[cosus]

So... I got my first digital camera. My previous camera was that on my cellphone (which I rarely used) and my venerable Canon A-1, which I only did black & white photography with and is entirely inadequate for work. I decided to try for something simpler and got a point and shoot camera, the Nikon Coolpix P6000, due to an obsession with the idea of geotagging now, as per a thread I made in purchase forum.

Now, my question is what's the difference of RAW and JPEG? More so, should I generally be using one over the other? Just FYI, the extent of my digital image editing is dodging and burning, ie. none. As far as I can tell, iphoto is compatible with the raw format, NRW, that this camera uses.

So... as I started, what should I do?

[chucker]

RAW is a term for an image format (Nicon's NRW, in your case) that contains the raw(duh) lens data. Compared to JPEG, two forms of data loss don't occur: JPEG's compression is lossy (in order to save a lot of space), and JPEG also has the lens data already rendered to individual pixels. Both are mostly relevant during editing — for example, when changing the white balance. With JPEG, the existing pixels have to be altered, which causes further loss of quality, whereas with RAW, you can regenerate the pixels from scratch with the new intended setting.

[Luca]

If you don't know whether you need RAW or not, you don't. Just use JPEG - chances are most of your images will be shrunk down much smaller and converted into JPEGs anyway.

[dmegatool]

Chucker pretty much explained what's the difference between the 2 format. I would suggest to use RAW as much as possible. This isn't a prefossionnal camera and you're not a professional either so you're picture will pretty much always need some editing. It's really impressive the improvement you can bring with RAW... it's really flexible.

You could shoot RAW+JPG at the same time. So if you're not home and on a PC that doesn't have photoshop or something that handle RAW, you're not fucked. When you're home, you jsut import/edit them with iPhoto and it's fine.

Edit : But as Luca pointed, if you don't care that much about editing, don't bother with RAWs

[cosus]

Sweet, thanks a bunch guys.

[curiousuburb]

RAW files will be much larger than JPEG (which may have a few default settings with various compression ratios, but is always at least 2 to 1), so - until you get larger memory cards - you may want to compare the storage rates and quality at each setting.

[dmegatool]

But storage get so cheap. They give free 8g SD cards when you buy a 2L of milk at the convenient store...

On a serious note, just to mention that I got a 4gb and a 2gb card. I never run out of space and rarely use the 2nd one. I got the 4gb card with a card reader for 50$ more than a year ago.... I'ts probably cheaper now.

[turtle]

Shoot in RAW when you can. While it is a larger file type it gives you the most flexibility and abilities. If you screwup your white balance settings with JPG you're pretty much stuck. When shooting in RAW it doesn't matter what your camera thinks the image should look like it's only going to write the unaltered data to your card.

Think of it this way, which would be better at interpreting a picture, your computer or the camera? If you choose JPEG then you're letting your camera decide. If it's wrong then there is little you can do about it. If you shoot in RAW then your camera's choice is irrelevant.

[cosus]

I think I'll be going with RAW. I got an 8GB card and having it say I have 2500 pictures to take makes me feel bad.

In anycase, this has become a moot point, the battery was defective as was the GPS component of the camera and I wanted it for tomorrow... so here's hoping that Saturday shipping comes in on time.

Not really important in this case, but I want to take pictures of my Vegas trip even if they don't allow you to take pictures in casinos.

[Luca]

Nowadays you should be able to order 16 GB of flash memory for ~$25 or 32 GB for ~$60, so maybe RAW does make sense.

[spinnerlys]

"cosus: I think I'll be going with RAW. I got an 8GB card and having it say I have 2500 pictures to take makes me feel bad."

If you can take 2500 pictures with an 8 GB card, every picture will take 3.3 MB of space, so the image format will be JPEG.
RAW will take up 12-19 MB per picture.

I used to have the Canon Powershot G9, which is in the same league as your camera, and I specifically chose it to record in RAW, as you are more flexible with the images.
The downside of course is, that they take up more space, but in times of 1TB drives for around 100€ it shan't matter.

[PB PM]

Yeah, I don't think you'll be getting 2500 RAW shots on a 8GB card, maybe 600-650. I can get over just 320 (10MP) RAW images out of a 4GB card, so you should get just about double that depending on how many MP your camera is.

[Taskiss]

Originally Posted by cosus I think I'll be going with RAW. I got an 8GB card and having it say I have 2500 pictures to take makes me feel bad. In anycase, this has become a moot point, the battery was defective as was the GPS component of the camera and I wanted it for tomorrow... so here's hoping that Saturday shipping comes in on time. Not really important in this case, but I want to take pictures of my Vegas trip even if they don't allow you to take pictures in casinos.

I took pics everywhere in Vegas...No one said a thing, and I even carried a huge "I'm a tourist" camera 'round my neck the whole time, not one of the little mini ones.

[cosus]

Lets me take 360, a number I'm very happy with. But the Encore and Bellagio tends to be asses about taking pictures.