I was reading about the Canon EOS professional cameras and they claim the abilitiy to write both RAW and Jpeg data for each shot taken.

Naturally this would take a large amount of space, but I was wondering as I am new to digital photography if this would enable me to determine the value of a RAW file for what I would like to use the camera for.

That is, for a general picture is the investment of time to process the RAW file and prepare for printing significant when compared to the time to print a JPEG and does it produce a visual difference? Having both files for the same shot would allow me to judge this.

As I understand it, RAW allows for putting details out of over and underexposed areas. Not sure if I will be needing this a lot or if it would be a timesink for me.

yes. the nikon d70 can write nef (raw) and jpeg files at the same time.

The D70 can write RAW and JPG files at the same time but only woith the lowest quality JPG setting. These would not be particualry good for printing.

RAW files do not necessarily take a great deal of post processing. I downloaded Nikon View, free from the Nikon website, this does a better job than the supplied Picture Project and in my opinion does a better job of processing the RAW files than Photoshop if everything is about right with the photo. It creates pictures very similar to the JPG files with very little effort. Photoshop is much better for processing the RAW files if you need or want to make adjustments.

Thank you guys. I will probably go with both the free Nikon software for those pics that are good and do not need adjustment, but would also like the PS software to learn digital darkroom techniques as well as to enchance photos which do not have great WB or other issues.



Given that, which version of PS is best for a beginner PS or 7.0? What is the main difference between them?



thanks

I think photoshop elements has enough in to get started whereas CS probably has more functions than you'll ever need. However you need CS to get the brilliant Adobe RAW converter. So I think it really has to be CS.

If your going to work w/ D70 RAW files, try Nikon Capture. You can download a trial version from Nikon USA. And even upgrade the trial version to the latest version. It's a 30 day trial. But in 30 days I think you can get the idea as to if you like it or not. And it's free.

I also recently saw this site.

http://drchung.new21.net/previewextractor/

There is a free program on this site that is said to extract a JPG FINE from a Nikon RAW file. I have not tried it, but have read a few good reviews.

Where did you see that Nikon capture was free?

I though it was $99?

Because of the price, I ended up using corel/pixmantec Raw shooter which is ok for the price (free download).

However, I still feel that Capture offers more but not $99 more...my two cents..

Free for 30 days...