RAW vs JPEG

I'm interested to know if there are any compact digital users who seriously use RAW underwater. My current camera does not have a RAW capture option.

I've been looking at RAW and JPEG files off both an Olympus 7070 as well as a Nikon D70s dSLR. I found the Nikon records simultaneous RAW and JPEGs impressively fast. The Olympus however seems painfully slow and I can't imagine it being very practical underwater. Perhaps other models are a bit faster?

I'm not looking for a discussion on the pro's and cons of shooting RAW vs JPEG - just whether there is anyone out there who routinely uses RAW on their compact.

I supect that for underwater work anyone serious about RAW would probably be using a dSLR instead of a compact

Anyone a view?

I ignored RAW for two years with my 5050. My bad. Now I shoot only RAW for better final control of white balance and exposure. Start shooting RAW and you will think you have a new camera!

http://www.splashdowndivers.com/photo_gall...cessing_raw.htm

http://www.splashdowndivers.com/photo_gall...ng_software.htm

I uses now mostly the D70 but from time to time I switch with my wife and use the P&S Canon S50.

With both cameras I use only RAW, is so much better so I prefer is also with the P&S although its take more time to write to the disk.

I hardly find my self in a situation when I need to 'shot in burst' so I don't find the slowness so bad.

I used a Nikon Coolpix 5000 for about two years and always shot RAW. It's just so much more flexible.

considering how poor my u/w photo skills currently are, the last thing I need to worry about is proper white balance with my Canon S70... In all seriousness, I do like the ability to adjust white balance from RAW and considering the going price of 1-2GB flash cards, storage is not an issue anymore... And with the Canon S70, I do not see any noticeable write delays between JPG and RAW in normal shooting. Nothing like the delay I see in my friend's Oly5050. You will hit the camera buffer faster but I don't find that too inconvenient. In burst mode I'm slowed down to 5 pics at a 1 sec interval with RAW before it starts saving to the flash card vs a rapid 20 shots at around 2fps sequence in jpg mode. But like the earlier post, I don't find my self using this feature much u/w.

With the Fuji F810, I shoot RAW when I have the time and memory. Besides allowing you to adjust white balance, it also gives significantly more dynamic range. With a decent RAW converter (like s7raw or Photoshop, not Fuji's converter), you can push down the highlights to recover a lot of detail which would have been lost. However, the camera becomes glacially slow (8 seconds to write an image).

However, the camera becomes glacially slow (8 seconds to write an image).

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i think someone mentioned that is only when u use a 1 gb card. writing RAW on a 512 mb card takes only half the time

i know, still "slow", but it's double quick time compared to the 1gb

Eric

while the 1gb xd card is slow you can at least get 70 images on it in the 810... a 512 (while quite a bit faster to write to) will get half (obviously). 35 images on an hours dive in somewhere like Lembeh? not gonna happen is it.....

write time obviously slower but by the time my stobes recharge it's a matter of a few seconds before I can shoot again.. not ideal but REALLY not that bad either

I have used RAW for the last 2 years with my 5050 and now with my 810. It is the only way to go to have a decent range to work on. The delay is no problem.

I take RAW with the F810. Bit of a delay but i must say it's never bothered me. Would never take JPEG's underwater

Looks like the RAW shooters have it, Trevor. Time to buy that RAW compact?

-and I thought a D100 was perhaps a bit on the slow side at writing RAW files !

I had expected the thumbs down on using RAW capture on a compact, but intersting to see that other folk disagree.

Shooting Raw is crucial to good UW Digital photography. The possibility to adjust Whitebalance manualy is IMHO very important. that chages you can do to a JPEG in PS to adjust this are not very good compared to the results you can get in a RAW converter.

I think this is the #1 feature you should look for when buing a Camera for UW

I started using RAW with my C5050 earlier this year. What a difference. I am not concerned with write times because I don't shoot in bursts. One at a time is hard enough for me, let alone doing several at once. I haven't taken many underwater pictures yet, since shoulder surgery curtailed my diving this summer. But I do practice with it a lot. I use a 1GB compact flash card for storage and I use PS CS2 for processing.

I am amazed to find that I have had two Pic O' the Weeks: both taken with a Nikon Coolpix 5000 as RAW files, and Adobe'ed afterwards. The flexibility in processing was great, but the write times (over 2 seconds) horrendous. The Mako shark put its nose on my dome (!!), but the buffer was full...

... so now I don't have a Coolpix 5000 in a lovely Subal housing, but a Nikon D70 in an almost equally lovely Nexus.

The difficult choice was hitting the peak of the action, or quality in the digital darkroom. If you can get both, I would shoot RAW. Others shoot jpegs, knowing how to set up an optimum shot in the camera (lots of pros eschew the post-processing time taken up by RAW files). Some things make this easier, and filters for shallow-water ambient light shots seem to be one of the best things. I am now pretty sure that DSLRs are THE best thing, I'm sorry to say.

Tim

B)

Some of the comments about shooting RAW files seem to be rather extreme, such as "Shooting Raw is crucial to good UW Digital photography" and "It is the only way to go to have a decent range to work on".

I used a Nikon CP500 for 2 years and I very very rarely shot RAW. I managed to get enough good photos by shooting high res jpegs and then editing with levels etc in photoshop. With a write time of 13+ seconds on the CP5000 why would I bother with RAW because you basically get 1 shot before your subject has swum away or moved from the position that you wanted it in.

I recently upgraded to the CP8400 and whilst the RAW function on it is very good and the write speed is quicker (about 7 secs) I still only shoot using high res jpeg. I'm still not convinced that you must shoot RAW to get better control over your image - if you have to spend all your time on a computer adjusting your RAW files then perhaps you might be better off getting your exposure and white balance correct in the first place. About the only time I'd shoot RAW now if if I'm shooting natural light at depth on subjects such as wrecks b/c I know that they arn't going to move in the 7 secs it takes to write the image!

RAW does have it's benefits but its defiently not essential on the compact digi cams....

- Just been reading a few other posts and a few folk mention that RAW write times are faster on 512MB cards than 1GB cards. - What's that all about then?

Is this really the case? - Anyone care to educate me?

Hmmm, not sure about that. I do find my system writes more quickly to a Lexar x80 2GB than it does to a 1GB microdrive. But I guess that is not surprising. I suspect it depends on the card.

Even if you don't see yourself fiddling with WB or otherwise getting the benefit of RAW files, an argument can be made that shooting RAW is justified SOLELY in case you happen to get that ONE PERFECT shot. In that case, you'll want the highest possible quality AND the maximum ability to tweak the photo for printing and/or publication. I now use a DSLR and always shoot RAW (+Med JPG), but even when I was using my Coolpix 5000, I always shot RAW, even though I only got a handful (out of thousands!) of shots that I decided actually warranted having RAW files (for most stuff, JPGs are sufficient).

I remember an uw photo course I took where the teacher repeatedly said, "Dive trips are expensive, film is cheap -- never skimp on film to save money." The same can be said for digital storage: dive trips are expensive/CF cards are cheap (by comparison). Get the biggest card your camera can use and you can reasonably afford (at least 2gb or 4gb), and then you'll be able to shoot everything underwater in RAW.