Iduno Loc: Near Tampa Florida

I shoot everything in raw and use Lightroom to organize my photos. I would like to hear opinions on converting to DNG during import rather than leaving images in their native raw format (which is what I do).

designpro

Good Question,
Short Answer...

RAW files have a side car XMP file outside the RAW file format.
When converting to DNG all those metadata files are stored in one container and not floating around on your hard drive.

Not all software packages can open RAW files.

Because RAW files cannot be modified by third party software, your settings will have to be stored in a separate sidecar (XMP) file, which means more storage and tougher file management.

DNG is also considered to be a RAW image file. It is Adobe’s proprietary image standard that was created to store image data in a generic, highly-compatible format, unlike RAW files that have specific formats based on manufacturer and camera type. Although DNG was invented by Adobe and is supported in all Adobe applications, there are other companies like Leica and Hasselblad that adopted this standard and use it in their cameras as their native RAW file format.

This is just covering some of the reasons, not all...

(Advantages of DNG format)..........................

No need to be worried about proprietary camera RAW formats – once a RAW file in converted to DNG, it will work with any software that can read the DNG format.

DNG files are generally smaller than RAW files and can be made even smaller if minimal or no JPEG Preview is stored within the file.

DNG files are capable of storing full original RAW files and these RAW files can be later be manually extracted, if needed.

(Disadvantages of DNG format).......................

DNG does not work with all manufacturer image-processing programs. For example, it doesn't work with Nikon’s Capture NX product.

DNG strips out some of the unrecognized meta data (such as Active D-Lighting and Picture Control) from RAW files, making it impossible to retrieve this data from DNG in the future.

Changes are written into the DNG file, you would have to back up the entire DNG file every time you make changes to it.

For myself personally, I save in the RAW format. If I do move this file to another drive for backup or for that matter even a flash drive, I make sure the XMP file is also moved. Depending on how your file structure is setup, both files usually move together with no issues.

I can go on but I won't. This should cover it.

Regards

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I've done almost nothing with RAW and DNG, so I'm just starting to learn. Here is more info. http://mansurovs.com/dng-vs-raw

designpro

This is some of what I quoted from the same place.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Ah, great minds...

designpro

Just looking for a quick answer without burning out...

designpro

Here,s a good place for some quick answers when it comes to LightRoom...
http://lightroomkillertips.com/

Iduno Loc: Near Tampa Florida

Great feedback. Thanks all.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

One thing that LR allows is the saving of the original raw file to a selected destination during import as DNG. It is this option I chose. Based on the research, I could find no good reason not to convert to DNG, for my decision to use Adobe tools had been made. Still, a little piece of me wants to hang on to those NEF files. It won't surprise me when I delete all of them one of these days.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

I do the same thing; DNG on import.