Monday, March 1, 2010

Stupid Samsung SRW

Samsung has invented another TIFF-based RAW format called SRW (used by the NX10).

The idiot Samsung engineers haven't included any sort of file identifier to allow this type of file to be distinguised from a TIFF image. This means that software must rely on the file extension to be able to read or write this file properly. This really pisses me off. Will they never learn?!

Also, they have included no identifier in their maker notes, which again is not a good idea.

The best one can do to identify these images is to look for a SubIFD1 Compression value of 32770, but this can only be found after processing IFD0 and the SubIFD's.

It would be much better if the file included a signature after the TIFF header such the Canon CR2, or a different TIFF magic number like Olympus ORF.

[Edit - discovered more idiocy]

Another BLACK MARK against the Samsung engineers:

The SRW format stores the ThumbnailImage inside a SubIFD of IFD1 instead of directly in IFD1 as per the EXIF specification.

Why are they so stupid?

3 comments:

  1. i came across your rant after i keyed in 'how to open .srw file'. YES i am pissed off too

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  2. Since there is no identifier in the makernotes, could the encryption key be used for identification? Seems to be consistent among different models.

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