Canon and sRAW (1 Viewer)

Hello,

I wonder what views people have about using the sRAW file type available on many Canon DSLRs and perhaps on other makes too?

For example, my 40D will taken the following numbers of frames on a 2Gig CF card:-

RAW format.......................132 frames
sRAW format......................241 frames
Large JPEG........................420 frames

It seemed to me that I could get some of the benefits of RAW without producing humungus file sizes, without extended write times etc., etc

DPP processes these sRAW files OK, as one would expect.

Are sRAW files a significant step up from JPEG or are they "fool's gold"?

I look forward to hearing people's views.

Regards

Adrian

In IQ terms they deliver most of the benefits of a full sized RAW, but really only bring one specific advantage - smaller file sizes, if that really matters to you.

As far as I can tell it takes just as long for the camera to write an sRAW to the card (it still starts as a normal RAW before the in-camera wizardry happens) and - contrary to what was originally thought about sRAW - there's no high ISO noise advantage from the format compared to RAW once you resize the bigger file to the dimensions of the smaller one (I've confirmed this to my own satisfaction).

So - really - sRAW only makes a lot of sense if you're storage/CF card space challenged, or you know you'll never, ever need a rull-res version of your images.

They're a nice option to have, but not the game-changer I'd originally thought they might be.

Some interesting analysis of the format and how it might work here: http://dougkerr.net/Pumpkin/articles/sRaw.pdf

Thanks Keith - my head hurts! (Well I have just "read" Doug Kerr's article which you kindly attached)

On balance, despite there being no apparent improvement in write speed in the camera, I feel content to stick with sRAW for the benefit of the numbers game in terms of files per card.

Regards

Adrian

Boy George said:

On balance, despite there being no apparent improvement in write speed in the camera, I feel content to stick with sRAW for the benefit of the numbers game in terms of files per card.

Click to expand...

Why don't you just buy a bigger memory card? A basic 133X 8GB Transcend Card is only £12.99 at amazon.

my view is use the best IQ you can because you just never know what might turn up or happen .
On full res you know you have the best you could have got and you still might have to crop to make the shot

On half res you would be pushing it , you can aways downsize a large file but upsizing isnt the best way to go.
Rob.

To each their own of course - I'm not going to spend Adrian's money for him - but I feel the same way as you, Rob.

Buy a bigger card? Far too obvious!?!

Thanks

Adrian

I have a 16 gb CF card in my 7D, and carry two 8 gb cards as back-up, Adrian - and I have to say that just knowing I'm unlikely to run out of card space at a crucial moment is a very comforting feeling.

I was out recently with my photography pal Mark, and - just as we'd started to get up close and personal with some waders and a couple of breeding plumage Med gulls - he realised that he was about out of card space: he had to go back to the car (a good way off) to borrow one of my spare CF cards, whereas I was able to click away to my heart's content.