[Leica] nikon in NY times

[abridge at gmail.com (Adam Bridge)]

I'm glad that Leica has gone with DNG for the DMR and hope all their
future cameras will support this developing standard.

As for Nikon: BAD Nikon. Shame.

Adam

On 5/6/05, George Lottermoser <imagist@imagist.cnc.net> wrote:
> please find below a great story about Nikon published today in the New
> York Times. -- Mark
> 
> From:    "The New York Times Direct" <NYTDirect@nytimes.com>
> 
> "How can you review a Nikon camera without mentioning that the company
> is now encrypting its photo files? Nikon apparently thinks that my work
> belongs to THEM, not to me! If they someday decide to change the format,
> they can hold my photos hostage forever!"
> 
> Warning: Wiggling toward the truth of this tale involves very technical
> language, eye-glazing terminology and a whole lot of overheated emotion.
> 
> Thomas Knoll, co-author of the original Photoshop, ignited the firestorm
> on an Adobe bulletin board a couple of weeks ago. "Nikon made a
> significant change with the Nikon D2X and D2Hs cameras," he wrote,
> referring to two popular professional (costing $5,000 and $3,500,
> respectively). "They decided to ENCRYPT the white models balance data
> inside the NEF file for these cameras."
> 
> The English translation of this shocking statement requires a few more
> sentences, but it goes something like this: Most expensive digital
> cameras can save files in a format, called RAW, that's white-hot in the
> photographic community these days. When you transfer a RAW file to a
> computer and open it in a program like Photoshop, you can miraculously
> settings. (That's"reshoot" it with different exposure, sharpening, white
> balance and other because a RAW file contains all of the original
> camera-sensor data, before it's been processed and compressed into the
> more common JPEG files.)
> 
> The trouble is, there is no one standard RAW format. Each camera maker
> &#151; and even each individual model &#151; produces a different RAW
> flavor. (Nikon doesn't even call them RAW files; it calls them NEF
> files.)
> 
> It's the never-ending task of software companies like Adobe, therefore,
> to keep their software updated as new camera models come along. (No
> wonder Adobe is promoting a single universal standard called the digital
> negative format, or DNG, which would offer the same advantages of RAW
> files but eliminate this Tower of Babel effect. So far, few major camera
> makers have embraced the idea.)
> 
> Nikon admits that it has encrypted parts of its RAW format in the D2X
> and D2H (as well as the upcoming $900 D50 model) &#151; including the
> white-balance data. (White balancing is when a camera compensates for
> the color cast in a photo, correcting it for the differences in lighting
> conditions: sunlight, overcast, indoor incandescent, and so on.) "We
> built certain levels of protection into those files to protect
> proprietary intellectual property about how our cameras work," says a
> Nikon rep. "It's an industry-wide practice. All other camera
> manufacturers offer varying levels of protection."
> 
> That may be true, says Kevin Connor, Adobe's director of product
> management. "But this is the first time we've encountered encryption on
> a major camera that we didn't have help from the manufacturer on working
> around."
> 
> People who use Photoshop, for starters. Without knowing how a Nikon
> photo's data is structured, Adobe is forced to improvise, writing its
> own auto-white-balance algorithms into Photoshop. "Sometimes it's
> better; sometimes, it might be worse," says Mr. Connor. "But it's not
> what people expect. You can still go in and adjust it to get the right
> result. If you're experienced, great. But others might not know which
> way to drag the sliders. You have to do more work."
> 
> Some photographers are accusing Nikon of implementing this encryption as
> a way to boost sales of Nikon's own, extra-cost RAW editing software,
> which is not, ahem, best known for its speed.
> 
> Nikon protests that it has offered Adobe, and everyone else, a solution.
> "We offer an SDK [software developer's kit] that's available to any
> legitimate software company, including Adobe."
> 
> Unfortunately, using Nikon's SDK it isn't a palatable option for Adobe.
> "It does give you consistency, so anyone using that SDK will get exactly
> the same results," says Mr. Connor. "But it doesn't let us add extra
> controls &#151; like highlight recovery, a Photoshop feature. By using
> all our own algorithms, we can offer some different controls, as well as
> consistency across all RAW formats."
> 
> If all this sounds like a lot of technical babble, the emotional outcry
> among professional shutterbugs is much easier to understand. "WAKE UP
> IDIOTS!!!! You're allowing Nikon to hold your data hostage into the
> future! " writes one shocked customer. "It's a tax to control a Nikon
> purchaser. Do not buy Nikon pro devices until this is reversed," writes
> another.
> 
> The reaction seems a bit overblown. You can still open these camera
> files in Photoshop or several other RAW editors, and you can still
> adjust the white balance; you just lose the "as shot" setting as a
> starting point.
> 
> Nikon's sole public response has been a weirdly worded statement that
> acknowledged none of its customers' unhappiness and defended its own
> actions. The company seems to have missed the lesson of, say, the
> Tylenol and Intel disasters: Once a PR disaster blows up in your face,
> you don't stand firm and say, "You consumers don't know what you're
> talking about" (even if they actually don't). What you do is cave in and
> fix the problem.
> 
> I was delighted to hear that, only two days ago, Adobe and Nikon were,
> at last, on the phone with each other to discuss a way out of this mess.
> May the pixel gods smile on their conversation.
> 
> Fond regards,
> G  e  o  r g  e    L  o  t  t  e  r  m  o  s  e r, imagist
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