> On Mar 14, 2014, at 4:40 PM, John <[email protected]> wrote: > > 1. Should I convert all the old PEF files to DNG? > 2. Should I keep backup copies of all those old PEF files, in addition > to the two backups (on & off site) I intend to make for the DNG files? > 3. Some of the *ist-D files are .TIF files - can I, should I convert > those to DNG as well?
The only real, immediate value to be had from converting existing PEF files to DNG is to save disk space, as many older cameras did not do lossless compression of their raw files. K10D and later cameras produced compressed PEF files, so there's little value to converting them. If you do convert all the raw files to DNG, there's no value to saving the original PEFs. Unless you're thinking to use some software that can only read the PEFs, they are effectively the same thing. TIFF files can be encapsulated into DNG files, and similarly, if you net a reduction in file size from doing that, there's some value in it. Remember, though, that they are still TIFF RGB channel oriented files inside, there's no image processing gain to be had from converting them. I converted all my old raw files from whatever camera to DNG ages ago because, at that time, it saved a lot of disk space, and disk space was a lot more expensive then than it is now. I stopped bothering to do so when more recent cameras were doing the raw file lossless compression by default—it was no longer worth the extra step in processing, not to mention that the cost of disk space had dropped to 1/10 of what it was in the early/middle 2000s. G -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
