diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/core/BinaryFieldMapper.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/core/BinaryFieldMapper.java
index 61c2c625b80..57131b0bb32 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/core/BinaryFieldMapper.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/core/BinaryFieldMapper.java
@@ -19,19 +19,29 @@
 
 package org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.core;
 
-import org.apache.lucene.document.Field;
-import org.apache.lucene.document.Fieldable;
-import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentBuilder;
-import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentParser;
-import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.Mapper;
-import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.MapperParsingException;
-import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.ParseContext;
+import static org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.support.XContentMapValues.nodeBooleanValue;
+import static org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.MapperBuilders.*;
+import static org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.core.TypeParsers.*;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.Map;
 
-import static org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.MapperBuilders.*;
-import static org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.core.TypeParsers.*;
+import org.apache.lucene.document.Field;
+import org.apache.lucene.document.Fieldable;
+import org.elasticsearch.ElasticSearchParseException;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.Strings;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.compress.lzf.LZF;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.compress.lzf.LZFDecoder;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.CachedStreamOutput;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.LZFStreamOutput;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.unit.ByteSizeValue;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentBuilder;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentParser;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.Mapper;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.MapperParsingException;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.MergeContext;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.MergeMappingException;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.ParseContext;
 
 /**
  * @author kimchy (shay.banon)
@@ -40,19 +50,37 @@ public class BinaryFieldMapper extends AbstractFieldMapper<byte[]> {
 
     public static final String CONTENT_TYPE = "binary";
 
+    public static class Defaults extends AbstractFieldMapper.Defaults {
+        public static final long COMPRESS_THRESHOLD = -1;
+    }
+
     public static class Builder extends AbstractFieldMapper.Builder<Builder, BinaryFieldMapper> {
 
+        private Boolean compress = null;
+
+        private long compressThreshold = Defaults.COMPRESS_THRESHOLD;
+
         public Builder(String name) {
             super(name);
             builder = this;
         }
 
+        public Builder compress(boolean compress) {
+            this.compress = compress;
+            return this;
+        }
+
+        public Builder compressThreshold(long compressThreshold) {
+            this.compressThreshold = compressThreshold;
+            return this;
+        }
+
         @Override public Builder indexName(String indexName) {
             return super.indexName(indexName);
         }
 
         @Override public BinaryFieldMapper build(BuilderContext context) {
-            return new BinaryFieldMapper(buildNames(context));
+            return new BinaryFieldMapper(buildNames(context), compress, compressThreshold);
         }
     }
 
@@ -60,16 +88,50 @@ public class BinaryFieldMapper extends AbstractFieldMapper<byte[]> {
         @Override public Mapper.Builder parse(String name, Map<String, Object> node, ParserContext parserContext) throws MapperParsingException {
             BinaryFieldMapper.Builder builder = binaryField(name);
             parseField(builder, name, node, parserContext);
+            for (Map.Entry<String, Object> entry : node.entrySet()) {
+                String fieldName = Strings.toUnderscoreCase(entry.getKey());
+                Object fieldNode = entry.getValue();
+                if (fieldName.equals("compress") && fieldNode != null) {
+                    builder.compress(nodeBooleanValue(fieldNode));
+                } else if (fieldName.equals("compress_threshold") && fieldNode != null) {
+                    if (fieldNode instanceof Number) {
+                        builder.compressThreshold(((Number) fieldNode).longValue());
+                        builder.compress(true);
+                    } else {
+                        builder.compressThreshold(ByteSizeValue.parseBytesSizeValue(fieldNode.toString()).bytes());
+                        builder.compress(true);
+                    }
+                }
+            }
             return builder;
         }
     }
 
-    protected BinaryFieldMapper(Names names) {
+    private Boolean compress;
+
+    private long compressThreshold;
+
+    protected BinaryFieldMapper(Names names, Boolean compress, long compressThreshold) {
         super(names, Field.Index.NO, Field.Store.YES, Field.TermVector.NO, 1.0f, true, true, null, null);
+        this.compress = compress;
+        this.compressThreshold = compressThreshold;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public Object valueForSearch(Fieldable field) {
+        return value(field);
     }
 
     @Override public byte[] value(Fieldable field) {
-        return field.getBinaryValue();
+        byte[] value = field.getBinaryValue();
+        if (value != null && LZF.isCompressed(value)) {
+            try {
+                return LZFDecoder.decode(value);
+            } catch (IOException e) {
+                throw new ElasticSearchParseException("failed to decompress source", e);
+            }
+        }
+        return value;
     }
 
     @Override public byte[] valueFromString(String value) {
@@ -90,6 +152,20 @@ public class BinaryFieldMapper extends AbstractFieldMapper<byte[]> {
             return null;
         } else {
             value = context.parser().binaryValue();
+            if (compress != null && compress && !LZF.isCompressed(value, 0, value.length)) {
+                if (compressThreshold == -1 || value.length > compressThreshold) {
+                    CachedStreamOutput.Entry cachedEntry = CachedStreamOutput.popEntry();
+                    LZFStreamOutput streamOutput = cachedEntry.cachedLZFBytes();
+                    streamOutput.writeBytes(value, 0, value.length);
+                    streamOutput.flush();
+                    // we copy over the byte array, since we need to push back the cached entry
+                    // TODO, we we had a handle into when we are done with parsing, then we push back then and not copy over bytes
+                    value = cachedEntry.bytes().copiedByteArray();
+                    CachedStreamOutput.pushEntry(cachedEntry);
+                    // update the data in the context, so it can be compressed and stored compressed outside...
+                    context.source(value, 0, value.length);
+                }
+            }
         }
         if (value == null) {
             return null;
@@ -107,7 +183,26 @@ public class BinaryFieldMapper extends AbstractFieldMapper<byte[]> {
         if (!names.name().equals(names.indexNameClean())) {
             builder.field("index_name", names.indexNameClean());
         }
+        if (compress != null) {
+            builder.field("compress", compress);
+        }
+        if (compressThreshold != -1) {
+            builder.field("compress_threshold", new ByteSizeValue(compressThreshold).toString());
+        }
         builder.endObject();
         return builder;
     }
+
+    @Override public void merge(Mapper mergeWith, MergeContext mergeContext) throws MergeMappingException {
+        BinaryFieldMapper sourceMergeWith = (BinaryFieldMapper) mergeWith;
+        if (!mergeContext.mergeFlags().simulate()) {
+            if (sourceMergeWith.compress != null) {
+                this.compress = sourceMergeWith.compress;
+            }
+            if (sourceMergeWith.compressThreshold != -1) {
+                this.compressThreshold = sourceMergeWith.compressThreshold;
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
 }
\ No newline at end of file