OpenRAW

We are currently working on the next steps, but you are welcome to join our mailing list and get involved, there are tons of things to do.

Juergen, is OpenRAW dead?

Hardly anything has changed in the 6 weeks since you posted above that you were working on the next steps. I haven't seen evidence of new lobbying, and the website has hardly changed. (Although the FAQ got a bit smaller soon after you wrote the above).

Has the problem disappeared? Hardly. Has it been solved? No - there is a component of the solution, but bits are still missing.

"OpenRAW" is surely still a good "brand". It could be used to good effect, if it takes a realistic view of the future of raw shooting.

One important bit of realism needed is to recognise that software development organisations also have responsibilities, not just camera manufacturers. Photographers need software products, not specifications. Some software developers that claim to support OpenRAW haven't yet shown signs of supporting those cameras that DO use a publicly-documented raw format. Until they do, they undermine the logic of OpenRAW.

OpenRAW is anything but dead, but we need some time to make it right. At the end of October we will reveal our next steps. Stay tuned, there are lots of things in the works.

Thanks Juergen, I'm glad it isn't dead.

Here are five questions I will mentally ask when I see the next steps. I have chosen these because I believe many others will ask them too.

1. Is OpenRAW clearly focused on photographers and users of photographs?

I have no doubt that you and the team have this in mind. But when I read comments from SOME of the software developers who support OpenRAW, it can appear that they see OpenRAW as a cost-cutting exercise, especially given "3". Perhaps they have every intention of feeding that back to photographers. But we need convincing that they will do so.

2. Supplement to "1". Is OpenRAW at least as applicable to photographers who don't use Canon and Nikon?

Based on articles by individual supporters of OpenRAW, and what I read in various forums, I believe support for OpenRAW-like ideas is disproportionately higher for users of "minority" cameras, who believe they are most at risk from withdrawal of software support. Many individual OpenRAW supporters have mentioned such cameras. Contributers to Canon and Nikon forums appear to have more confidence in continuing support for their raw formats than other photographers do.

3. Does OpenRAW address the needs of photographers to have tools rather than specifications?

Publicly specified raw formats have little advantage to photographers unless they result in better tools for photographers and users of photographs. There is little or no evidence so far that they will. Has the launch of various cameras and digital backs with publicly specified formats, over the last three or more months, resulted in ANY software developers changing their plans to add these formats to their products?

If the policy of "naming and shaming" camera manufacturers who don't use publicly specified formats continues, perhaps OpenRAW should "name and shame" all those software developers who don't properly support cameras with publicly documented raw formats?

4. Does OpenRAW answer the question that camera makers must surely ask: "what is in it for me?"

Many people, and perhaps the camera makers themselves, think they won't benefit, and that there could even be a disadvantage to them. I think that if camera makers see themselves as "total system suppliers", they won't see the advantages. But if they realise that often they provide (major) parts of bigger systems that they can't fully control, they can become aware of the advantages.

5. Does OpenRAW answer the question "what is the relationship between OpenRAW and DNG?"

Even when OpenRAW was launched, many people asked this question. It has often been asked since then. DNG is well on the way to becoming a de facto standard, (and hence also an open standard). It has well over twice as many products supporting it now as when OpenRAW was launched, including some cameras and digital backs.

WHATEVER you decide, there is no doubt that it will be one of the most-asked questions.

Juergen, on October 6th you said: "At the end of October we will reveal our next steps. Stay tuned, there are lots of things in the works."

Two weeks after that date, I haven't seen anything. Once again I ask: "is OpenRAW dead?"

Good things take a while. We are still working on it.