Ipernity is dedicated to photos (and also to videos). But in fact, you can upload any file type to ipernity - just like you used to upload to the other cloud storage services (Google drive, One Drive, Drop Box etc.).

There is no mirroring and synchronization with your local drive. OK. That's fine, ipernity has no ambition to be the second Drop Box.
You are also limited by the maximum file file size you are allowed to upload: 30 MB for free accounts, 512 MB for club members - good enough for big zip archives, but not enough to upload complete CD or DVDs).
And you are also limited in access to these uploaded files: the free members cannot download them back, the "clubers" can - and they can even control (in some extent) who can download their file too! But again - ipernity's purpose is not a general file sharing like Megaupload, Rapidshare, Rapidgator etc. are.

I tried to upload different file types, using the standard ipernity uploader (link: + Upload photos). Usually, the uploaded files were placed into Docs section and their icon appearance represents their file type. So far so good...

I was really surprised when I tried to upload RAW file from my Olympus camera to ipernity. It was not saved as general document with .ORF extension and file type, but it was treated like regular photo!

That's pretty cool. Photos in RAW image format are camera vendor and model specific. They don't even have unified filetype extension. Basic image viewers (installed with the operating system) and even very basic photo editing software cannot display photos in RAW formats correctly - or they don't display them at all! Often you have to experiment with some plugins supplied with your camera producer, or to install Adobe DNG converter plugin. These plugins can eventually help your application software to understand your specific RAW format (but again: not all applications detect and can use installed RAW plugins). And even with RAW plugin installed, your results can be poor: I have a very bad experience and a hard time with "Microsoft digital camera codec pack". This plugin from Microsoft came as an automatically installed update for Win 8 and effectively disabled correctly installed Adobe DNG converter. Result was: blurry photos in strange colours. It took me some time to find the cause of troubles, to remove this Microsoft "helper" and effectively disable future automatic updates and installation of this pack.

But back to topic:
Ipernity has quite unique feature to display RAW photos. I've never seen any online software having this ability. The quality of display was very good (in the test case using RAW photo made by my old Olympus C5060 WZ). When comparing full screen display on ipernity and with display using my photo editing application Zoner (supported by Adobe DNG converter) - I saw little, little bit more details in Zoner. Some photos seems to be darker when displayed in browser on ipernity. But it was almost impossible to differentiate... Here are some examples:

RAW (.ORF from Olympus C5060 WZ) file uploaded directly to ipernity


RAW file opened in Zoner Photo Studio and saved into .JPG without any further processing. Saved .JPG uploaded to ipernity. Photo is without any doubt a bit brighter.


Processed image. RAW opened in Zoner Photo Studio RAW converter, processed (including some pseudo-HDR shadows and lights adjustment) and saved to .JPG. This is not the part of the test - it only demonstrates, how can be a dark photo "rescued" using RAW edit module.



Other example of .ORF RAW uploaded directly to ipernity



RAW file opened in Zoner Photo Studio and saved into .JPG without any further processing. Saved .JPG uploaded to ipernity. Photo is again slightly brighter (but not so much as in previous example) and is more crispy.


Looks like ipernity does not use same RAW converter as I use with Zoner, or it can be browser issue.

RAW photos on ipernity cannot be edited (touch up with Pic monkey). But - they are the RAWs, so... huh? Non editable by it's nature. But you can use the funny trick inserting comments into the RAW photo... or other pictures (Picture in picture feature).

If you are club member and plan a long time relationship with ipernity... ipernity can be your online and backup storage not only for JPGs, but also for RAWs!

With ability to download your RAW back (exactly same copy of what you have uploaded), display it almost correctly... and controling the access to the RAW file for other users - it gives you a good option to use ipernity also as backup archive of your RAWs!

So... +1 for Ipernity!

And what's your experience with your RAWs? Are you satisfied with conversion quality? Share your thoughts and experience in the discussion!

Update:
Ipernity user ୱ Kiezkickerde ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) verified that not all the RAW types are supported. At least his .RAF file from Fujifilm Finepix S5600 was treated like general binary file.