1st Edition
This article explains raw digital photography formats and programming information.
Finer control over digital processing, etc.
Raw files concerned with photography are formats that tend to contain information that is closely tied with the state of camera's sensors, and different manufacturers have different formats for this. These formats are distinct from generic raw graphics formats in that the information is generally centered around a bayer pattern of cells prior to any DSP being applied to it instead of color channel values in some color space.
For developers, there are some libraries available in various licenses to handle Raw camera data, which are listed below.
Article Disclaimer: Please note that I am not the person, and I’m not involved with the one(s), who made the raw formats described in the article. The information presented here is at most a description of how a raw file looks like and how to read it based on my experimentation and experience.