Originally posted by Harald I do not understand this jpeg vs. RAW thing.
If you want post process your pictures, RAW is made for it. It is not easier to PP jpegs but more diffcult. And it is even more difficult to maintain picture quality. (snip)
First of all, when you look at the earlier images posted by Darius4522, do remember that you're looking at an user
altered RAW image versus an assumingly
unaltered JPEG image. Adjustments were made to the RAW file in the conversion software (contrast, WB, saturation, etc) before saving that image as a JPEG or TIFF file to the hard drive, while it appears the default camera settings were used for the JPEG file. Had those default camera settings (contrast, WB, saturation, etc) been adjusted to provide an image similar to the RAW file, both images would have obviously turned out virtually identical.
Next, you might understand this "thing" a little better by noting some RAW-only advocates continue to post misleading information to support this position. For example, you made the claim above that JPEG is more difficult to post process than RAW, which is clearly utter hogwash. Once a RAW file is converted into either JPEG or TIFF with the conversion software (a necessary step since no graphics editing software can edit a RAW file directly), there is absolutely no difference between the two images from that point on. Both can be saved in lossy or lossless format, with the exact same post processing tools used for each.
Finally, this JPEG versus RAW "thing" comes up every few weeks, with the same points made and disproven each time. In the end, most agree there are no huge differences between the two file formats
if handled correctly by the user. So, lets head this "thing" off now by agreeing there are few differences (just a preference instead), that not everyone is going to use a camera in the same manner as another, and that one single way of doing things in this regard is not that much more proper than, or superior to, the other.
At that point, there is very little else remaining to debate about.
stewart