what are DNG files?

[lilmomma]

I know they stand for diginal negative, but what is the difference between that and NEF? When I import from my camera into lightroom, it asks me to copy to a folder and add to catalog (which adds the photos to my hd as NEF) or convert to DNG and add to catalog (something like that...) anyway what is the difference in the two and which should I be doing? Also what is a TIFF file?

[Andy]

Start with a little tiny bit of googling and then reading, okay? :D

http://www.adobe.com/products/dng/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagged_Image_File_Format

[Art Scott]

DNG = ADOBE OPEN SOURCE DIGITAL NEGATIVE = code is available to any one who wants to use it

NEF, MRW,CRW or any other camera company raw files are all proprietary codes of the camera manufacturer and that is why it takes months somtimes for adobe to come out with the updates to camera raw and lightroom for these raw files.........

many photogs (myself included) change all raw file to dng before starting to do oany post processing on them.....I can see the collapse of camera manufacturers before seeing the collapse of ADOBE...so I trust my files to DNG .............

If we could just shoot in DNG it would be an almost perfect world..................

[arodney]

I know they stand for diginal negative, but what is the difference between that and NEF? When I import from my camera into lightroom, it asks me to copy to a folder and add to catalog (which adds the photos to my hd as NEF) or convert to DNG and add to catalog (something like that...) anyway what is the difference in the two and which should I be doing? Also what is a TIFF file?

http://www.ppmag.com/reviews/200709_adobedng.pdf

TIFF, Tagged Image File Format, owned by Adobe (originally Aldus). Open source.

[lilmomma]

I just wasn't sure if i changed it to DNG if it would affect the function of the RAW format. Still learning all the technical terms here. I will use DNG from now on. Thanks to all for the replies!

[colourbox]

I just wasn't sure if i changed it to DNG if it would affect the function of the RAW format.

One thing that changes is that I don't think you will be able to open those raw files in Nikon editing software any more if they are DNG. Some people really like the Nikon software. If you're staying in Adobe apps all the time, then that doesn't matter, DNG is a good option which I prefer (I shoot Canon though).

[arodney]

One thing that changes is that I don't think you will be able to open those raw files in Nikon editing software any more if they are DNG.

You can't unless you also embed (or save separately) the original NEFs which have proprietary tags.

[kwcrow]

I use DNG mainly because it saves about 33% on space compared to RAW and even more compared to TIFF. I am Adobe only on editing. ( LR2 and CS4)

[Art Scott]

I use DNG mainly because it saves about 33% on space compared to RAW and even more compared to TIFF. I am Adobe only on editing. ( LR2 and CS4)

Along these lines......What do we loose converting to DNG since the file is much smaller than raw and there is no compression?
Somethng is being tossed ......correct??

[encosion]

Along these lines......What do we loose converting to DNG since the file is much smaller than raw and there is no compression?
Somethng is being tossed ......correct??

DNG, like Canon's own RAW format, incorporates a lossless compression (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lossless_data_compression) (sorta like ZIP optimized for images)... Nikon's RAW format doesn't... Hence the approximate 33% filesize difference... There is little difference in the files sizes between DNG and Canon RAW.