OpenRAW

An example of why open RAW formats matter today.

DxO www.dxo.com makes software that processes RAW files. Their software does a number of corrections not available elsewhere.

The DxO software relies on subject distance for part of their calculations. If it is not in the EXIF data, photographers must set it manually for each image or as a batch – which can be a real pain. In fact the lack of this info has been a turn off to a number of photographers looking to use the software.

Canon provides the subject distance information in a standard location in the RAW files from Digital Rebels, but not in the upper end cameras – 10D, 20D, 1D, 1Ds, etc

*Or so it was thought.* I recently e-mailed DxO information from another EXIF reader http://www.instituteofthefuture.org/exifomatic/ that showed the distance data *was* in the high-end canon RAW files – just hidden away in a section of the maker notes. http://www.insflug.org/raw/analysis/dcrawvsfvu/CRW_0925.CRW.html

I hope DxO uses this info to automate future releases.

If Canon openly documented their RAW format, this would never have happened and more photographers could benefit from DxO’s software.
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