For example when doing focus stacking, I would prefer the following workflow:
- demosaic image to linear DNG (still a raw file), with no distortion correction and no capture sharpening (I use a 3rd party, non C1 program to do this step)
- stack those images in some 3rd party software that can stitch raw files, like HeliconFocus
- apply sharpening and perhaps distortion correction after stitching
Basically each step depends on the results of the previous step and can't proceed until the precending step has completed. I can do thise steps manually, but I wish there was a way the software could keep track of all this on its own. Also the intermediary DNG files are of no use to me after HeliconFocus returns. It would be great if the software would know to delete these intermediary files.
However, it seems the recipe feature of C1 is designed for something else, mostly for producing final files. Not only it can't keep track of dependencies, but it lacks other features that I would need to make use of it this way, like the ability to run some 3rd party program on the files.
I would be happy if C1 could generate the DNG for me, so I wouldn't need to use some other tool, but C1 can't do that, AFAICT. C1 will happily encode an image into a DNG container, but it lacks the ability of generating a trully scene-referred file with no color translation. Also, in case you are wondering why I don't let Helicon Focus do the raw processing, it's because I would lack control over it.
This is mostly academical. Currently I don't use C1 at all, but I am evaluating whether it would make sense for me to start using it.