DNG

Bampton, Victoria.  "To DNG or Not?" Photoshop User Magazine, pp. 78-81.  March 2009.  

The title pretty much explains it all, this article provides answers to the questions about using the Digital Negative format opposed to other raw formats.  This has recently become as an interest to me because of my technical issues, and now with my setup I have no other choice but to use DNG to open my files, so I really want to understand what it is and if it was helping or hurting my work.  The article lists the pros and cons, and is then up to the reader to decide whether this is the route they should take when working with digital camera files.  

The good thing about DNG, is that unlike Nikon and Canon's RAW formats, DNG is explained as being publicly documented.  Meaning that these files will still be able to be opened as technology progresses- which is a huge deal as I found, when computers are not new enough in comparison to the digital camera and their constant evolving file formats.  Other Pros of the DNG format are as follows: All files that traditionally make up a raw file are encapsulated in one file- including the RAW image data, the metadata that describes the data, and an embedded preview- this means less files that can misplaced or deleted; It's lossless compression option is better than that of a digital camera, smaller file- saves space; Conversion to DNG offers early warning signals of file corruption, if the file has potential to be corrupt, it will not convert and explain what has happened, it will then allow u to remove the files and format the card instead of continually shooting corrupted images that will most likely never be usable; DNG works as normal RAW files, with the option to edit the equivalent of a digital negative before actually editing within the photo editing software, preserving the original quality.  The Cons for using DNG are totally worth it to any serious photographer.  Manufacturers software as of yet does not support DNG files, as well as Adobe Lightroom having minor issues with adjusting focusing points of DNG files- a small price to pay for a high quality camera format that will probably never be obsolete.