ProMode: has anyone been able to get an answer why Samsung destroyed RAW photo support in 2023?

[rawshooter]

Before 02/2023 with firmware CWB7 (and older) on the S22 Ultra Samsung gave us useable RAW files in ProMode:

• shadow and highlight recovery superior to the jpg

• Adobe AI De-Noise compatible

With CWCE and newer (including following devices as the S23 and S24 series) the dng files became completely obsolete, losing all the features that make a RAW photo a RAW photo. It's now just another less compressed JPG copy in a DNG container.

So far, customer support has never given a useful answer to this, so my question is: Has anyone else received a useful response?

 

[betancd]

Not sure if it answers your question but have you tried the "Lossless RAW" option within Expert RAW? I find I get much better results though file sizes are massive as RAW should be. Of course ExpertRAW photos are somewhat processed during in the app.

[rawshooter]

It has nothing to do with the question as this is not about ExpertRAW.

[CornbreadColonel]

I've been trying to figure out what the current status of Pro mode is, since all the samples available on the net are a couple months old at least. I saw that the gain numbers in the stock app don't match third party apps, which may contribute to reduced DR if not compensated for.

Since it's being demosaiced into a 12-bit file, do we know if the 16 bit files produced previously and by third party apps are truly 16 bits of data, or just 12 bit color data in a 16 bit wrapper?

I'm going to do some new tests with my s24+, hopefully figure out current answers to my questions.

[rawshooter]

@CornbreadColonel  Nothing has changed with how Samsung does it.

If you want I can provide with your third party app samples (and of course ProMode) of the S24U and an old S22U photo when it still was real raw for you to analyze.

I also still kind of have access to an S23U and S22U of people I know.