What would you use....PEF or .DNG

[fghouse2000]

I just got myself a K10D...WOW...what a piece of equipment.
The question to me is is there any bnefit that I can derive by saving a RAW image in either PEF or DNG. I did some searching and came up with mixed results.

Some say there is no difference in the two Some say PEFs are compressed while DNGs are not (ergo are larger).

Would like to get the opinion of K10D owners?

TIA

Feroz

[JimC]

I'm not a K10D owner, but I'd stick with .pef

Some raw converters don't support Adobe's .dng format, unless they have support for the specific camera model producing it.

But, you can always use the free Adobe DNG Converter to convert your .PEF files to DNG so that you have both formats if needed. That way, you'll have more raw converters available for the images (those that support the .pef files *and* those that support .dng files).

[ishino]

I use PEF.

[mtngal]

I've gone back and forth with this. At the moment I'm using DNG, but think I might go back to usingPEF and then saving both aPEF andDNG version of the picture (hedging my bets, in case one or the other isn't supported in the future). I started doing that when I was using the K100 only, but after a while, I decided I didn't want to keep two versions of the K10's large files, so started usingDNG in-camera. I'm not as happy with my pictures recently and I don't know if that's because of the change in format or if it's a change in software (I recently downloaded a newer version of Lightroom than I had been using and perhaps I've changed something in the way it's converting the pictures - I haven't played around much to figure it out). When I first got the K10 I was usingDNG because it took a while for Adobe to release a version of ACR to support the K10's PEF files, then changed to PEF. Think I'm going to go back to PEF and saving both PEF and DNG on a DVD - they aren't that expensive, and they don't take up that much room.

[bigdawg]

I use Jpeg mostly but PEF when I shoot in RAW!

Dawg

[rhermans]

I'm still hoping that the dng is really going to be the open standard.
I'm doing all post processing in photoshop, and although photoshop reads pef, dng is closer to the program.

I always shoot dng+jpg. Not that I'm using the jpg's a lot, but they are great references to see if your post processing didn't give a worse result than the camera did in jpg. (what has happened more than once with me)

The difference between pef and dng in the end is none, they are just a different way of saving those pictures and with the cheap external drives the size difference doesn't give me a reason to choose the one or the other.

[ennacac]

I use PEF files since they are smaller and since I already have a PEF converter I have little concern about not being able to read them at a later date. I see no difference in the quality of the images, but I can get more files on my card using PEF than DNG which is the big reason I use that format.

That said, I use jpg the majority of the time with my DS since it does such a wonderful job of capturing the image and only use RAW when the light is strange and I am not sure of the results. The K10D doesn't do as good a job on jpg, higher resolution, but not better image capture than the DS in jpg, so I used RAW most of the time with that and the format of choice for me was PEF.

Tom

[fghouse2000]

Thanks for all the input folks...most valuable.
Now, I shoot mostly in JPG and swith to RAW only when I think I will need it. I do belive that RAW does have a lot of benefits.

My reading of the differences between PEF and DNG suggests that DNG is truly uncompresssed and hence can be larger. PEF on theother hand does contain some compression. This then brings about the philosophical question: should a RAW image be compressed becasue the image data has the potential to get compromised....ergo my question.

Storage is relatively cheap these days. I am more concerned with the purity of the image that is captured. Whats the point of a RAW image if it is going to contain compression?

Someone please correct me if I am wrong here.

[bluwing]

Hi,

That is one of the nice things about the istD. I can shoot in PEF,TIFForJPEG. I use PEF, But on ocassions i also use TIFF.

Rudy

[ennacac]

I can see no difference between PEF and DNG quality wise and the ability to work on the image after the fact other than some of the free programs don't work with PEF.

Tom