What is "RAW"?

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RAW is all of the electronic information recorded on your camera's sensor when the light received from the lens hits it. Most cameras record compressed formats, such as JPEG. The camera sorts out what it thinks is the best picture based on it's automatic settings or the settings you have provided. It throws out the rest to save room on your memory card and process the information more quickly. Cameras that shoot in RAW format keep the whole file. You then use a RAW conversion program to edit the picture you want and convert it to a compressed format such as JPEG or BMP, or a lossless format such as TIFF.
 
A raw image file (sometimes written RAW image file) contains minimally processed data from the image sensor of a digital camera. If you are shooting high end photographs, this is generally the format you want to shoot. The RAW photos are converted to TIFF and/or JPEG for further clean-up or processing.

Each camera manufacturer has their own version of RAW, and you need the appropriate converter in programs like Photoshop or Elements to process the image.

If you are taking point and shoot, you might not want to use RAW settings. It you have a DSLR with a large sensor (this is what is most important in digital photography, not the megapixl count used by the marketing folks), then you might want to get into shooting RAW.

Hope this helps,

Dan
 
If you are taking point and shoot, you might not want to use RAW settings. It you have a DSLR with a large sensor (this is what is most important in digital photography, not the megapixl count used by the marketing folks), then you might want to get into shooting RAW.
Dan

FWIW RAW is just as useful if not more so on a P & S. Main attribute for underwater shooting is that you can color balance the picture after the fact, instead of having to use manual color balance that needs to be adjusted every 5 or 10 feet. Unfortunately, point and shoot processors aren't nearly as powerful as those on DSLR's, so it can take as much as 10 seconds to process a RAW file, which is 3-5 times the size of a JPEG. The plus side of using RAW is that I've managed to save decent pictures out of some stuff that was totally underexposed because the strobe didn't fire, or it was behind a rock or some kelp. Try that with a JPEG and all you get is a grainy shadow of something that might be your subject.
 
Raw was made in 1987, and is very funny, but the language is a bit harsh! :crafty:

The RAW format is the unprocessed image from a digital sensor. All camera's produce RAW images, but unfortunately many do not store this format.

RAW is a very useful format, a digital negative so to speak. Using tools like PS, one can change things like WB, sharpness, Hue, etc. The only downside of RAW is image size.

Most DSLR's make the RAW format available to photographers, but RAW is something that appears to be getting less support in high end consumer rangefinder type cameras.
 
Out of curiousity, can the nikon coolpix L11 shoot in raw? I do not think it can from a google search?
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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