diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 4f5ee6a6..357f5cc0 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
   data
 - added vips_format_get_flags()
 - oop, forgot to check for cancel during tiled tiff write
+- don't use mmap for tiff read: no performance advantage, chews up VM
 
 11/9/08 started 7.16.3
 - oop typo in manpage for im_project()
diff --git a/libsrc/convolution/im_shrink.c b/libsrc/convolution/im_shrink.c
index 101041a8..7dbef949 100644
--- a/libsrc/convolution/im_shrink.c
+++ b/libsrc/convolution/im_shrink.c
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@
  *	- more typedef
  * 3/7/95 JC
  *	- IM_CODING_LABQ handling added here
+ * 20/12/08
+ * 	- fall back to im_copy() for 1/1 shrink
  */
 
 /*
@@ -296,7 +298,10 @@ shrink( IMAGE *in, IMAGE *out, double xshrink, double yshrink )
 int
 im_shrink( IMAGE *in, IMAGE *out, double xshrink, double yshrink )
 {
-	if( in->Coding == IM_CODING_LABQ ) {
+	if( xshrink == 1 && yshrink == 1 ) {
+		return( im_copy( in, out ) );
+	}
+	else if( in->Coding == IM_CODING_LABQ ) {
 		IMAGE *t[2];
 
 		if( im_open_local_array( out, t, 2, "im_shrink:1", "p" ) ||
diff --git a/libsrc/format/im_tiff2vips.c b/libsrc/format/im_tiff2vips.c
index c83052ff..c6b8a692 100644
--- a/libsrc/format/im_tiff2vips.c
+++ b/libsrc/format/im_tiff2vips.c
@@ -103,6 +103,9 @@
  * 	- allow CMYKA (thanks Doron)
  * 15/8/08
  * 	- reorganise for image format system
+ * 20/12/08
+ * 	- dont read with mmap: no performance advantage with libtiff, chews up 
+ * 	  VM wastefully
  */
 
 /*
@@ -1395,9 +1398,10 @@ get_directory( const char *filename, int page )
 	TIFF *tif;
 	int i;
 
-	/* No need to use "b" and it means something different anyway.
+	/* No mmap --- no performance advantage with libtiff, and it burns up
+	 * our VM if the tiff file is large.
 	 */
-	if( !(tif = TIFFOpen( filename, "r" )) ) {
+	if( !(tif = TIFFOpen( filename, "rm" )) ) {
 		im_error( "im_tiff2vips", 
 			_( "unable to open \"%s\" for input" ),
 			filename );
@@ -1520,11 +1524,7 @@ istifftiled( const char *filename )
 	TIFFSetErrorHandler( (TIFFErrorHandler) im__thandler_error );
 	TIFFSetWarningHandler( (TIFFErrorHandler) im__thandler_warning );
 
-#ifdef BINARY_OPEN
-	if( !(tif = TIFFOpen( filename, "rb" )) ) {
-#else /*BINARY_OPEN*/
-	if( !(tif = TIFFOpen( filename, "r" )) ) {
-#endif /*BINARY_OPEN*/
+	if( !(tif = TIFFOpen( filename, "rm" )) ) {
 		/* Not a TIFF file ... return False.
 		 */
 		im_error_clear();