The Problem With RAW

While we have talked about the advantages of RAW before we haven’t really touched on the downsides. As everyone seems to be united in favouring RAW this might strike you as an odd thing to say. What downsides you might ask?

Daniel Sato talks about the problems in his blog.

there is no single type of raw file, but rather, there exist many proprietary formats from leading camera manufacturers (CRW, CR2, NEF, MRW, ORF). This alphabet soup of a list has been cause for concern in the photographic community

According to OpenRAW.org, the closed proprietary formats can only be opened by supported raw converters and some manufacturers have begun to encrypt the data in their newer RAW formats. Currently I cannot open RAW files from my Canon 1D Mark II N unless I use Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (the Adobe Camera RAW included in Photoshop CS cannot recognize the new .CR2 RAW format and I cannot afford to purchase CS2).

However, the real problem lies not in keeping up with newer formats, but in the discontinuation of support for older formats. OpenRAW.org lists as one of the four main problems associated with proprietary formats: “Increased probability that as time passes a RAW file will be unreadable or cannot be used to reproduce the photographer’s original interpretation.”

This is a real problem that the manufacturers need to get together and sort out. It’s not like any one of the brands has a monopoly, and the technologies are still developing. It will take a concerted effort to bring about a standard or at least an initiative to keep formats alive.

While it might be in the camera manufacturers best financial interests for us to upgrade regularly this is short-term thinking. Their best long term benefits will come from the lifetime value of their customers, and therefore the lifetime value of their products. I imagine, much similar to the Gillette razor, Canon and co make a great deal of their profits from additional purchases (lenses) rather than the initial purchase (the body). A good camera could last a photographer years. What good would it be if they can’t read the photographs?

Shaminder Dulai introduces us to OpenRaw:

The OpenRAW initiative is a photography-oriented group that advocates the open documentation of digital camera RAW files.

During the past several months, photographers have become increasingly aware of the actions of camera makers to conceal – and in some cases, to encrypt – information stored in RAW image files. These actions have raised concern about whether a trend toward more proprietary RAW image formats could lead to fewer choices of software to edit RAW files from new cameras. They have also shaken photographers’ confidence that RAW files taken with older camera models will be supported in the future.

For the good of digital photography I hope OpenRaw acheive their objectives.

Technorati Tags: dslr, photography, raw

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