It’s a generally bad idea to make any change to the structure or content of a raw file; software designed to look at the raw file may produce an error or odd behavior on raw files that have been modified from their out-of-camera native raw format.
So the traditional long-term friendly methods of keeping track of adjustments made to a raw file are to either use a sidecar (eg the XML that ACR creates), or a centralized database (eg the catalog that LR creates). Both of those have significant disadvantages. The sidecar has to be forever-more kept alongside and named-the-same-as the raw file. The centralized database is vulnerable to corruption or other loss causing widespread loss. Neither method is very modular or portable, which is a problem in workflows involving more than one computer (e.g. laptop in the field + desktop at home), or project workflows in which projects are coming in and out of your work pipeline.
P1 offers both of those workflows: C1 Sessions (without EIP) use the sidecar method, C1 Catalogs use the centralized database method. But P1 also offers a third method:
EIP.
Capture One, for any raw file it supports, can PACK the original-and-unmodified raw file inside an EIP container, alongside the settings/adjustment file and any other required files (eg LCC or custom ICC profile etc). This maintains complete portability/modularity and is not vulnerable to a single corruption having a widespread effect. And it doesn’t change the raw file itself in any way. C1 can always unpack the raw file from an EIP in case you need it (eg to open in another raw software that doesn’t understand EIPs). C1 can also automatically pack raws as EIPs upon import or upon capture, so using EIP needn't require any additional user steps/clicks/time.
For those technically inclined, EIP is a backronym ostensibly standing for Enhanced Image Package, but is derived from the fact it’s a renamed ZIP file. The zip format is a very well established archival format (created 1989; still
very widely used), so should you ever need to (eg 50 years from now when C1 is no more, and you interact with raw files via neural implant) you can rename the extension from EIP to ZIP and use any zip software (including any current OS) to unpack the original raw file without using C1 (of course as long as long as you have easy access to C1 it’s faster and easier to use C1 to unpack the EIP).
We cover these topics very deeply in our
Capture One Training as they have a widespread impact on practical daily workflow.
I'm not aware of a similar feature in Hasselblad's Phocus software, but as you know DT chooses to specialize in Phase One digital and so we are not experts on Phocus.