Whether you choose to store PEF or DNG files there is one problem coming up somewhere down the road. Backward compatibility. With the speed of new cameras coming I'm afraid future software will not support present cameras. (I'm talking a long perspective here) So what happens then? Present software will most likely not be compatible with future hardware. There is a big chance the PC platform will be obsolete some day.
With these doomsday predictions in mind, I'll have to go back to 135 again. Shit, I have just started to enjoy the digital age! ;-) Down to earth again: I believe it will be a very smart move to convert all files to jpg or tiff, storing both PEF/RAW and jpg/tiff. (Assuming jpg/tiff will be backward compatible) Storing jpg or tiffs alone is not an alternative for me. At the moment I don't follow my own rules. I don't have a backup drive. And I've seen what could happen with backups on CD/DVD. Don't ask me why, the story includes a lot of anger towards my beloved fellow computer users. A new extern HD is on top at my "stuff I desperately need list". To sum it up; I don't believe storing RAW/DNG alone is the right thing to do. At least not with important pictures. Tim Mostly harmless (just plain Norwegian.) Never underestimate the power of stupidity in large crowds (Very freely after Arthur C. Clarke, or some other clever guy) -----Original Message----- From: John Francis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 20. juli 2005 18:37 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: RAW file processing On Wed, Jul 20, 2005 at 06:58:13AM -0400, Mark Roberts wrote: > Godfrey DiGiorgi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >DNG Converter v3.1 preserves all the standard EXIF metadata tags, > >Paul, as far as I can tell. It might not save the Pentax private > >metadata, but the only application that uses that is the Pentax Lab > >software which I don't use. > > Part of the metadata that I definitely want to keep is the lens used for > each shot. Thumbs Plus reads all EXIF metadata , including the Pentax > private data, BTW. DNG Converter 3.x preserves *all* the Pentax private metadata. It doesn't understand what it is saving, so it can't show you what lens is being used. But it would be possible to extract the information from a DNG file it produces Of course to do that you'd have to be using software that was written to look at manufacturer-specific data, which rather goes against the concept of DNG. Personally I don't understand why there isn't a standard EXIF tag for lens identification information.
