OpenRAW

While I recognize it's a bit different matter for Sigma/Foveon, since they need (drastically?) different/other information to be stored in the RAW file, it's all the more important to them, since the Sigma cameras ONLY shoot RAW, and there's ONLY ONE program that can fully access the RAW (X3F) file, Sigma Photo Pro.

These facts together keep potential customers from buying Sigma equipment (I know a LOT of cases where a user has opted for another brand simply because it's too risky to trust your pictures to be available in the next ten years because of single proprietary format, for which there is only one program to fully access them.)

I think that it's vitally important (expecially for Sigma) to develop an open RAW format. That would shift competition and user opinions from software to the real important thing in photography: the camera. Now too many people simply ignore a perfectly good product, just because the software-end of the workflow is not their liking. Just like selecting a car based on what kind of fur you can put on the driving wheel.

Photography is one of those (really) rare areas where a standard really can be a standard. Take a look at your '05 model new DSLR, on the bottom of it is a 1/4inch threaded hole for mounting it on a tripod. This is exactly the same size it is on your (grand-)granddad's 50+ year old camera.

Let's make "the others" wonder how, in 2055, our (grand-)grandsons/daugthers' cameras use the same RAW format our DSLRs use today.

Three cheers for .ORI/.ORF/.DCI/.DIF (= Open RAW Image / Open RAW File / Digital Camera Image / Digital Image File)
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