OpenRAW

A possible solution to this stalemate - or am I being incredibly naive??

Nikon wants to make money from Nikon Capture and at the same time they want the best possible output quality from their cameras.

If we start with these two premises:-

If we assume a take up rate of 10% of all camera buyers also purchase a copy of Nikon Capture - if Nikon were to charge an extra $8 for each and every camera sold they would reap the same reward financially as seeling Nikon Capture (assuming $2 per sale because they no longer have to write the software and distribute it).

If they then released the full specification of the NEF file to all 3rd party developers then they would be no worse off than they are at the moment. They could also release indications as to how to get the best information from the RAW data to help ensure good results.

I doubt if any Nikon owner would begrudge an extra $8 on the price of the camera - hell, I would be prepared to pay them $10 today if they would release the full documentaion.

If they wanted to make even more money, they could even ask for a small licence fee (say $1 for every copy which the 3rd party developer sold) - this would have absolutely negligible effect on the cost of 3rd party software - but would it have save us all this bad feeling.
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http://www.carolsteele.co.uk