Thinking of the future:

[Warren_L]

This has been a concern for quite some time now. Here's a release from Nikon regarding their .NEF (RAW) format.

Full article: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0504/05042203nikonnefresponse.asp

Nikon has today issued an advisory addressing the current concerns around the 'encryption' of white balance data in its NEF (RAW) files from the D2X and D2Hs digital SLRs. This story started three days ago when Photoshopnews.com published an interview with chief engineer and original author of Photoshop Thomas Knoll which complained that Nikon was encrypting white balance data in their NEF files and that future versions of Adobe Camera RAW would not be able to read WB data. In the new advisory Nikon states that it already makes available an SDK which "...when implemented properly, enables a wide range of NEF performance, including white balance..."

Phil: Just over 36 hours have passed since we posted this advisory, since then there has been an explosion of commentary and discussion on our forums. It's very clear that genuine Nikon buyers are concerned that Nikon are gradually closing their RAW format (NEF) and that some third party converters will struggle to convert NEF's either now or in the future.

According to the advisory below the Nikon SDK allows the developer to convert NEF to JPEG or TIFF but (we can't 100% confirm this because of Nikon's NDA) doesn't provide them direct access to the RAW data itself (although obviously a smart developer could currently do that themselves). The primary reason the majority of users buy third party converters is that they prefer its image quality / speed / workflow, and that in 2005 many will already be using a combination of third party converters and Nikon Capture.

Nikon Capture is an excellent product and many professionals use it because they believe that it delivers the highest quality results, in the real world a quality RAW converter will continue to be popular without having to 'lock down' the camera's RAW file format. Looking at it from Nikon's point of view you can see why they may be a little upset that other companies are making money from conversion of their proprietary file format, however it seems that photographers believe that the image (in JPEG or RAW format) is theirs alone and they shouldn't be restricted to its development.

It seems clear from the strength of opinion on our forums over this matter that choice of conversion is the element of primary importance when we discuss a RAW file format, the RAW format is seen as 'the digital negative', future RAW converters may bring improvements in image processing that we are currently unaware of, we would hope these future converters could still read todays negatives.

 

[Warren_L]

Continued....

Nikon Advisory - For Immediate Release
The Nikon D2X professional Digital Single Lens Reflex camera has received widely positive acclaim for its overall performance and image processing quality. Recently, speculative statements which appear to be based on misunderstandings and misinformation about the D2X camera’s “encryption” of certain white balance data have propagated on the internet.

The purpose of this advisory is to clarify this matter with facts and explanations.

The Nikon D2X is capable of producing high quality images that can be saved in a variety of file formats, including the proprietary Nikon Electronic Format (NEF), standard TIFF and several levels of standard JPEG compressed files.

The NEF, a Nikon proprietary raw file design, was introduced with the Nikon D1 Camera and Nikon’s original Capture software. The combination of Nikon camera, in-camera image processing, NEF file format and in-computer image processing with original Nikon Capture software was developed as a system that faithfully saved image files that represent the camera settings made manually or automatically by the photographer at the time a picture was taken.

Nikon’s preservation of its unique technology in the NEF file is employed as an action that protects the uniqueness of the file. At the same time, Nikon makes available a software developer kit (SDK) that, when implemented appropriately, enables a wide range of NEF performance, including white balance, for Nikon photographers and their productive use of the NEF file.

Since the inception of the system, Nikon has always provided photographers with choices about how they might use the system’s performance and enjoy high quality images. Nikon’s choices for opening and processing NEF files have been and continue to include:

Nikon Capture software
Plug-in for Adobe’s Photoshop
Nikon PictureProject software
Nikon View software
Availability of Nikon Software Developer Kit (SDK) and the software that has been developed using the SDK
Through use of the Nikon Software Developer Kit, authorized developers can produce software by applying creative concepts to their implementation and adding capabilities to open Nikon’s NEF file and use NEF’s embedded Instructions and Nikon’s Libraries. Nikon photographers reap benefits from independent developers’ approaches, because it allows the photographer to open and process their NEF images.

After a developer’s software is created using the Nikon SDK, a NEF file can be opened, edited in either TIFF or JPEG format, and then saved in formats available in the developers’ software. This process has been available since the first Nikon SDK for NEF.

With each introduction of a new Nikon digital Single Lens Reflex model, Nikon updates the available SDK selection to provide new information; this is the situation with the D2X, D2Hs and D50 models. As stated above, application for the Nikon SDK is possible for bona fide software companies that send Nikon a written application for the SDK. Once approved, the SDK is provided to the developer at no charge and they are authorized to use it.

Nikon has provided its confidential SDK software to many software developers. With the Nikon SDK, developers may design excellent and creative compatibility between the NEF and their software, all without compromising the integrity of the NEF’s original concept, and ensuring that work done by the photographer during the picture taking process can be incorporated into the rendering of the image.

The trilogy of performance, from Camera-to-NEF-to-Capture, has evolved though several generations of Nikon Digital SLR models, improving along the way. As a proprietary format, Nikon secures NEF’s structure and processing through various technologies. Securing this structure is intended for the photographer’s benefit, and dedicated to ensuring faithful reproduction of the photographer’s creative intentions through consistent performance and rendition of the images. Discussions propagated on the internet suggesting otherwise are misinformed about the unique structure of NEF.

