Google Pixel 8 DNG format

Hello,
is there any chance that DxO will support the DNG format of Google Pixel smartphones 8 in the near future?
Regards, Uwe

Looking at past posts on phone DNG support over the years, I would say a fairly definitive no, for the same reasons that have been given many times before.

Here is a quote from Apple about its proRAW format…

Apple ProRAW combines the information of a standard RAW format along with iPhone image processing, which gives you more flexibility when editing the exposure, colour and white balance in your photo

So, it is not a true RAW file , but one that has already been pre-processed.

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In the “near future” I agree with Joanna - highly unlikely. You need to look elsewhere - e.g., after some early hiccups LR now supports these files. If you already own DxO PL, an unexciting workaround would involve editing full-size TIFFs with embedded Display P3 profiles.

If Google or other smartphone makers provided linear DNG, similar to how DXO exports DNG, with all the permissions and data to modify it, which is unlikely, then perhaps DXO would support it. But DNG, as already explained many times, does not in itself mean a raw file. It also doesn’t need to be saved in a way that makes editing in DXO useful compared to, say, Photoshop or Affinity Photo.

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I have the most control when I shoot with Open Camera, convert the DNG file to TIFF and finalize the TIFF file in PhotoLab.

One can also speculate: Smartphones have to use a lot of tricks to achieve high-quality results with the small sensor areas. This is one aspect in which camera software differs from smartphone software. I even suspect that smartphone software is more complex. But that also means that the camera part can - and does - change with every smartphone software update. In this case, DXO would also have to redo the measurements with every software update in order to extract the final details. This is much less often the case with a camera, if at all. For the reasons mentioned above, the RAW information of smartphones can probably hardly be processed by anyone other than the smartphone manufacturer. This is certainly an area with its very own know-how, which the smartphone manufacturer does not want to get involved in.

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Unfortunately not. We asked for this since years (also for other high end camera phones like iPhone pro series, Samsung Galaxy S series or Sony Xperia 1 and 5 series).
DxO is ignoring this wish and all the time tells us that the smartphone DNG is not a real RAW file.
But honestly: Who cares? It is ways better than the out of phone JPG and other converters work with it, too. So DxO: Finally start moving!

Hello @joerg2019 I invite you here:

Thanks, but not necessary. I know the difference: The truth is, that smartphone DNG still contains more information than smartphone JPG and DxO gives us no chance to use this extra information.

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In that case you may have missed this on the DxO website’s PhotoLab page:

“The most advanced, end-to-end, RAW photo editing software”

May I also suggest the following:

If you insist on this, they also must remove JPG support … because it’s also not RAW

And again … Smartphone DNG contains more information than smartphone JPG. Why not using it ?

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And again …

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Sounds like you get paid by DxO to repeat their official position several times. But this does not change the undisputed fact that a DNG contains more information than a JPG. So you did not provide any reason why not to use it. Sure, a real RAW is better, but as this is not available out of the smartphones, a smartphone DNG stays better than a smartphone JPG.

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He’s been trolling me as well.

DNGs should be supported, period. We, the users, don’t and shouldn’t care what’s under the hood or how they’re going to fix it, we just need the functionality, or we jump ship to other software that does have the functionality, simple as that, as I mentioned here.

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Totally agree. And I suppose it’s not rocket science, as others get along with the smartphone DNGs, too. I could understand if special functionalities like DeepPrime XD would not work with smartphone DNGs, but no support is not a customer oriented solution at all.

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It also does not change the undisputed fact that cows’ milk comes from cows and rain has a tendency of making things wet.

Convert whatever files you need to TIFF and edit that PL.

If you understood what it says on that page, you wouldn’t keep asking “why…?”

Nope, just responding to the assumption you made about me and the fact that you told others they “have” to do something a certain way, when the clearly don’t. You did have the opportunity to apologise when I provided you with the correct solution and admit your mistake, but you didn’t. Now deal with it.

Again you admit you don’t understand and don’t care about understanding.

Now I understand the true meaning of this nickname. :wink:

Gentlemen, please “talk reason”, as Mario Puzio’s godfather kept saying.

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:slight_smile: … it is because most of my photos would be underexposed if I shot only jpg… my lenses aren’t fast and my grip not like rock.

@TomDX I do not think you only make invalid points. But when you add invalid ones or wrong information, you make the valid ones invalid and risk doing so for others who have made the same valid points.

By the way, have I shared a link to an article about why DxO themselves say they don’t support such files? :smiley:

Another question: Aside from internal cost for development, would any licensing fees be involved that DxO would have to pay to the smartphone manufacturer?

Ok, please just accept that the customer’s wish is to work also with DNGs out of smartphones as they contain more information than JPGs.
From a requirements engineering point of view it’s a stakeholder requirement and it’s up to DxO if they want to fulfill it or not. But they should be aware of the consequences if they don’t fulfill.

Today the customer is forced to use other RAW converters if he/she want’s to use theses DNGs.
The customer would be already working in another RAW converter like Lightroom (which supports these DNGs), too, when he/she follows the things you recommend (convert the smartphone DNG somwhere else to TIFF). If you’re already in another tool, there is really no reason to come back to Photolab as the USPs of Photolab are not available for TIFFs, too.

Please just accept that Photolab today does not offer the performance which it could for smartphone photography and therefore forces customers to look around for alternatives. In the end this could lead to a customer drain to competitiors when they get used to work with other tools.

It’s cheaper for the customer to pay a small add-on for Photolab DNG support than investing into a secondf tool.

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