OpenRAW

Proprietary RAW file formats stifle both competition and innovation, which are critical to continuous improvement in both the quality of digital images and the methods available to digital photographers to practice their craft.

Conversely, fully documented file formats and structures (description of types of data and their location) will facilitate creativity in the development of high-quality alternatives for rendering and editing RAW image files, all while protecting a camera maker's patented or proprietary technology used in creating RAW files.

Camera manufacturers have at least as much to gain as their customers from providing open documentation for the RAW image files their cameras write. The more RAW file interpreters and processors reach the open market, the more customers will find the use of this image format both approachable and efficient. This, in turn, will enable manufacturers to compete even more effectively - and in a much wider potential market - on the merits of the RAW files their cameras produce.

The first camera maker to realize that open file documentation is a sound business decision will quickly discover that it has gained a substantial number of influential allies at all levels of the digital imaging industry. These "partners in purpose" will be enormously effective in helping to bring the unique qualities of this manufacturer's RAW image files to the broader marketplace.

On the other hand, manufacturers that refuse to provide open RAW file documentation based on the justification that the file format or structure is "inseparably linked" to its proprietary sensor and/or firmware technology face the enormous risk of consignment to "also rans," always trying to catch up to the leading 21st century digital imaging companies.

Open documentation of RAW image files is 20-20 business vision.

Calvin
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http://www.CCJonesPhotos.com