Hello,
have you ever noticed any differences in the metadata between and Pentax camera generated PEF RAW file and a DNG from the same camera, especially a newer one like the K-5?
We just had a discussion on differences between these formats and I thought "why not ask the guru on metadata?" ;)
There are rumors that even K-5 DNG do contain less metadata info than the corresponding DNG file.
Second question if I may:
People realized that DNGs out of Adobes DNG Converter are smaller than the ones from inside the camera and smaller than the orignal PEF from which the DNG was created.
Any ideas what could be the reason?
I guessed it might be less preview files or stronger compressed JPG preview files.
Wow.
I just found a good reason to shoot PEF...
I own a K-5, and have been shooting almost exclusively PEF, but I just went back to compare with some of the DNG pictures I took, and I discovered that either Photoshop or Lightroom has modified my raw images without my knowing. This annoys me. I don't want anything to play with my RAW images without my permission.
But back to the topic. I found an original DNG image, and compared the metadata to an original PEF, and the Pentax MakerNotes contain exactly the same information.
Adobe-converted DNG's are a real mess. I absolutely do not trust the DNG converter with my RAW images because it has a known history of messing up the maker notes of some cameras. And what is worse, they don't seem to care. Plus, they move the MakerNote information to their own style of DNGPrivateData, while Pentax keeps them in the same MakerNote format for both PEF and DNG straight out of the camera. This means that Adobe-converted DNG maker notes are basically useless because the only software capable of taking full advantage of them (the Pentax software) can no longer read them.
Personally, I'm sticking to PEF. Adobe-converted DNG is absolutely off the table. In-camera DNG may be an option, but is less appealing now that (I think) I have discovered that the Adobe software tampers with these files without asking.
- Phil
Thanks for your quick answer.
- I always shoot in DNG and am quite happy with this. Pentax dropped PEF support in the K-01 und now in the K-30. So I personally think, shooting DNG is better than having to convert the PEFs later as you have pointed out.
- Question: Did you check if the PEF conversion result is the same when using the DNG Converter and from within LR (it can export DNGs also).
- Question: is there a command to directly compare the metadata of two files (e.g. PEF vs. DNG) and directly see only the differences? That would be handy.
- Question: Which metadata did you find were changed in the DNG by LR/PS without your authorization?
- Question: I understand both in pEF and DNG there can be included more than one preview thumbnails or large previews in JPG format. Which command(s) would I need to extract all of them at once for a given file if I dont know if one or the other is present? I would think that -b -previewImage -w %f.jpg OR -b -JpgFromRaw -w %f.jpg just grabs one of them.
Quote from: Beholder3 on May 23, 2012, 06:21:28 AM
Question: Did you check if the PEF conversion result is the same when using the DNG Converter and from within LR (it can export DNGs also).
No, but I'm sure it would be.
QuoteQuestion: is there a command to directly compare the metadata of two files (e.g. PEF vs. DNG) and directly see only the differences? That would be handy.
You can do this on Mac/Linux (this is what I do):
> exiftool -G1 -a image.pef | sort > pef.txt
> exiftool -G1 -a image.dng | sort > dng.txt
> diff pef.txt dng.txtQuoteQuestion: Which metadata did you find were changed in the DNG by LR/PS without your authorization?
It added XMP raw development parameters to the DNG image.
QuoteQuestion: I understand both in pEF and DNG there can be included more than one preview thumbnails or large previews in JPG format. Which command(s) would I need to extract all of them at once for a given file if I dont know if one or the other is present? I would think that -b -previewImage -w %f.jpg OR -b -JpgFromRaw -w %f.jpg just grabs one of them.[/li][/list]
Right. Currently you must extract them one at a time. I use this command to see what is present:
exiftool image.pef -a | grep Binary- Phil
Phil
I agree with what you've said about the DNG Convertor and MakerNotes. I was surprised that the DNG convertor removes the MakeNote and mentioned this in my book, while thinking "I can hear the ice cracking.....".
That is plain WRONG. Stupid WRONG. Dangerously WRONG. Evil WRONG. The DNG should be a "wrapper" around the original file. Adobe should write a brand spanking new DNG/IFD written at the end of the file and which has an IFD tag to lead you to the maker's IFD0. They can put whatever they want in their DNG/IFD0, however they must leave the maker's data untouched.
Exactly