Nikon’s Camera System, NEF and Capture software are a tightly knit system, and they are all developed through the cooperative efforts of Nikon’s design teams, and this collaboration results in achieving the highest image quality.

Nikon strives to provide photographers with excellent picture taking performance, compatible Nikon in-system image processing performance and by extension, compatibility with additional software developers’ products, with the ultimate goal of delivering a high level of integrity for a photographer’s creative vision.

Nikon continues to welcome dialogue with bona fide software developers.

 

[blueeyes_austin]

The Library of Congress recommends all images be backed up in TIFF for archival
purposes.

My Canon S410 doesn't allow access to RAW images, so the first thing I do is save everything as a TIF. I'm also doing this for my negative scans.

 

[ChillyWaters]

Personally I am more worry about back up medium. What happen if the CD/DVD go bad in a couple of years, what happen if the hard drive die. It seems that these CDs/DVDs/HDs don't last as long as a well kept negatives.
So for now, I am doing multiple back ups, keep a lot of pictures that I like in RAW format as well as PSD and let those industry people have it out with RAW

This is a HUGE issue, AFAIC.

RAID is cheap.

Actually RAID isn't that great. It's better than nothing, but, what happens if your house burns down, or more likely, someone steal your computer, etc. It's still a single point of failure.

Me, I backup my files to a server in another physical location -- as an offsite backup. Every couple nights I perform the backup (using the simple rsync utility).

I have a friend that is very paranoid and performs several backups of his data on a regular basis, placing the DVDs not only in hospitible environments, but at different locations as well.

I prefer the 2 server backup, as I don't trust DVDs and CDs worth a damn, especially for long-term storage. I don't think they'll last that long (in terms of years), especially if not stored properly. I think people will begin to realize this, but probably when it's too late.

- ChillyWaters

 

[Tommer]

i don't have the latest adobe mind reader so am not sure what will be the next major format for digital photography, but i do believe saving your files into other common format as someone suggest it in here will be the best bet.

films and transparency are pretty much dead in the printing industry and professional photographers, remember (service bureau), now it's call digital prepress, as Ted Kaczynski described it technology will destroy our planet. My .02

 

[Warren_L]

Here's an interesting read on the potential legalities of RAW and encryption.

http://luminous-landscape.com/essays/raw-law.shtml

 

[Peter Guy]

Just a side comment on "history" and the digital world. A few years ago PC Magazine did a 25th Anniversary issue and discussed the problem of outdated formats. Well guess what -- PC Mag! had archived some issues in formats that it couldn't open and couldn't get the hardware to open.

If that happened in just 25 years, it is truly a "who knows" for the next 25, let alone 50 or 100.

 

[JamesD]

I disagree to some extent, 25 years ago, hell even 5 years ago, people would desparately try to cram large things into small spaces, my first PC had a 10MB hard drive, heck I could fit all of three of my pictures that I take today onto that hard disk.

My hard drive today, well I have 4, two 60GB laptop drives (basically my main and a backup) and then two "backup" hard drives each 120GB.

Total space on those, well 3MB per picture (my cameras don't take TIF or RAW) gives, um, approx 40,000 pictures on each of the backup drives, (lets just assume that each of the laptop drives take my program files etc).

While I agree it IS a potential issue, I also think that most of the people nowadays are smart enough to make sure that a) Most new standards accomodate old standards in some fashion (see CD's, which you can copy tapes (the old standard) and LP's onto). Also most stuff no-longer needs to be compressed into some odd form to store, I don't know what the really large picture size is for SLR camears, but even at 10MB per picture (which I may be wrong in thinking is large) you can store 12,000 pictures, that's still quite a lot of pictures (and that's on my rather old 120GB drives, the new ones are now what, 400 GB?)

I think the bigger problem we are rapidly running into is more of overwhelming amount of data, I have a LOT of pictures already on my hard drive, and I'm just one person, each trip I take I really carefully try to skim down the pictures to the best 36 (72 at most if it's a really big trip) and then print them (professionally) so that I have something physical, and a number that isn't so overwhelming.

To summarize, I think it could be a problem, but I guess the question is how many people store raw format of there photos, and how many take the raw format, process it (in whatever fashion they want) and then store it as something that they can share (i.e. JPEG, TIFF etc etc). I think we have a number of other, potentially more pressing issues, not least of which is also the demise of the "bad" photo, because everyone reviews every single photos and the "bad" ones get trashed , vs the picture kept because the negative is kept because the next picture was fantastic.

 

[Vtdiver2]

I prefer the 2 server backup, as I don't trust DVDs and CDs worth a damn, especially for long-term storage. I don't think they'll last that long (in terms of years), especially if not stored properly. I think people will begin to realize this, but probably when it's too late.

- ChillyWaters

I've already found this out the hard way. I back up my files regularly and recently went back to access files about 2 years old. I can't read the CD's, and have tried in multiple PCs. I've used the CD before, so know it did work, but it's now junk and those files are gone.
For my photos, I keep multiple copies in multiple formats. I also have many posted online (here and other places) where I could retrieve them.
Chris

 

[hvulin]

The Library of Congress recommends all images be backed up in TIFF for archival
purposes.

compressed or uncompressed?

You know how they say: good thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from...