[Leica] Openraw Initiative

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

At 11:21 AM -0400 4/25/05, durling@cox.net wrote:
>This is a little off topic for film-using Leica photographers, but will be
>of interest to many of you.  As we know most high-end digital cameras give
>photographers the option of recording their images in a proprietary raw
>format.  This format saves all of the information recorded by the camera's
>sensor.  Leica, to its credit, has adopted the Adobe DNG format for its
>Digital Modul R.  Unlike the formats used by other manufacturers this is an
>openly documented format.  This means that Adobe has published the exact
>specifications for extracting the information in these camera files.
>
>The other manufacturers, whose names may or may not start with N or C use
>their own, partially secret, raw file format.  The problem is that they
>often do not disclose how to fully decode your image files.  In some cases
>even Photoshop can't extract all of the data.  Also at least one
>manufacturer has dropped support for their earlier digital cameras.  Can
>you imagine if you suddenly couldn't read your five-year old negatives?
>Granted film users don't have this problem but if you shoot digital it is a
>serious concern.
>
>Anyway there is a new initative to pressure camera manfacturers to fully
>document ther raw file formats.  This can be found at
>http://www.openraw.org/  They also have a press release that goes into more
>detail at http://www.openraw.org/press/
>
>Other than being on some mailing lists where this is being discussed I have
>no personal connection with this initiative.  I do think it is important.
>
>Mike Durling

I think this is very important also, and I believe everyone who 
shoots digital should be aware of this. Even if you don't shoot RAW, 
and only shoot jpeg, you should be aware that a company has claimed 
that the jpeg format is its intellectual property and has started 
suing major software and camera companies for licensing/compensation.

The fact that digital images are all written in a form that someone 
has invented means that there is someone out there who owns the IP 
that enables your files to be read. The content may be yours, but the 
means to access that content is not yours.

Open formats are essential if we are to have any hope of accessing 
our images a number of years down the road. We're not talking just 
about 100 years, but as soon as 5 years. Canon is not supporting the 
D30 file format anymore, and that camera just came on the market 5 
years ago. I'm sure that the older Canon software will still work 
within the next 5 years, but what with new processors, system 
software etc the prospects don't look good after that.

-- 
    *            Henning J. Wulff
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