Techniques for storing and translating digital images of different native formats in a way that makes it unnecessary for independent manufactures of imaging devices such as digital cameras to agree on factors related to production/capture and processing of the images. Image data in a native format and an associated method are combined as part of an image object, within the meaning of classical object-oriented technology, and transferred to the host system. An abstract machine, such as a virtual machine, in the host system acts as a virtual image processor and executes the method to obtain image data in a common format. The method in each image object operates on its corresponding image data to yield an image in a common format.