When you are taking photos with a digital camera, be it a point and shoot or a 35mm SLR, the image you capture is stored to a memory card using a particular file format. Most digital cameras offer you the ability to store files in JPEG, TIFF or RAW format.

By far the most commonly used format is JPEG. The reason it is so common is that it offers a good balance between image size and image quality. That means simply that it produces a good quality image and takes up minimal space. However the JPEG format is a lossy format. This means that it uses a mathematical formula to reduce the file size and as a consequence, some of the image quality will also be reduced.

Unlike JPEG, TIFF and RAW formats are non-lossy, meaning the entire image is saved with no loss in image quality. The downside of course is that the images are much larger. This means you can shoot and store fewer images on the same size memory card. For example, on the Nikon Coolpix 5700, a 5MB image will consume 14.5 MB as a TIFF, 1.5 MB as a JPEG and 7.8 MB as a RAW image.

A TIFF is a completely identical rendering of the image that was captured and can be viewed on most computers with the proper software. RAW images are similar to shooting a digital negative. This means that some additional post processing will be needed to view the image. A tool such as Photoshop will be necessary along with the proper plugins to handle the viewing and processing of a RAW image once it is transferred to your computer.  RAW images are great since it allows an experienced user to make changes to the photograph in the computer. Camera settings such as white balance, contrast, saturation levels, sharpening and so on are all possible to modify with a RAW image. Modification to these settings is not as easy with a JPEG or TIFF image.

Some cameras offer a compromise. For example my Nikon D80 will allow me to set it to capture both a JPEG and a RAW image each time I take a picture. That way I have the quick and dirty JPEG to enjoy and a RAW image to manipulate later. This feature is rare on most point and shoot cameras.

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