Originally posted by Rondec I read the article. I agree with him that out of camera jpegs have gotten pretty decent. The thing is that all of his images in the article could probably have been shot with the jpeg engine of a K10 too. They are images that are black and white and do not have high dynamic range.
The whole issue I have with the RAW versus jpeg debate (which probably has little to do with this thread) is that if I am going to do anything to my image -- a slight crop or bump the shadows at all -- then I am better off shooting RAW. With Lightroom it takes minimal time to do adjustments on images -- it takes me more time to cull my images than to post process them.
The reasons given to shoot jpeg are (1) saving memory (not a big deal any more -- memory is cheap) (2) jpeg is good enough (it is until it isn't) (3) pros get it right in camera (most pros I know shoot RAW) and (4) it saves time (this is less significant than it seems, as I said above, it takes me more time to delete mediocre photos than to process them).
Truthfully, there isn't a right way or a wrong way. If straight of camera jpegs work for you that's fine. Just for me, I get better results with RAW.
I can find at least two other good reason to shoot RAW - that by the way don't detract in any way from JPEG.
One is when you don't trust neither the camera LCD screen nor that silly low-res histogram. I wouldn't know if my image is too dark, too saturated etc. on a cr*ppy screen like that, and the histogram is ridiculously low-res, so it's a pain to judge.
The other is when you don't have time while shooting, and can't be bothered to set shadow recovery, highlight recovery, sharpness, saturation, etc. and fine-tune the JPEG image.
It happens a lot to me, when I have like 2-3 hours free to see a town I've never been to: I just need to set ISO-aperture-shutter speed, and I can do everything else at home, when I have time.
It's enough to be able to clip on the right exactly what isn't necessary (you can't save every specular highlight and every lamp post's light bulb - and you don't want to) - and even that is a pain without a RAW histogram available.