Ed said:
I've downloaded and installed the Sony RAW codec; followed by Picasa 3,
for which I set the file association for RAW files only; tried to open
it but got an error from Picasa saying "invalid image".
I think there's something amiss with the RAW file. It claims to be 111MB
in size, but behaves strangely.
What I need is some program to do an analysis of it; read it through and
give some basic info on what's there. Maybe it's just got an incorrect
extension.
Ed
Then you need a media identification utility of some sort.
I have GSpot for movies. There is another utility that is supposed
to be good for movies (don't have it bookmarked).
For still pictures, the only thing I have is the port of the "file"
command from Unix.
http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/file.htm
Some file formats, they use FourCC codes inside. But knowing
about them, or search on their values, won't necessarily bring you
any closer to an answer. You use your hex editor, and look for
readable ASCII in the file. In the hopes of finding FourCC
codes. Then Google them, to see what they correlate with.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourcc
You'd need a specification for the format, and your hex editor,
to actually determine if the thing was close to sane or not.
Even a command such as "file.exe", the port mentioned above, tries
to limit the amount of the file it reads, before determining
the type. And by refusing to read the whole file, it can't tell
you the file is "valid" or not.
You could try running a utility such as Photorec or Recuva
against the volume, but there's no guarantee that'll change
anything either. If the file is intact, but "funky", then
I doubt a recovery utility will make any difference to the
results. Photorec runs from more than one OS, and
can be run from Linux as well as Windows.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec
*******
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_image_format
"Many raw file formats, including ... SRF (Sony) ...
are based on the TIFF file format."
"These files may deviate from the TIFF standard in a number
of ways, including the use of a non-standard file header,
the inclusion of additional image tags and the encryption
of some of the tagged data."
So you could attempt parsing the file, using TIFF documentation,
and expecting some kinda FourCC exception for the Sony custom parts.
And there's nothing for SRF here.
"Digital Photography RAW formats information"
http://lclevy.free.fr/raw/
It's possible you may be able to locate the main pixmap portion
of the image. And that may bear a vague resemblance to what
you photographed. If the rest of the header sections are
damaged, there might not be ways to correct the color or whatever.
Paul
