Camel is payload-agnostic. This means that it can support any kind of message. Depending on the endpoints, it could be required to convert from one format to another. That's why Camel supports different data formats, in a pluggable way. This means that Camel can marshall or unmarshall a message in a given format. For instance, in addition to the standard JVM serialization, Camel natively supports Avro, JSON, protobuf, JAXB, XmlBeans, XStream, JiBX, SOAP, and so on.

Depending on the endpoints and your need, you can explicitly define the data format during the processing of the message. On the other hand, Camel knows the expected format and type of endpoints. Thanks to this, Camel looks for a type converter, allowing to implicitly transform a message from one format to another.

You can also explicitly define the type converter of your choice at some points during the processing of the message. Camel provides a set of ready-to-use type converters, but, as Camel supports a pluggable model, you can extend it by providing your own type converters. It's a simple POJO to implement.