Newbie ramblings...

[floradoragirl]

back on topic - I've shot a few times in RAW but a) it fills the card too quickly like Ray says, b) My computer really struggles to handle the files - apps are notably slower when I'm working on RAW files than when in jpegs ...and, since I'm unlikely to be doing any large format printing, at the moment, I only shoot RAW for work things now.

Of course if someone ever gives me a G5 with a large screen, then maybe it'd be different.

[adalberto_tiburzi]

In my opinion, to shoot RAW does not mean "better quality" in a flat sense. Good jpegs are equivalent.
But in RAW you can choose white balance, exposure, contrast, saturation, sharpness AFTER having taken the photo independently from camera settings.
This the real, great advantage of RAW, you can get a good jpeg at your computer in most cases, without being distracted by silly tech problems in the instant of the shot.

[cjburianek]

Wow thanks for all the feedback!

Several of you mentioned that it fills up the card too quick just how big are these files??? (Raw compared to a comperable JPG for the same camera.)

I think the slowest I've ever had PS go... umm crawl... was with working on a 21 image panorama (about a 300MB file)

Going into a shop and holding them and getting the feel of each is a good idea will have to figure out a good place to do that as there isn't anything locally. Perhaps a trip to NYC or Boston is in order or check something out while I'm in Tucson next week... Still mentally flip flopping between the Pentax/Nikon... though haven't completely ruled out Canon...

Another question - how much of your post processing do you typically state on the site? What do you like to see on other's photos? (as far as what has been done post processing wise)

For the most part I've done up horizontal and vertical actions to make the frames on the shots I've been posting. With the F717 it works out to be a resample down to 32%. I run the action, add the title, location, date info and then post. Occassionally, I've ran "Neat Image" if the shot is really noisy and/or a bit of curves to correct levels and such. Rarer yet some cropping... Thoughts??

CJ

[senorcarnival]

I don't have a DSLR, but I only shoot in RAW when it's something magnificent, like a rainbow or a sunset, something that could use all the possible tools to enhance the image. For everyday, I'll just use it in regular resolution.

[floradoragirl]

Using a D70 with a 521 mb card- shooting at Fine quality with a large size file, I'll get 118 shots per card. 232 shots if I put it on Normal quality (which is where I keep it for most use) If I shoot on Raw I get 38 Shots, 35 if I shoot on RAW with a basic jpeg as well. It's almost comparable to a roll of film.

[minirecif]

I'm a bit surprised cause a D100 with 512 can handle 51 pics with uncompressed RAW (about 100) with compressed RAW. (drawbacks of compressed raw is the compression time the D100 needs before writing to the card. This makes the D100 much much slower).

Recently, I bought a 1GB CF card (which is now pretty cheap) and i can shoot 102 uncompressed RAW on the card, 200 if compressed !

[cjburianek]

Well after talking to a few people in AZ and checking out some digital SLRs.. I think I've decided on the new Nikon D70S I had decided on the D70 but upon getting home I found out that Nikon is retiring it for the new D70s...
Now to save up for it!