, then cached by your browser |
| Quality | Lossless |
| You get back | One file |
| Where it runs | In a background worker, so the page stays responsive |
Worth knowing before you start:
- camera raw is demosaiced with ImageMagick's defaults, which will not match the camera's own rendering
- the target holds at most 256 colours, so a full-colour image is quantised to a palette
- some cameras write lossily compressed raw, so the source is not always a complete sensor record
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.
What is a GIF file?#
A GIF file stores one or more indexed-color images, each limited to a palette of at most 256 colors, in a container CompuServe designed in 1987 that became the format the web uses for short looping animations.
Use GIF for short looping animations and simple graphics with flat colors, like reaction clips or icons, where universal playback matters more than file size.
Convert GIF to PNG or WebP when the image is a single still frame, since both hold more than 256 colors and compress a flat-color graphic to a smaller file; convert an animated GIF to WebP or MP4 when file size matters, since either can be a fraction of the size at the same frame count.
ORF to GIF 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.