(08-14-2009 08:27 PM)jeffery Wrote: [ -> ]RAW 100%. The way i see it, i spent $3000 on a camera so i'm going to squeeze every bit of image quality i can out of it.
that's quite a good point
but then i guess there are probably lots of people who have bought a D300 or D700 and will only ever use it in P mode..
The problem with RAW is sometimes workflow. I use to shoot RAW only with Canon, but I find the Nikon JPG to look so good out of camera! I still shoot RAW for portraits etc, I also agree the extra IQ from RAW is great. But the extra time I spend converting to JPG then edit, is a little tiresome, so for me, RAW sometimes and JPG sometimes, and sometimes BOTH at the same time! haha
Yes RAW workflow may be a bit of a headache for some. But back in the days of D50, RAW is pretty much a must. At ISO 1600, the difference was night & day! D50 had (& still has in my opinion) the best high ISO performance, you could easily confuse ISO 1600 for ISO 400 at times. However, to extract that level of quality you need to shoot RAW. The gap between JPEG & RAW still exist in the new generations of DSLRs unfortunately.
Just on a little side note, What do you guys use to open your RAW files? I need something thats proven and trusted (last time i just got a bunch of sh*t programs that didn't work well)
ACR - Adobe Camera Raw
Capture NX2
I use both those. Sometimes I use Lightroom 2. But I am useless at post processing, so I do all my adjustments in one of the above then convert to JPG then edit in Photoshop CS3. I know some software out there that will do everything within, but I am old school.
Hope this helps.
Thanks Ming, I'll download one of those programs now!
If you want to batch process files, Lightroom is best.
If you want maximum picture quality, Nikon Capture NX2 is your friend.
I haven't check the current price of the NX2 but lightroom is not cheap at all