OpenRAW

As the professor once said... " I like standards - there are so many to choose from."

Unfortunately its no joke when you can't get things done because you can't access a particular file format. This problem applies to many things but the RAW situation seems to be potentially worse than other computer related situations. Whilst many file formats have come and gone relatively few of them were proprietary in the way that the RAW formats are.

I wholeheartedly support and applaud the efforts of OpenRAW and Adobe for trying to put an end to this farce. Customer support is a big competitive issue these days but relatively few companies seem to understand what it really should involve.

Although I do make a small amount of money from photography I am primarily an enthusiast. I have used photoshop for some years but have only recently taken the plunge, in a modest manner, and bought a 'prosumer' digital camera. Before making my purchase decision I obtained brochures and researched reviews on the web. My chosen camera can produce RAW files. However, there is a TRUTH IN ADVERTISING issue with the brochure. The RAW format is simply mentioned in a list of file formats. There is no indication that additional software has to be purchased to make full use of RAW, and the software needed to do that is not even included in the list of optional accessories. This is totally misleading. At the same time the brochure extols the benefits of using widely used standards, such as DCF and EXIF, which is a bit hypocritical.

Forcing customers to buy additional proprietary software to get the best out of their cameras is ridiculous and will clearly alienate customers - especially if they already own expensive software (Photoshop CS etc) that could do the job if only the file format information was made available. This might be less of an issue if the camera-makers software did the job better than third-party RAW converters but this is not the case. Even the biggest names in digital photography are constantly being criticised for the poor performance of their software. Fortunately my camera's RAW format is supported by the excellent (and FREE) RawShooter program from Pixmantec but I take your point that this may not last forever.

Unfortunately the same "proprietary or nothing" practice is also being extended to other areas. I have just found out that my shiny new camera has a 'proprietary' filter thread as well as a 'proprietary' RAW format. Being non-standard I cannot even use stepping rings to enable me to use any of my existing filter systems.

Some years ago I read a report by Price-Waterhouse which said that their research showed that it costs five times as much to attract a new customer than it does to retain an existing customer. Perhaps the camera manufacturers need to be reminded of this fact before more of them go to the wall. You can't upset your customers without some sort of eventual backlash.

Brendan Davis
County Tipperary
Ireland