Hi all,

Does anyone use this type ? Benefits?, Is it recommended ?

Regards.

RAW is the image as the image sensor saw it, without any in-camera processing (in most cases.)

RAW files require some post processing in order to be used for anything, including printing. So if you've got a lot of photos, it can be a lot of work. Also, RAW files are big, and so take up a lot of room on your flash memory card, so you won't fit as many shots on the cards you've got. Also, it takes longer for your camera to handle RAW image files, so your shot-to-shot times might not be as fast.

I typically shoot in bursts or even continuous, so I have a lot of shots, and plodding through hundreds of RAW files can be frustrating. An alternative is to shoot RAW + JPEG, so you can examine the JPEG files to see which RAW files you want to work with, but that uses up even more space on your memory cards.

But if you want the best possible images with the most flexibility, RAW is where you'll find them (after some effort.)

Most DSLRs allow capturing both JPG and RAW images at the same time. I use this option because if the JPG doesn't work out properly, the RAW image can be processed. RAW lets you adjust saturation and exposure after the fact. In the majority of cases it's not necessary, but this method offers a "safety net".

I shoot RAW pretty much exclusively. When I first got my first DSLR last spring, I got it for shooting dog agility. The camera was a Canon Digital Rebel XTi. After 4 or 5 months, I sold it for a 40D, much better camera for me.

Anyway, back to your question. I like Raw because I have the *option* of doing things that I really can't do in jpeg, such as changing the white balance -don't ask me how I know this.:-)

Generally, I don't need to do any Post Processing of my pictures, so all I need do is download all my RAW files to a folder on my computer.
I then use Breeze Browser Pro to convert all the RAW files to jpegs for posting on the web. Simple and easy!
Note: I sometimes convert with Adobe Lightroom or Canon Digital Photo Professional, it just depends upon what I need to do.

The point is that shooting RAW need not be intimidating. I know that when I first got my camera and shot my first agility trial, I wasn't planning on shooting in RAW until I really figured out the camera, I figured that learning RAW was just one more thing.

I was really quite wrong. As I said in the beginning, shooting raw give me the ability to do practically any changes I need to do, but at the same time it's simple t o just convert to jpeg.

Joe Fisher
Kalispell, MT
Canon EOS 40D
Lots 'o' lenses, the one I use most is my Canon 70-200 f 2.8 IS L

CharlieOscarDelta wrote:

The camera RAW formats are usually named with the camera maker initial in it somewhere, .MRW for Minolta, .CRW for Canon, .PEF for Pentax, etc.

There is a format named .RAW, which is supported by some software makers, but I am not familiar with it, and I don't know if it works across software makers. I think it was an early attempt to standardize RAW formats, but didn't get much support. The closest thing I can think of that is current is Adobe's .DNG format.

An example of why one would use camera RAW is the dumb stunt I pulled on Thanksgiving. Shooting family snapshots, my mind wasn't really on photography, and when I found my external flash batteries were too weak to fire the flash, switched it off and changed my WB to the tungsten setting for indoor light. Later, replace flash batteries and forgot to reset WB. (my other camera automatically switches when flash it enabled). Got a series of shots with severe blue cast, but was able to correct easily from RAW. Have tried the same with jpeg, and it works, but not as well, as the tonal curves for the color channels are non-linear.

brian