Longhorn to Support Uncompressed "RAW" Image Format

[Kent Pribbernow]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.com.com/Longhorn+photo+support+comes+into+focus/2100-1016_3-5727545.html?tag=nl' target='_blank'>http://news.com.com/Longhorn+photo+support+comes+into+focus/2100-1016_3-5727545.html?tag=nl</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, will feature support for uncompressed digital camera images--which could change the way people view and edit photos. The company on Wednesday announced deals with camera companies Nikon and Canon, as well as Fuji Photo Film and Adobe Systems, to let Windows users view, print and eventually edit uncompressed digital camera images--which are stored in what's commonly known as a "raw" format."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/Longhorn-4051-2.jpg" /><br /><br />This is a big leap forward for Microsoft. Whether they can pull this off remains to be seen however. As the article suggests, many camera makers use their own proprietary file format to produce RAW images. Microsoft hopes to create a special Longhorn-friendly image codec standard that camera makers can adopt to insure their products support Longhorn. Sounds good on paper, but can this happen BEFORE Longhorn ships next year?

[James Fee]

So I assume every time a new camera is released by Nikon or Canon that causes the RAW format to be changed, Microsoft will release an update?

[Felix Torres]

No.
MS is defining a set of standard APIs that will handle mapping of data between any proprietary formats the camera folks might choose to use in their hardware and the new open raw spec.
The spec is being defined in consultation with the camera vendors (and Adobe) so it will be compatible with all their formats.
MS has a lot of experience in extensible data formats through their Windows Media and MS-DRM efforts, to say nothing of their recent conversion to the religion of Xml. :-)

So, fear not; the spec will be doubtlessly updated but likely no more often than every few years and without breaking compatibility.