PEF or DNG?

I know this topic has probably been done to death all over the internet, etc. but I'd really value your opinions on this.

Having moved up to a K20D from my K100D and having always shot in RAW I'm keen to continue doing this (although I now shoot in RAW+ which gives me JPEGs too). However - should I shoot in Pentax PEF or Adobe DNG RAW formats?

I run 64-bit Vista and the one slight drawback is that the Pentax RAW codec doesn't work on it. However, I have a code for DNG files that shows me thumbnails when I browse folders. Not so much of an issue if I'm shooting in RAW+ mode admittedly.

So - what are your thoughts? What are the Pros and Cons of each format and which do you use and why?

DNG is uncompressed so the resulting file will be larger than PEF.
You can use a converter to create (or I suppose, recompress) the DNG file in compressed mode. But from the camera, DNG is uncompressed.

Other than that, no real downsides to either, as far as I'm concerned.

Try here for a Vista driver:

http://www.pentaximaging.com/support/self-support/

I've got it from there for my K20D and works fine in the windows browser. (It is at the bottom of the page if you select K20D in the first box on the left and press 'go')

I personally use DNG because I know it will be supported if I take it elsewhere (i.e. a mate's house) rather than hope he has software to read PEFs.

But thats just me

Thanks rpk20d, however that codec only works on 32-bit Vista, I have the 64-bit version. Good point about the DNG files but not sure how often that would matter to me. Thanks for your views and help though.

PEF has the advantage of taking up less space on your memory card, and being quicker to download, and I think being more compatible with the Pentax browser program if ever you want to use that.

PEF can be converted to losslessly-compressed DNG any time with Adobe DNG converter (free). I don't know about the K20D ones, but for K10D at least, these type of DNG files are even smaller than PEFs.

I myself shoot in PEF to get more shots one the card but I use Lighroom and those convert them inot DNG when it upload I think they are even smaller then the PEF, need to check that.

You can use photoshop to convert them to DNG as well, I've never used the free Adobe converter so don't know how it works.

BTW have you tried to codec?
I'm running a lot of 32bit stuff on XP64 without any problems

Hi Anvh. Yes, I installed the code months ago on my main pc and on the laptop but to no avail. I'm disappointed that Pentax haven't released a 64-bit version especially now that Adobe have a 64-bit Photoshop (which I use).

I've used the convertor before but I guess I'm concerned about archiving more than anything. I don't want to archive thousands of images and then find in years to come that I can't open them with anything. Maybe the answer is to make sure I backup the JPG files as that format is likely to be with us for some time to come and seems fairly standardised.

Ross try out Adobe Lightroom it will compliment Photoshop nicely.
You can use it the way I use it to get the files in DNG but it also archive them automaticly and you can edit the photos in Lightroom self so it leaves the original alone. You can download a 30 day trial at Adobe, it really works well and is 64bit also

there is some saving to be had by converting from PEF to a compressed DNG. just converted 500 PEF files in Lightroom and the I have managed to save about 1GB in total. I may convert others if space becomes an issue.

is it true that the xmp data that is stored outside of the PEF file is stored inside a DNG file?

Version 5.2 is designed for the K20D, have tried it with no problems!
Thanks to Mattmatic, for sending me the link, he's a very helpful guy as always on this forum.

Peter

Anyone here using a mac? What file format works best here. I have Photoshop CS1 so would probably have to use the Pentax software to process my files. :