Re: [Openexr-devel] Adobe's Digital Negative Format

[Florian Kainz]

Looking at the DNG specification, I got the impression that the new
format is meant to store a camera's raw sensor output before the data
have been converted into a viewable image.  For example, many cameras
capture only one color channel (red, green or blue) per pixel instead
of three.  The data for the other two channels must be interpolated
from neighboring pixels.  DNG files store raw image data before this
interpolation and various other processing steps have been performed.
Later the user converts the raw image to JPEG or TIFF using software
that offers artistic control over the details of the conversion.

Of course, I would prefer it if digital cameras could directly output
OpenEXR files, performing a high-quality conversion inside the camera.
I guess someone should contact digital manufacturers.  Users demanding
OpenEXR output would probably be most effective.

Another possibility would be to come up with a specification for storing
raw camera data in an OpenEXR file, but from a camera user's point of view
I don't see any advantage over using DNG, and I don't think we should try
to reinvent the wheel.

Florian


Derek Gerstmann wrote:
> Adobe has proposed a new Digital Negative (DNG) File Format:
> http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1096236608120&call_pageid=968350072197 
>
>
> Although their goals are oriented more towards being adopted by the
> digital camera industry, it seems silly to introduce yet another
> proprietary image format (DNG becoming the PDF of digital images).
>
> Wouldn't an open standard such as OpenEXR be a better choice?
>
> Or is it simply impossible to convince camera manufacturer's of the
> advantages?
>
> I thought Greg Ward's analysis of all the major HDR image encoding 
> formats covered this quite well:
>   http://www.anyhere.com/gward/hdrenc/hdr_encodings.html
>
> What does DNG have to offer over EXR (granted EXR was developed
> as a means of storing scanned film footage, rather than direct
> capture of CCD data) other than Adobe being behind it?
>
> I suppose it mostly marketing, but I for one would enjoy
> the ability to capture images natively in EXR.
>
> ...
>
> Sorry if this is offtopic for the developer's mail-list, but I
> thought it might be of interest to many of the members on this
> list.
>
> -[dg]
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> Derek Gerstmann                                      address@hidden
> http://home.myuw.net/dgerstma            NCCA - Bournemouth University
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>
>
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