I'm a bit confused...

[Omag 2.0]

I'm always looking on how to improve my shots and one thing I never thought of is shooting in raw mode. So I read about it and thought it would be nice to try, once I have a bigger memory-card ( 1 gig at least).

However, on reading my camera's specs, I'm starting to believe it doesn't have a raw-mode.

Al the resolutions are jpegs and the highest is a tiff-file.

An other article stated that raw-files are stored as tiffs or another format ( forgot the extension).

So... is this tiff format raw-mode or not? The shots are about 5Mb and it remembers how you hold your camera when shooting, so it's displayed the correct way when viewed on screen. Jpeg's don't do this...

Am I making any sense here?  ;D

Omag ... as Confucius said... i'm confused!

[Hagar]

I just checked the spec of your camera & I think TIFF is the best you can do. This is not exactly RAW format as the camera converts the data into TIFF format instead of you doing it using separate software.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A raw image file contains minimally processed data from the image sensor of a digital camera or image scanner. Raw (as in not yet "cooked") files are so named because they are not yet processed and ready to use by a bitmap graphics editor, printed, or displayed by a typical web browser. The image must be processed and converted to an RGB format such as TIFF or JPEG before it can be manipulated.

PS. I think this is your camera. http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/fz7_pg2.html
Image quality menus at bottom of page.

[Omag 2.0]

Actually it's the FZ5 instead of the FZ7 ... but they are quite similar!  ;D

Thanks, the whole thing got me puzzled... I still don't understand what advantages the tiff-format would offer me... There has to be more than just filling up my memorycard at an insane speed...

I'll have to do some more research...

[Hagar]

Basically the TIFF format gives a high quality, high definition image. The normal JPEG format is compressed which saves memory but obviously reduces the image quality. It really depends on what you want to do with the images. For example; I don't see the point of using TIFF format for the images we post here on the forum.

The pros I speak to recommend using RAW format as this gives you much more to play with when post-processing the images. I suspect that only a pro would be able to use it properly or tell the difference.

PS. It's similar to the difference between a screenshot in BMP format converted to JPEG for posting here.

[Omag 2.0]

My goal is to reach the highest quality of photo's possible keeping my camera's limitations in mind.

I like to post my aircraft-shots on airliners.be - where they allow bigger photo's. So if tiff allows me to tweak my shots without the usual jpeg-quality loss BEFORE I turn the final result into a jpeg, the quality should be better right?

If not, i shouldn't even try, cause it asks a lot of space, both on HD and memory-card.

[Hagar]

My goal is to reach the highest quality of photo's possible keeping my camera's limitations in mind.

I like to post my aircraft-shots on airliners.be - where they allow bigger photo's. So if tiff allows me to tweak my shots without the usual jpeg-quality loss BEFORE I turn the final result into a jpeg, the quality should be better right?

Right. That's the way I understand it. Can't hurt to give it a try. That's the beauty of digital photography.

[Rifleman]

From my 25 or so years of printing industry experience.....I ran presses for almost all of those years, but I started as a cameraman doing basic darkroom photography in a silk-screen printing house.

RAW mode is the information which the camera sends to its own internal processor to save, after seeing it with its sensor (CCD or CMOS).

[Omag 2.0]

Don't feel sorry Ken, I'm simply trying to understand my camera!  ;)

Thanks for the explanations, I'm always inclined to believe you to and certainly Ken, now he says he has been in the business...

Cheers,

Kris

[Hagar]

This article might help explain it Kris. http://www.nikonians.org/html/resources/guides/digital/jpeg_tiff_or_raw_4.html

I don't think you have the RAW mode option on your camera so TIFF is the next best.