1 Raw16

1.1 Format Specifications

no header, little endian, 16bit (12msb padded with 4lsb zeroes)
starting at the top left, with 3072 rows of 4096 columns
the data is in bayer pattern RG/GB
optional image sensor registers dump (128 x 16bit, big endian) appended

RAW12 uses less space than RAW16 but contains identical image data and has no downsides. So we recommend using RAW12 instead (see below).

1.2 Opening in Photoshop

rename the file extension from ".raw16" to ".raw"

1.2.1 Samples

XZ compressed sample files (use 7Zip to uncompress under windows: http://www.7-zip.org/)

http://vserver.13thfloor.at/Stuff/AXIOM/ALPHA/RAW/

1.2.2 Metadata block

To display the metadata from a raw16 file:

cat image.raw16 | dd bs=256 skip=98304 | ./metadatareader

The DNG converter expects the register block to be present so if it has not been saved with the image in camera:

To append an empty metadata block (sensor registers):

(cat old.raw16; dd if=/dev/zero bs=256 count=1) > new.raw16

To append an existing register block dumped into a file:

cat old.raw16 some.reg > new.raw16

2 RAW12

2.1 Format Specifications

no header, little endian, 12bit (leaves out the 4 lsb zeros of RAW16)
starting at the top left, with 3072 rows of 4096 columns
the data is in bayer pattern RG/GB
optional image sensor registers dump (128 x 16bit, big endian) appended

2.2 Samples

http://files.apertus.org/AXIOM-Beta/snapshots/

2.3 Quick debayer

cat test.raw12 | convert \( -size 4096x3072 -depth 12 gray:- \) \( -clone 0 -crop -1-1 \) \( -clone 0 -crop -1+0 \) \( -clone 0 -crop +0-1 \) -sample 2048x1536 \( -clone 2,3 -average \) -delete 2,3 -swap 0,1 +swap -combine test_color.png

2.4 Conversion to RAW16

Convert RAW12 -> RAW16 with imagemagick:

convert -size 4096x3072 -depth 12 gray:input.raw12 -depth 16 gray:output.raw16

2.5 Conversion to DNG

Convert RAW12 -> DNG with raw2dng:

raw2dng file.raw12

Output will be file.DNG; width is assumed 4096, height is auto-detected from file size. For more options, run raw2dng without any arguments.

2.6 Metadata handling

Show metadata from a raw12 file (without converting it):

raw2dng file.raw12 --dump-regs

or, with metadatareader:

cat image.raw12 | dd bs=256 skip=73728 | ./metadatareader