PSE (Bridge) and DNG

[jorf]

(Oh, man, we know we're in trouble when titles like that make sense!!!)

Anyway....I was looking again and what I see every day and thinking about dng conversion and learned a little more about it. Seems like the easiest way to do conversions is when importing through Bridge. So, I checked off the part about saving the raw file as well and uploaded a bunch of photos from my trip to Provincetown (MA, USA). Took a long time and they're all there as .dng but can't find the .nef files.

Questions: are they there somewhere? Did I do something wrong? Is it a good idea to convert right off the bat? Should I be saving the .nef (raw) files? Should I have Bridge embed the raw file inside of the .dng files????? Tell me what I clearly don't know!

Many thanks!

[LeeR]

Adobe has had a lot of succes in the past standardizing formats that were eventually adopted by other manufacturers. (think .pdf and .psd files.) In an effort to encourage camera manufacturers to adopt a single format for RAW image files, Adobe has developed the DNG system. This image is essentially the same as your NEF RAW image, just in a more universally accepted format. So far, none of the big camera manufacturers have adopted the format, though some provide support for it in their software. Will they ever embrace it? Hard to say.
So, in answer to your questions: Your NEF files have been converted to DNG files. Your NEF files do not exist unless they are still in your camera, Not to worry. There is no need to copy both as both formats will work the same in Camera Raw. You have not done anything wrong. But here is the big question: should you convert to DNG? I don't see any advantage if you are shooting with a billion dollar powerhouse like Nikon; but what if you were shooting with, say, Olympus, and they are bought out by Sony who decides to discontinue support for ORF files in favor of their own SRF files. Would you wish you had converted? Not at first, I suspect, but eventually finding software to work with your files would become increasingly difficult and you may not have a choice but to convert them or lose them.

[jorf]

Thank you. I guess this is more of the evolving technology, market....

So, you're saying that, since I have a Nikon, I don't really need to worry about converting. But it also seems that there isn't really an advantage to it either. (Although it seems to be a middle step anyway between nef and jpg in post-processing, I think.)