What are RAW and DNG and why is there a controversy about them?
Film cameras output information in a fairly accessible and universal format. You have a transparent piece of film negative and that s it. You can store the negative and retrieve the image any time you like using standard equipment. Digital photography is very different, since images are captured using computers and stored as computer files. The problem is – what format should be used for the file? Just as word processing documents can be stored in a variety of different and incompatible formats, (plain text, RTF, Microsoft Word, Wordperfect, Wordstar, HTML, etc, etc) digital pictures have to be stored in a file format. JPEG is the most common format used for storing digital pictures. It s an open standard, meaning no one company has total control over it, and it efficiently compresses files to keep them small. (strictly speaking JPEG – the for Joint Photographic Experts Group – refers to the compression method and JFIF – JPEG File Interchange Format – the file format, but that s gettin
