OpenRAW

Early in 2005, Juergen Specht and the members of his mailing list D1scussion began to identify concerns about the difficulties associated with the proprietary RAW files introduced by camera makers. The background to these concerns, described at Raw image format (Drawbacks), Digital Negative (Objectives), and dcraw (Motivation), is that the photographs from top-end digital cameras are often contained within files whose specifications are formally known only to the camera manufacturers. Not only does this require extra software development by many companies after the launch of most new camera models, but there is a major risk that future software products will not be able to render photographs from decades earlier. As the seriousness of the issue was quickly realized, this team founded an initiative called OpenRAW, with the goal of encouraging image preservation and ensuring that the creators of the images retained the choice of how their images are processed. on 25 April 2005. There were positive reactions worldwide: for example at DPReview; many others in English; some in German; and in Japanese. == Achievements ==

Raising awareness The OpenRAW initiative identified the seriousness of this problem, articulated it in a way that photographers understood, The OpenRAW initiative raised awareness, or crystallized vague awareness, of these problems with many photographers and organizations worldwide. while others didn't respond when asked. and so were five professional organisations. more than 19,200 photographers worldwide responded to it. (From North America, 46%; Europe, 43%; Asia, 5%; Australia, 4%; Africa, 1%; South America, 1%). Twenty photography associations, forums, listservs, and other resources worldwide supported the survey. What these supporters typically have in common was the conviction that people and organizations should reliably be able to access and view their photographs well into the future, and that this requires open documentation of the formats of the files used. jointly authored by Michael Reichmann (of The Luminous Landscape) and Juergen Specht (leader of the founding group of OpenRAW), and published on each website. Permission is given for the text to be copied and republished, with translation if desired, and there are examples in various countries and languages, especially of the "Act Now" call for action: in China (in English); in French; different versions in Spanish; in Danish; and in Italian. == Limitation ==

Summary of the problem The problem identified by the sources identified above can be summarized as: "there is an ever increasing number of undocumented raw file formats". The final paragraph in "The RAW Flaw" on The Luminous Landscape website is: An article "Notes on the future of Open RAW formats, and a look at DNG" said "DNG is not the answer". Opposition was present in the forum. In an interview, a founder of OpenRAW said "No, DNG is unfortunately not a solution." Rather than advocating for the creation of an open file format (such as DNG), OpenRAW was seeking specifications for the various proprietary file formats. This stance continued as DNG became better established while camera makers showed no signs of publishing documentation for their raw file formats. == Status in 2011 ==

Status of OpenRAW initiative The OpenRAW Mailing List was closed to new members in April 2006. The OpenRAW website became inactive in August 2009, but the last post was a year earlier. By May 2011 a new home page summarized the history of OpenRAW, saying: :"While the final goal of "Open Documentation" has not yet been reached, the OpenRAW initiative and the survey results have triggered the ongoing development of an "Open" RAW standard which is in the final stages of becoming a reality." :"OpenRAW had a lot of impact on the world of photography and it continues to aim at improving the situation for photographers and their photographs for years to come." Status of cameras and camera makers Niche and some smaller camera makers use DNG as a raw image format, and so conform to OpenRAW's requirement by using an openly documented non-proprietary format. ==See also==