One Million Pics wrote:
JDwane wrote:
Just playing around but does anyone know of a program that converts DNG data
back to any readable/saveable format? I can access the thumbnail with Illustrator, Paint Shop Pro, ACDSee, PicaView, and QuickTime Player & Picture Viewer but I can’t get at the data. Interestingly enough, PhotoShop
app, browser, nor ImageReady will even access the thumbnail. The spec is wordy about the various RAW formats but doesn’t mention retrieving your archive. Just wondering what the value is in locking up your data like that…
Dwane
It would appear that Adobe are attempting the impossible with their DNG format. It relies on a whole industry of companies with patents and secrets worth tens of millions of dollars all agreeing to use this patented format of a third party.
Ask yourself if this is likely and when you conceded it is high UNlikely, move on to other, industry accepted formats to store your images in. If Adobe quietly drop the dng thing when no one else is interested, which application will you retrieve your image with?
Kiah
I actually believe it IS likely that other companies would pickup DNG as a standard. It IS an open standard. There have been plenty of other open (and not so open) standards that have been adopted industry wide; JPEG, TIFF, PDF, GIF, and even PSD. The question, of course, is if it is useful to anyone.
DNG gives two things that should be appealing to the industry and it’s users. One is that it makes RAW files smaller. That should appeal to digital camera makers and users. Who wouldn’t want to get more RAW pictures on their cards in their cameras?
The second thing that it offers is a standard where there is none. It is a huge pain to users, camera makers, and software developers to have to reinvent the "wheel" for every new camera from every different camera maker. That’s the biggest reason that Adobe came up with DNG. How much do you suppose they spend in development costs just trying to keep up with every new variation of RAW that comes out? I bet it’s way more than they want to be spending.
Besides, what do these companies actually have to gain by all having proprietary RAW formats? They have proprietary lenses and other accessories so they can sell more and make more money. That also tends to keep customers in their camp. However, they don’t actually make any money off their proprietary RAW files. They may have a little ego trip that their software converts their RAW files in "the proper" way, but these companies shouldn’t be in business for ego trips. So, from a money viewpoint, proprietary isn’t worth the trouble.
Clyde
