RAW+

I have a K10D and have never used RAW. However for the first time yesterday I took about 80 photos using RAW (DNG) plus JPG.

I have just purchased Elements 7 and will have to work out how to process the RAW photos - anyone know a good book for a 'RAW' beginner?

Now for what may be a daft question.

When I look on the camera screen at the photo I have taken do I see the RAW image or the JPG image??

John

John,
Go here and have a quick look, click on video 1-20 of 61 these will help you no end.

http://www.thedigitalphotographyconnection.com/PFDP.php


Enjoy,

Open Elements 7, then you d/click a DNG/Raw file it will open in camera raw and if you have looked at the link I gave you, you will understand a bit to get you going.

You see a highly compressed JPEG that is stored inside the RAW file along with the proper RAW data. If you zoom in a lot, it looks worse than an ordinary JPEG (you'll see compression artifacts), but still there is enough detail for you to check focus, etc.

It's also probable that the camera's highlights/shadows warning and histogram are based on this JPEG. It is also used as a preview by certain programs on your computer when you "open" the RAW file, including Pentax Browser.

The JPEG embedded in Pentax RAW files is approximately equivalent in size to one shot on "medium" quality at full resolution.

Here is an good read on the net link
There really isn't so much too it besides what you read there.

I see you shoot in DNG, so far as I know there isn't a diffrence then with PEF besides that PEF gets compressed more without loosing quality.
If your software can handel PEF use that instead so that you can make more photos.

Thanks Guys - I'll get stuck in and see what happens.

I've just increased my RAM from 1Gb to 2GB. I now have to uninstall Elements 3 and load Elements 7.

Thanks again for help and advice

Cheers John

There is one aspect which may or may not be a problem. As I understand it, DNG is becoming the standard, so should be safe to archive but PEF is a proprietary (brand specific) format which may be difficult to open in 10 years. Anyone know if there is any mileage(kilometre-age)in this theory?

I always use DNG, there's still a lot of software that won't open PEF
Nikon and Canon programs to name just two

shim

Mmm - to be on the safe side I think I'll use DNG.

You can always save a PEF as a DNG once you have it on your computer - it saves space too, as DNGs made on the computer are more compressed than those from the camera. A win win situation.

Yes, PEF is converted ever so easily to DNG with Adobe DNG Converter (free), for example.

You can even incorporate it into your copying-from-card-to-computer routine. Have the converter open the memory card but save the DNGs to hard drive, to do the two jobs in one go.

Shoot PEF to fit more on your memory card and for full compatibility with Pentax Photo Browser.

I never realised how big the difference was a PEF is about 55% of the size of a DNG so if space is tight you will get about 80% more shots on a card.

If you wish to later compress the files RAR can compress a DNG to 66-70% of the original size or ZIP can do it to 85% of the original size. No point in compressing PEF's you won't get them below 99%

I still prefer DNG+JPG...... I just buy cards that are twice as big at least I know I won't come across software that won't read them. I don't really want to convert them because I may want to look at them straight off the card on someone else's computer.

With all the RAW formats now emerging it's unlikely that the software companies will try to keep up with them all. It's a bit like word processors were a few years ago.

shim

You might as well have bought a Samsung if you shoot DNGs!

Sorry to jump in on your thread John, but like you I'm just going down the same road as yourself, and I wondered if any Samsung users here have any opinions of Samsung's RAW converter 2.0 and how does it compare to others such as Bibble

Thanks

Samsung RAW Converter 2 is a version of Silkypix Developer Studio 3 - which is excellent and arguably the best RAW program available.