File format for storage.

[Marko]

I'd keep the original proprietary files. (NEF, PEF, CR2 etc.)

[ericmark]

With the Pentax PEF I would agree as Pentax is well know for keeping to the standards it has set with lenses made back in 1980 still fitting a modern camera. However Nikon as I found to my cost seem to change things at the drop of a hat and although still with the label NEF clearly these formats have changed through the years with warning by Nikon about using older software with newer files seems it can cause corruption. So with the unstable nature of the Nikon format I think keeping just the DNG is the better option.

I have tried to give reasons wonder why you would keep Nikon rather than Adobe formats I am sure you have some good reasons?

[QuietOne]

I'm going to sound a bit disjointed - it's getting late.

No one knows the file format of a proprietary file like the manufacturer. I see a lot of complaints similar to yours around the 'net. If the noise gets loud enough to be bad publicity, it may be they'll add those older formats to their latest, or at least have a converter of some kind written.

DNG doesn't seem to be catching on. I don't think it will go away - various open source projects will see to that. But it's a conversion, and any software that converts your RAW files is using a reversed engineered version of the original algorithm. Some versions are better than others, but there will be changes. It can't be helped.

You may well have to work with a DNG file, given your software and hardware limitations. But if you go back and rework a file, if you decide the settings aren't quite right, you might get just a little more starting with the original RAW converted to DNG fed into your photo editing program. It may also be that DNG conversions of your particular RAW get better in the future, because the reverse engineering was refined, or because Nikon decided to release at least some information on the format (unlikely, but not impossible, if it's the next marketing edge one of the camera companies decides to try). However it comes about, you won't have the original to reconvert from. I agree with Marko, get external hard drives. It's at the tail end of the holiday season, but you might still be able to pick some up on loss leader prices. Back-to-school is the other time they get really cheap. At the least, consider keeping the RAW for your best photos.

[Mike Guilbault]

Actually, if you're worried about losing the 'original' RAW file, you can embed the original RAW within the DNG. It's an option that can be applied when you do the conversion. So, you get the benefits of DNG as well as keeping your original RAW. Personally, I don't bother. I have LR automatically convert my NEFs to DNG upon import and then delete the original NEF (this is all done automatically on import with LR). All the original RAW data is kept, but for me, the big benefit of DNG is that the file format also holds all the Metadata and any adjustments you make to it with your RAW processor, LR for example. As soon as you make an adjustment to a RAW file, it creates a Sidecar file with a ".xmp" extension and the same filename as your RAW file. If, for some reason, you happen to move your RAW file but don't take the xmp file with it, you've just lost all your adjustments, keywords, and other Metadata. The DNG format retains all this information in one file. Consider the DNG format as an envelope that holds your RAW image as well as all the metadata and adjustments you've made to it, with no chance of loosing it from moving files around your computer. For me, it's DNG all the way.

[ericmark]

Thank you all for your input. As rightly said things move on now running Vista and CS5 with RAW 6.5 so can work direct with Nikon RAW files. Also found RawTherapeePortable which will process Nikon RAW and is free so there is no need to convert the DNG.

Oddly I like the sidecar idea it means I can remove all alterations and start again.