[Digikam-users] Idea for getting in camera quality jpeg conversions... was Re: Building a better raw conversion tool for digiKam ?

[Linuxguy123]

All the raw files seem to have some sort of embedded jpg image in them
that is extractable via commonly available tools. (Exiftool, exiv, etc.)
If they didn't have the embedded images, we wouldn't be able to preview
them in digiKam.

Furthermore, it seems as though a lot of people would consider the in
camera generated image as a good place to start when tweaking a raw
image - if it isn't a final image itself.

It should be possible to use the embedded image to calculate all the
image parameters to generate the jpg from the raw file such that it
matches the embedded image.

For starters, we could generate histograms.  One could then add code to
the converter that tweaked the raw generated image parameters until its
histogram matched that of the image embedded in the raw file.

By doing pixel to mapped pixel comparisons between the raw file and the
embedded file, one should also be able to generate color curves for
doing the conversion. 

Comments/ideas ?

Thanks