DNG Converter Throwing Away Data from Panasonic RW2

[Guest]

When converting a raw RW2 file from a Panasonic camera, DNG converter (latest version 9.9) clips away 8 pixels on the right side. This produces problems when using the DNG as input to other programs, e.g. DxXO or RawTherapee. The effect is as follows:

1. original RW2 file from camera is reported by dcraw, PhotoNinja, RawDigger, XnView as 5488 x 3664. dcraw can extract raw data to images 5488 pixels wide.
2. converted DNG is reported by dcraw, PhotoNinja, RawDigger or XnView as 5480 x 3664. dcraw can extract raw data to images only 5480 pixels wide, i.e. 8 pixels missing.
3. in-camera JPGs are 5472 x 3648 (i.e. 8 px border compared to raw data)
4. From original RW2 DxO creates a JPEG in the size 5472 x 3648
5. From converted DNG DxO creates a JPEG in the size 5464 x 3648 (8 pixels missing). Image differs from JPEG created based on original not only by size but also in corrections. Difference between original file and DNG-based increase from left side of image to the right . Maybe this is due to lens correction formulas applied based on a wrong data width.
6. Lightroom (trial version) creates 5472 x 3648 JPEG from both RW2 and DNG
7. Exiftool reports an ActiveArea of "0 0 3664 5480" (height is same as raw sensor, width is not? ). Changing this value either produces no effect or leads to an unreadable file (depending on application).

This is a somewhat unsatisfying situation as I am faced with 8 pixels on the right border being thrown away and some distortion in the final JPEGs compared to a native workflow.

In my understanding, a conversion to DNG should not modify the underlying raw data. As DNG is propagated as an interchangeable archive format, it should also properly represent all raw data for all applications, not only Lightroom. This looks somewhat similar to the problem addressed in DNG Converter clips Pentax PEF images some 8 years ago (without resulting in a proper resolution for the problem).

Any suggestions where I may have done something wrong myself which might have caused the problems? Or is it a bug in DNG converter?

[JP Hess]

I am having to go back in my memory quite a while to respond to this one, so please bear with me. Hopefully, some of the experts will see my comments and help me out. There is a utility available somewhere (I used to have it) that allows you to recover "lost" pixels. I thought this was a pretty cool idea so I would run this utility on all of my images. The 8 or so pixels that were recovered by the utility didn't really gain anything that I could see, so I eventually stopped using it. But I think the DNG converter creates images that are the dimensions that are published for the camera. I don't believe you are really losing anything.