Things have quieted down here a little bit lately, and will probably stay that way in the short term. I’ve got a number of things percolating, but they’ll take time to execute. So things may be less photograph-related than they are photography-related for a while.
I’ve been posting an awful lot about film lately, so I should probably knock it off for a while. I’ll talk about a different kind of negative today: Adobe’s Digital Negative file format, or DNG. With Chase Jarvis’ workflow video making its ripples around the internet, now’s as good a time as any.
If you shoot, I’m sure you’ve heard that you should shoot RAW — in layman’s terms, a considerably bigger file format that holds an awful lot more data one can manipulate during post-production. The thing nobody really mentions is that RAW isn’t actually a file format in the same sense that JPG or DOC is. Nikon cameras save their RAW files as .NEF, Mamiya as .MEF, Canon even has two: .CRW and .CR2, the latter being current and the former deprecated.
That last example is the troubling part. While jpegs have been around for ages, and can be viewed and worked with on pretty well any computer made in the past 20 years, some RAW file formats are already old news. There’s no reason for software of the future to support the .CRW format except for legacy use, and that never holds up for very long (unless you’re Microsoft).
Adobe has shown great foresight in this area, and in 2004, launched the Digital Negative format. It’s lovely for one chief reason: Whereas every other RAW format, as far as I know, is proprietary, DNG is free and open. Anyone can implement and use it. Assuming it sees widespread support and use, this is a huge benefit for photographers — if, in 2025, I want to sell an image I made in 2010, I won’t have to worry about whether I can actually open the file or not. The format has been slow to take off, but considering Adobe has the muscle to sell this to photographers, i.e. Lightroom, the format hopefully will see that support.
The one area where support would be most welcome is actual in-camera support, as opposed to conversion upon digestion of digital images. For reasons I cannot fathom, disappointingly few manufacturers allow photographers to shoot DNG files natively, Leica being the most prominent among them. It’s one of those things I just don’t understand about the photo business, along with the megapixel war. (Okay, that’s a lie — I understand the megapixel war, from a marketing perspective, I just wish it would go away.)
If it sees the backing it deserves, Digital Negative could be the best photo archival format since Kodachrome — maybe better. Shoot RAW, save DNG.
Camera models that write DNG in-camera are launched at a higher rate than models that write any single other raw image format. Higher than NEF. Higher than CR2. Higher than ORF.
About 13 or more manufacturers have used DNG so far. It is the raw image format of choice for niche manufacturers, and also used by some minority manufacturers. Apart from several “conventional” SLRs and rangefinder cameras, it has been used in a 3D movie camera, a digiscope with built-in camera, a monochrome back, a 360-degree panorama camera, an underwater camera, etc.
It is now being exploited by ISO in their revision of ISO 12234-2 (TIFF/EP) and sooner or later there will be an ISO standard with the extension DNG based on the latest version of DNG. (Old versions of DNG remain valid, and don’t become obsolete).
Open source file formats are great, it’s just a shame that they’re initially hampered by the same problem they stand to solve. Existing devices and software don’t support them, and there’s always resistance to change, especially by the companies who own their proprietary focus. Of course, in this case Adobe makes some of the most critical software, so that’s one less hurdle. Also, it sounds like there isn’t really an mp3-like behemoth dominating RAW formats, though, so the fractured market should help.
Unrelated sidenote: I’m planning on doing a little photo organizing this weekend, which is a good excuse to at least pick out a few to post.
@Barry It’s awesome that it’s seeing increasingly more acceptance! I just wish the Big Two (and maybe Mamiya, or Sony at least) would allow for in-camera DNG. It does, thankfully, seem to be gaining momentum, not losing any.
@Matusz Woot woot! Please let me know when and where they’re posted!