Question: Should cellphone cameras support RAW? It seems like a silly idea at first – cellphone cameras are for snaps, and if you mail a dng file straight from the phone to your Aunt Flo, you're going to have some explaining to do when she tries to open it up. So I was intrigued by an email I got this morning from the maker of a RAW shooting solution for Nokia phones, called DNG Phone Camera. The Java app somehow grabs the raw data from the camera sensor, converts it into the open dng format and dumps it into the Images folder on the phone's memory card.
The picture you see above is a 640x480 sample image from an unknown camera – no metadata exists inside the file, which isn't encouraging. It certainly behaves like a RAW file. I opened it up in Adobe's Lightroom and tweaked it a little (the original image, exported to jpeg, is below). I'm still having trouble seeing the point, though, unless maybe this is used on the Nokia N95's five megapixel cam.
Another conundrum is the sparsity of the product webpage. It's entirely possible that this is malware masquerading as software, and the author's contact address is at Hotmail; another discouraging sign. If any Gadget Lab reader has an old Nokia with a decent camera that they are willing to sacrifice, you're welcome to email me the image and I'll take a look (my address is at top right). And if you have any inside knowledge, or opinions on RAW for phonecams, post it in the comments.
Product page [Tea Vui Huang]
.png){kind=logo}
