Converting to DNG files.

[NateNLogansDad]

Generally I like to use Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 for tweaking my raw files. Recently I upgraded my camera body to a Nikon D5100 which unfortunately uses a raw file that is no longer supported by PSE 8.

Before I run out and pick up PSE9, I'm converting my NEF files to DNG using the converter provided by adobe. Will this degrade my pictures in any way? Personally, my shots aren't good enough to tell anyway but it was just something nagging in the back of my mind.

 

[JoeDif]

I've been converting my Olympus ORF files over to Adobe DNG files for the last year. I haven't seen any degrading of the RAW files during conversion.

 

[HPS3]

I also have a D5100 and have PSE 9 and Lightroom 3. In my opinion if you are dealing with raw files I think you should use lightroom (just my opinion). I haven't used PSE 9 since I got LR3. It is so much faster and more useful dealing with editing and noise reduction than PSE. The only thing I use PSE 9 for is Layers. You might be able to find LR3 on sale I know at one time it was $139.

 

[ssanders79]

I also convert my NEFs to DNG on import. I cannot for the life of me see a difference aside from the convience of a sing DNG file instead of a NEF+ sidecar file to keep track of down the road.

 

[mossyflossyhub]

The DNG conversion is entirely lossless. Your new DNG file will have the exact same quality of the original NEF. There is also a way of embedding your original NEF within the newly created DNG file. This makes the file size much larger of course but it means that from a single DNG file you can also extract the original NEF file in the future. This saves you from having to store your original NEF files and you also are freed from using sidecar files.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Again, this is just me being me and there's no problems or anything........

If they are loss less, any idea why the DNG files are roughly 2mb smaller than the NEF files?

 

[JoeDif]

DNG files use a compressed file format. I'm not familiar with Nikon RAW files but I'm guessing the NEF files aren't compressed.

The Olympus ORF files are non compressed files so the DNG files are normally smaller when I convert. There is no loss in image data it just comes in a smaller package.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Thanks Joe, I can understand that