K20D

I opened a new thread for the highlight recovery with D-range here.

Prieni

What is the average file size of a DNG from K20D? Is is it any bigger than the K10D which mine average about 16MB?

Oh yes it will be bigger! It has to be the K10D is 10.2 MP and the K20D is 14.6MP.

K20D
DNG = 25.6MB

K10D
DNG = 16MB

So I suppose I can reckon on approx. half as much again as a RAW frm K10D, so roughly about 24MB for the K20D (when downloaded).

The K20D's DNGs could be no larger if they were compressed - but I don't think they are.

(I don't have a K20D myself to check that).

DNG files for the K20D aren't compressed and are ~24MB. You can always shoot in PEF, which is compressed and probably save up to 50% depending on the photos.

Is there any advantage to DNG over PEF?? I shoot only PEF and all my current software understands the K10D PEF format (Linux/Mac/Windows but mainly Mac and Extensis Portfolio, iPhoto, Preview).

Adobe is trying to make DNG the standard RAW format with an eye to software compatibility in the future. Support seems to come quicker for DNG that PEF support in some software and if compatibility is a concern in the future, then DNG might look more promising than staying with the proprietary PEF. DNG is generally not compressed (though they can be). Image wise, there's no difference - or at least there should be no difference.

Yes but is DNG not tied to Adobe? ( Albeit much the same as PEF to Pentax) - I have a distrust of large corporations making "standard" formats. In my view a standard or close to it is JPG, but even that has been "tinkered" with, but usually will open on any system at least.

Also I wonder what it will be like in the future, with such formats.

It is not an easy question to answer, as no-one really knows.

I guess the best anyone can do is to stick with a format they are comfortable with, for as long as viable and then one has to have a "converter" to take you to the next format.

There will be good software around for ages to come to convert PEF to JPEG and TIFF, so I wouldn't be too worried about sticking to PEF.

They may even be a program eventually to convert PEF to DNG (if there isn't one already).

Er, it's called Adobe DNG converter. Converts PEFs (amongst others) to DNGs. Makes them smaller for storing too I believe, unlike DNG's from the camera.

LR also converts Pef's to DNG. From the first version on.

As does Pentax's own software (Photo Browser), but it converts the PEF's to linear DNG's and also doesn't strip out the unused 4 bits of the 16bit package, so the resultant files are pretty large!

If you are insistent in using DNG then you can compress them with Adobe's desktop converter or within ACR or Lightroom.

My personal preference is to stick with PEF, as I've found that Capture One V4 doesn't give the correct colour profiles with DNG, it uses a neutral colour profile by default, even if you apply the correct camera profile manually, it still doesn't result in the same colour as with a PEF file. This is a peculiarity with C1v4, other Raw converters such as ACR, Lightroom or Silkypix don't have this issue.

Also be aware that DNG files converted by the Adobe desktop converter, ACR or Lightroom cannot be read and converted by Pentax's own software (Photo Lab), it will only recognise the uncompressed DNG's from the camera, or the DNG's converted by Pentax Photo Browser. SilkyPix v3.0 has no issues with any DNG or PEF format, it is my converter of choice even though some of the commands are bizarrely named in "Japlish"!

As to long term storage, the Archaeological Data Service whose job it is to archive digital files for archaeology (and convert them en masse to a new format if needed) insist on tif files for images. I believe this is true for other data services too.

Best, Kris.

Thanks for that, just what I was after, so I reckon on just 77 RAWS from a 2GB card from my new 20D WHICH IS ARRIVING TOMORROW !!!! instaed of 120 from the K10D, think I shall be buying a few 4GB cards next. Oh the anticipation....