OpenCV Save Image Dramatically Increases File Size of .tif

Question

I'm using OpenCV in Python to find images within other images using the MatchTemplate method. I've noticed that when I load a .tif file then re-save it, even if I have not altered the image in opencv, the file size is increasing dramatically, eg, from 68kb to 25mb.

I wrote a very basic script to verify that this happens without any other code modifying the image.

import cv, sys

filename = sys.argv[1]

image = cv.LoadImage(filename)
cv.SaveImage('test.tif', image)

I didn't see any options for optimizing the image. Any ideas on how I might be able to maintain the original file size within OpenCV or is this just a matter of compressing after the fact?

Answer 1

It could be that the source is compressed tif while the rewritten one is not compressed.

See https://code.ros.org/trac/opencv/ticket/1080 for a potential solution