Adobe introduces Digital Negative specification

Adobe today introduced the Digital Negative Specification, a new unified public format for raw digital camera files.The company also launched a free software tool, Adobe DNG Converter, that translates many of today's popular raw photo formats into the new .DNG file format, compliant with the Digital Negative Specification (see separate press release). Technology leaders, major customers and professional photographers today endorsed the new specification.

Raw file formats are becoming extremely popular in digital photography workflows because they offer creative professionals greater creative control. However, cameras can use many different raw formats — the specifications for which are not publicly available — which means that not every raw file can be read by a variety of software applications. As a result, the use of these proprietary raw files as a long-term archival solution carries risk, and sharing these files across complex workflows is even more challenging.

The solution to this growing problem? The Digital Negative (DNG), a new, publicly available archival format for the raw files generated by digital cameras. By addressing the lack of an open standard for the raw files created by individual camera models, DNG helps ensure that photographers will be able to access their files in the future.

More info about DNG here