RAW or DNG??

[Izzy]

I like DNG personally because I get all the benies of a RAW file without the huge file size and the stupid xmp sidecar file.

Which way do you prefer?

[Jim Bryant]

Raw.........bigger the better! That's why god invented Terabit HArd Drives. They are so cheap now and getting cheaper by the day.

[maturner525]

Raw. I would think DNG has to be a compromise that doesn't support all options that a specific camera has.

Just my 2 cents

[i speak in math]

DNG is raw; just adobe's standard rather than a particular camera manufacturer's proprietary format. My camera natively shoots PEF (pentax proprietary) or DNG (adobe proprietary).

[nickbedford]

The thing with DNG is that it's no less reliant on software "support" than any other format. The other thing is that it's rare that an old raw format is made unsupported. There's no real reason why they would delete a piece of code that opens old files.

DNG's have incompatibilities in programs like Aperture. I probably wouldn't even bother converting to DNG.

[i speak in math]

Originally Posted by nickbedford

The thing with DNG is that it's no less reliant on software "support" than any other format. The other thing is that it's rare that an old raw format is made unsupported. There's no real reason why they would delete a piece of code that opens old files.

DNG's have incompatibilities in programs like Aperture. I probably wouldn't even bother converting to DNG.

Its nice for situations when you get a new camera and nobody has updated their software to support the camera maker's proprietary raw format yet. If you can shoot natively in DNG, then you can use any old software right away. Its also small and compact, and doesn't have the xml data file.

I see no reason to use anything but DNG.

[JFeinbergPhotography]

No TIFF from anyone? Sure, filesize is huge, but most detail.

[i speak in math]

Originally Posted by JFeinbergPhotography

No TIFF from anyone? Sure, filesize is huge, but most detail.

I dont' know of any cameras that natively shoot in the .tiff format, do you?

[Izzy]

Originally Posted by i speak in math

I dont' know of any cameras that natively shoot in the .tiff format, do you?

My old Sony F828 shoots Tif. I think the 707 did also

[DanielLane]

I used the NEF files from my Nikon for a while, but the xmp sidecars got really annoying. I started using DNG's and never looked back. I did a ton of photos using NEF, TIFF and DNG then compared side by side. Tiff was right out since it is not a full raw, you have huge file sizes and that wasn't going to fly. The Nikon Raw NEF and the DNG's had absolutely no difference in them down to the single pixel level. So I opted with DNG's. I already have 12 TB's of photos archived, so the saving in space is really welcome! That and I am an Adobe geek. Another thing DNG's offer is that when you convert to DNG, you can have it imbed the original NEF file as well if you are paranoid and think you may want the original raw later. No Nikon will probably always have some kind of software that will allow you to open older NEF files, but their software won't do what Photoshop will do.