A Standard Format
The lack of a standard format for camera raw files creates additional work for camera
manufacturers because they need to develop proprietary formats along with the software to
process them. It also poses risks for end users. Camera raw formats vary from camera to
camera, even those produced by the same manufacturer. It is not uncommon for a camera
manufacturer to terminate support for a discontinued camera’s raw format. This means users
have no guarantee they will be able to open archived camera raw files in the future.
To address these problems, Adobe has defined a new non-proprietary format for camera raw
files. The format, called Digital Negative or DNG, can be used by a wide range of hardware
and software developers to provide a more flexible raw processing and archiving workflow.
End users may also use DNG as an intermediate format for storing images that were originally
captured using a proprietary camera raw format.