RAW vs. DNG file formats

[California L33]

you can now set the camera to save in DNG instead of CRW mode with the latest CHDK from http://mighty-hoernsche.de/

I just tested this 'new' version of CHDK and like it better than the previous 'All Best' version I was using. Its display is less cluttered, and it looks like it correctly monitors the memory. (The 'All Best' didn't take into account the CRW files stored on the card and falsely displayed much more memory than actually available). There is one feature on this version that just isn't very good. That's the on board RAW>DNG processing. I did just a few tests, but the DNG files it produced had strange grain in the mid-range tones when magnified. They actually looked worse than the JPG files. The CRW files were fine, and when converted with software on my computer (dng4ps) were better than the JPGs.

EDIT: And this answers my own question. The 'processing' to create the DNG obviously messes with the data (regardless of whether it's compressing it or not) since the DNGs created by CHDK has noise not in any of the other formats, so even though it's probably wise to save DNGs (converted from some other program, for compatibility) also archiving the RAW files is probably also a good idea.