...The images we capture belong to us,...
...The images we capture belong to us, not the manufacturer of our camera - by the same token, we should be able to access that data using whatever tool we want.
But why stop at asking manufacturers to document *their* RAW formats? Why not propose a single, universal, open standard that incorporates the best features of the manufacturers' proprietary standards? Then demand support for the OpenRAW file format in future cameras and future firmware releases for current cameras.
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David Rea – Mon, 2005/04/25 – 9:31am
"Why not propose a single, universal, open standard that...
"Why not propose a single, universal, open standard that incorporates the best features of the manufacturers' proprietary standards? Then demand support for the OpenRAW file format in future cameras and future firmware releases for current cameras" - yes!
I would qualify it a bit, but I am probably not contradicting what you intended. The standard would have various options in it that some cameras would use and others wouldn't. For example, one option would be the number of colours captured by a pixel, so that both mosaic sensors and Foveon-like sensors can be handled.
So no camera would use all of it. (I suspect that is what you meant by "the best features of the manufacturers' proprietary standards").
After a while, these would no longer be "proprietary standards" at all, just part of the "open standards" world. There would have to be a method for manufacturers to negotiate for revisions to the standard that did not give away confidential information. I wonder if such negotiation would take place after patents had been submitted?
I'll see if I can contact my camera manufacturer to request a firmware upgrade!