Nikon Coolpix P-1000 Shoot raw or jpeg? (2 Viewers)

[Danielbirdwatcher]

I just got the camera and she is charging but my question is this camera shoots in the raw my P-900 didn't with Bird Photography should I shoot in the Raw or would it make any difference since this is a bridge Camera? The real reason I bought the camera is for the massive lens. If anyone can intervene I would appreciate it.

 

[dixonlau]

Shoot both RAW & JPG. JPG as quick reference, browsing, quick sharing. Later, for some shots you would like to recover some shadows or would like to further process the photo, you can edit the RAW file. Unless you are very sure you won't want to do any post-processing, then you can leave RAW file option out.

 

[PaulCountyDurham]

I just got the camera and she is charging but my question is this camera shoots in the raw my P-900 didn't with Bird Photography should I shoot in the Raw or would it make any difference since this is a bridge Camera? The real reason I bought the camera is for the massive lens. If anyone can intervene I would appreciate it.

I did a lot of experimenting and I just don't see any difference, Daniel, although I did a lot of reading and more seasoned photographers swear blind that there is more detail in a RAW image.

I personally find other photo editing options much more useful than RAW.

Edited to add: I find a JPEG image to be just as good for photo editing.

 

[MikeInPA]

Its an indisputable fact that there is more data in a RAW file than in a JPG wether you can see the difference or not. A RAW file is a lossless format, a JPG is not, meaning that every time you save a JPG you loose a little data, not so with a RAW. A downside of RAW is that to get the best out of it you need to get to grips with post processing software to be able to display or print.

 

[Mono]

A few thoughts...

RAW is good if:-
You enjoy messing about on computers.
You take images in fast changing conditions where you can't bracket or shoot test images.
You are shooting for high end print.

RAW will only yield better results if you do post-processing. If you just "develop" your RAW with the suggested settings you are only doing what camera does in its jpg conversion.

Cards are cheap so you can try shooting RAW+jpg. If you are unsatisfied with the camera jpg then you can experiment with post-processing. If you find yourself happy with the jpgs then just delete the RAW version.

RAW is not a substitute for taking a decent photo in the first place. Practice taking photos and using the camera settings to get the best exposure. A good jpg straight off the camera is much preferable to a poor RAW you need to post-process.

Content is king! People judge photos first by content, then by composition and finally by technicalites of exposure, sharpness and noise.

I have 3 friends who are professional photographers and none shoot RAW except when shooting for high end print.

 

[MikeInPA]

You take images in fast changing conditions where you can't bracket or shoot test images.

You’ve just described bird photography.

 

[rezMole]

Remember also, when shooting Jpeg, your camera will do some processing of the image. When shooting Raw, it won't. You will nearly always have to sharpen the image slightly when shooting Raw. Personally, I always shoot Raw. There are numerous advantages (more data captured, easy to adjust white balance, easier to recover exposure errors, etc.).

 

[Musoman]

All digital photos start out as raw data.
If you are shooting JPEG the camera converts the raw data to a viewable image before storing it on the memory card. If you are shooting raw the camera saves the raw data to the memory card. But the camera also processes the raw data and creates a jpeg preview image and attaches it to the raw file. When you look at the picture on your camera's LCD screen, that is always what you are viewing

You can't really view a RAW image, because a RAW file is not much of a viewable image. It is a set of linear monochrome luminance values that has not had gamma correction, other light curves, demosaicing, etc. applied. When the data is converted to RGB using demosaicing certain settings such as gamma, contrast, color balance and temperature, saturation, etc. are applied.

 

[Gzoladz74]

I shoot mainly jpeg and it does well for me. However, in cases where I anticipate I may need to recover "extremes" i.e. highlights or shadows in birds in flight, or it is a very desirable target, I would shoot raw to have more data to play with, in case I need it.

Needless to say, this is when I have the time to change the settings....

 

[Gzoladz74]

I walked around with the camera on birdwatching mode, hence only jpeg. But I have it set to raw in case I use any of the other modes i.e. S or P. If I like a pic a lot and have a raw file, I will try use it. When I do night photograpyhy (i.e. badgers) and/or use the P1000 for camera trapping I set it to raw.