7D RAW Question

[KobraCarry]

Is it true that when I take a JPEG + RAW photo, only the JPEG will show up in camera?

[JohnT]

Yes. The image you see on the LCD is a preview JPG based on the Picture Styles settings. What I like to do is set a custom PS with reduced saturation, contrast, etc. so that what I see is as close as possible to the unprocessed raw file. Also, setting the preview mode to AdobeRGB instead of sRGB will give a more accurate representation.

Oops, I just noticed that you said "JPEG+RAW." My suggestions above apply to if you're shooting raw only. If you're wanting a JPEG image that's usable straight out of camera, you'll need to decide on your PS settings.

[KobraCarry]

Thanks, that's what I thought. I've been fighting using RAW for some time. Not sure why. Guess I always feel my final output with JPEG looks good and RAW won't do much more. Some people say true, some say false. I need to get a few more mem cards though. My 8gig card hold nearly 1000 JPEG, but only 200 RAW!

[JohnT]

You've probably already read this in your research... A jpeg image is basically baked. That is to say that it's been processed by the camera, and while you have some room for changes in post, you don't have nearly the latitude as you do with a raw image file. With raw, you're working with pure and unprocessed data and generating your own jpeg. You lose a lot of information when you let the camera produce a final jpeg image. I will say, however, that today's DSLRs do quite a good job with jpegs if that's what you want.

[Tom]

And RAW+JPEG just takes up more memory than just RAW. The only reason to do that is if you are on a tight deadline and need to transmit a JPEG immediately, then will go back and edit the RAWs.

[zebulus]

I shoot almost exclusively in jpeg. To each his own.

[Dobick]

I have never in my life shot an image that when I saw it in the computer thought "Wow, that is as good as it is going to get!"

I believe in getting as much right as I can get right in the camera, but there are always a few small tweaks to even the best image that in my mind can improve it.

Because of that, I shoot raw, based soley upon the non-destructive edit capability. With a RAW file you can make changes without taking away data (basically giving instruction sets as to how the data is interpretted), where as with a JPG, any changes that occur removes data from the image.

All that is to say that if I was to need to shoot raw+jpg (as in immediate image transfer on sight to a 3rd party), then I will basicallyl throw those jpgs away as soon as I got home, because I have the raw -- no need to keep the extra data. If you have the raw, I can think of no reason to keep a jpg that is completely unedited and not even fully redundant.