Basically the biggest problem of handling RAW files is a multitude of formats - so I just need to write: "formats" - that type. Each manufacturer has developed at least one type of RAW format, and some (eg, Sony) have even three. In total, there are currently 30 types of files that can be described as RAW format. To this was not enough, manufacturers of photographic equipment to be considered the natural situation in which the person buying the latest camera can be confident that "its" RAW files do not read any application until it is created.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II - the camera being the fulfillment of a dream of many photographers. Unfortunately, until very few applications which support the RAW files. Our goal is to find two exits from this situation. The first release of the early versions of programs and patches add support for new models of cameras. Yes they do "the great of this world", such as Adobe, Apple, DxO and Phase One. Second, we owe much more comfortable out lenistwu equipment manufacturers - it turns out that often "new" RAW files, in fact, does not differ from the old, in addition to the metadata stored in the camera model. Just so that the program ignored the name and try to read the contents of a file based on an analysis of its structure. Yes they do, some browsers, such as IrfanView (this application was the first in its time, which reads the image in the format generated by the CR2 Canon EOS 350D - make this version of an earlier model of the camera for one year). Unfortunately, this method does not always works, and sometimes may even lead to a suspension of the program or read an erroneous interpretation of data.
 
Also, manufacturers of operating systems see the need to address the problem of reading RAW files, although they took to do so in a slightly different way. Microsoft has decided to leave the cameras in the hands of producers - as those who best know the specification of their products - and implemented a technology system, Vista (later transferred to the older Windows XP) allows the installation. codecs. These are the small library to read RAW files of the manufacturer under the control of the operating system without installing additional programs. Full-resolution images can be viewed and organized by system application Photo Gallery, and the thumbnails are visible in Windows Explorer. Currently codecs to develop their cameras on a regular basis all the major manufacturers of photographic equipment - at Microsoft they have their full inventory, together with lists of references and models of supported cameras. What's very strange, on this page has no link to the codec from Adobe that provides support for files in the DNG format - but there is a codec and is available free of charge on his website Adobe Labs.