DNG and the domino effect
It seems that one of the majors, Pentax, has included the openly documented DNG format from Adobe in their new camera. It's a pretty serious looking machine, so hopefully Nikon and Canon will finally capitulate and give up their proprietary undocumented RAW formats. Once one falls, the rest are sure to follow.
I hope.
I dont think so. Too much
I dont think so. Too much r&d money spent.
Pentax did it, others could
Pentax did it, others could
It isn't the cost of supporting DNG that is stopping Canon and Nikon. It is because they don't feel they need to. (And because Nikon want their users to buy their software). Perhaps not enough of their users have made their voices known.
It is the smaller companies, with fewer resources than Canon and Nikon, who have supported DNG. Not just Pentax - several others too.
http://www.barry.pearson.name/articles/dng/products.htm#manufacturers
Pentax nearly meets OpenRAW
Pentax nearly meets OpenRAW
There are actually 2 separate Pentax initiatives that deserve recognition:
- Pentax now provide their own (free) DNG Converter to convert PEFs from ALL of their dSLRs to DNG. (It is a feature of Photo Browser 3).
- The K10D gives its users the choice about whether to use PEF or DNG as their prefered raw format. (A menu lets the user choose, and then when "RAW" is selected, the camera uses what the user has selected).
The single remaining issue is that Pentax have not (yet) documented their own data which ends up in the DNG files. It isn't needed to convert raw files from these cameras, so isn't needed for "Digital Image Preservation", but might be useful in future. (For example, it includes details of which lens was used).
Specifically to comply with OpenRAW, I have added this to a list of requests that the DPReview Pentax SLR forum is sending to Pentax. It would be FAR easier for Pentax (and others!) to provide a DNG Converter and document their extra data, than to document their entire native raw file format (PEF). This is the best way for camera manufacturers to satisfy OpenRAW.
Note also that the Leica M8, just launched, also uses DNG. It doesn't even talk about "RAW" in its menu - just DNG & JPEG. That is how it should be - "RAW" is a reminder of a flakey past, "DNG" is the target for the future.