Import images to Lr - Convert to DNG or Keep RAW

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542
Name
Joe
Edit My Images
Yes
When importing my images into Lr, should I convert them into DNG files & then export the finals to Jpg? What are DNG files compared to RAW? Thank you :)
 
Personally unless you have a great need , such as LR not recognising your RAW files I can't see the point.
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Keep the original raw format unless LR can't read it - you gain nothing converting to dng, and might be losing something in the conversion.
Personally unless you have a great need , such as LR not recognising your RAW files I can't see the point.
This may be of use


Thanks both. In that case I will stick with the RAW files. It was just something that came up, so I thought I would ask :)
 
It seems the files from my Z7 are converted automatically to dng. files in LRc?
 
It seems the files from my Z7 are converted automatically to dng. files in LRc?

It would seem that if you have auto import turned on File >auto import it automatically converts to .dng and you don't have the option the change it.
I don't know it it only does that with RAW files or all files-can't find out.
 
I see little benefit in converting to DNG. In fact i found one considerable disadvantage in that the metadata is stored within the dng file. This means that any change in metadata requires any backup software to backup the whole file again. With raw and sidecard files, just the sidecars is backed up. If you choose to restructure your keywording as I have done, this would have meant hundreds of GB of backups, perhaps even a terabyte.
You will also lose any 'proprietary' metadata such as focus points etc.
The only real advantage is the inclusion of a checksum to guard against corruption (why dont raw files include this I wonder?)
 
At some point long in the future there may be a big point. DNG is likely to be supported long after some older RAW files become unreadable by the latest software, particularly some newcomers to the market. I think we are quite some time away from that scenario, but generally open / standard format is always > proprietary. Keep the originals for now.
 
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