DCRAW, the open source Raw decoding...
DCRAW, the open source Raw decoding library, is an important part in the Raw world. Using the manufacturer provided libraries/SDK limits to certain platforms and raises the question about the future processing of todays Raw formats.
This is where DCRAW comes in. Runs on every platform and is constantly updated to match the latest models and restrictions. Even Photoshop and other popular applications are based on the decoding functions of DCRAW.
Imagine you buy a new DSLR today and you choose to capture your precious moments in Raw. Time passes by, you switch to a new system and suddenly your manufacturer provided software doesn't run anymore. The camera and the Raw is now 20 years old, and you still have the original Raw files which you can use with DCRAW on your new system.
Without DCRAW I would be really concerned.
Jürgen Eidt, Author of cPicture.
--
http://cpicture.de/en
Juergen, you are right to mention maker notes. My camera...
Juergen, you are right to mention maker notes. My camera stores the lens model there, and the Raw processer I use (Camera Raw in PS CS) doesn't access it. The DNG Converter loses it too.
The target must surely be for more and more of the common information to migrate to standard parts of the Raw format, on the principle of "no unnecessary differences". How many things in maker notes are genuinely unique to one camera or one manufacturer? (I just don't know).
The best documentation by a camera manufacturer would be "this camera conforms to the XYZ open standard"!
An open standard is required (not DND from adobe, they own...
An open standard is required (not DND from adobe, they own too much "standards": pdf, now also macromedia etc ... ) we need a truly open standard just like jpeg, say a somewhat of JPEG-RAW format ISO standardized,
we also need not simply that great program like dcraw, we need to free all the development process , so it's required a free library (GNU licence will be better) that recognizes and decodes the (non existent) ISO standard, the "old" raw formats, but also free software to develop your digital negative, it must be truly good so the need to commercial closed source SW is only an option not a necessity any step from the OS (Windows and OSX are not free and not forever, Linux is or at leas must be) the image manipulation (Photoshop is not the solution even if you like it, in the future a 16bit gimp version will save your ass) and the raw converters (a more open and better working dcraw is required) must be free and documented.
Photogrophers must discover and support opend standards and open software just to protect their (our) intellectual properties, I need that in 100~200 years or more my photos (my artwork?) can be opened and developed at no cost.
Yes, Dave Coffin's work is great. However, it's the work...
Yes, Dave Coffin's work is great. However, it's the work done by a private person and only with painful manually decoding of all different flavors of RAW files. Also I am not sure if DCRaw is able to convert all maker notes out of RAW files into the final converted TIFF or JPG, so in any case, some captured information is lost.
If camera makers would release an open documentation, this would make DCRaw still not useless, because a documentation is one thing and a software implementation another.