RAW or CRAW?

[Only RF]

After almost 20 years of shooting RAW I have been contemplating using CRAW. After watching this video I'm going to try CRAW for my C1-3 modes which are for sports and birding. M mode I will leave at RAW for landscapes, indoor low lighting, etc.

I was curios about which format the members here use?

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[chipman]

I shoot JPEG with CRAW for backup. I think I used the CRAW files twice last year for difficult low light shots.

 

[SwampGrizz]

I shoot craw most of the time, and can’t tell the difference between it and raw other than file size. I shoot jpeg when I want to get something out fast (family pics) and don’t want to go home and tweak it. I used to only shoot jpeg until I discovered that you could recover more highlights/shadows with craw. JPEGs are fine, it’s just a matter of whether I want to fool with it later or not.

 

[Only RF]

I shoot craw most of the time, and can’t tell the difference between it and raw other than file size. I shoot jpeg when I want to get something out fast (family pics) and don’t want to go home and tweak it. I used to only shoot jpeg until I discovered that you could recover more highlights/shadows with craw. JPEGs are fine, it’s just a matter of whether I want to fool with it later or not.

I like your signature. Your turtle shots may be famous one day. Watched a show about Viviane Maier. The interviewed an older fellow in her home town in Italy. "People took pictures of weddings and confirmations. She took pictures of garbage cans". The guy which found her negs at a garage sale was like finding a gold mine.

 

[ShipleyNW]

I switched over to CRAW a couple of years ago and never looked back.

 

[SwampGrizz]

I like your signature. Your turtle shots may be famous one day. Watched a show about Viviane Maier. The interviewed an older fellow in her home town in Italy. "People took pictures of weddings and confirmations. She took pictures of garbage cans". The guy which found her negs at a garage sale was like finding a gold mine.

I guess there are worse things in life than to be known as The Famous Turtle Guy. There may be a few bucks in it. The ironic thing is that I don’t have any turtle pictures in my vast portfolio. I need to get busy and head out to the swamp or back to summer camp. The difference between Ms. Maier and me is that she had talent. When I croak and they look in my archives, they are going to wonder “what in the hell was this guy thinking”.

 

[jcass]

It is embarrassing to admit, bit I still shoot RAW.

 

[Only RF]

It is embarrassing to admit, bit I still shoot RAW.

It’s not. I’ve shot RAW until yesterday and it’s still an experiment. Quite a few years ago I tried CRAW but went back to RAW quickly. I can’t even remember why. Knowing myself that meant even if one molecule was missing it couldn’t be good

 

[gossamer88]

The best reason IMO to choose CRAW is if you're a high burst shooter for wildlife or sports for example. CRAW are slightly smaller in size and the buffer would clear quicker.

 

[jcass]

I think if you're saving images to an online account, it is 2x significant. I have redundant TB drives. So, I still shoot RAW.

 

[Bucolic Old Sir Henry]

I started using CRAW a few years back when I wanted to maximise shots per card on an extended overseas trip. I've never been able to discern a difference in image quality, so I've stuck with it.

 

[JCBigler]

I also only shoot in RAW, with jpeg as backup on the second card, but I almost never even look at those.

Even with the 32.5mp resolution of the R6m3, I get so many shots on my 128GB cards that I don't really need to add more shots per card. It's over 3,000 shots for the m3 and over 4,000 for the m2.

I already don't have time to edit the pictures that I take now. And I don't do a lot of fast action shooting other than air shows and so far I haven't experienced a need to be able to shoot faster.

Once you guys finish comparing CRAW to RAW, let me know what you think and I might switch after you finish testing for the rest of us.

 

[Only RF]

I also only shoot in RAW, with jpeg as backup on the second card, but I almost never even look at those.

Even with the 32.5mp resolution of the R6m3, I get so many shots on my 128GB cards that I don't really need to add more shots per card. It's over 3,000 shots for the m3 and over 4,000 for the m2.

I have never even come close to half filling my 128GB. That includes experimenting with Pre Continous and 40 fps on my R6III. One time after culling I realized I had grown a beard. I think I'll stick to 20fps.

I already don't have time to edit the pictures that I take now. And I don't do a lot of fast action shooting other than air shows and so far I haven't experienced a need to be able to shoot faster.

Once you guys finish comparing CRAW to RAW, let me know what you think and I might switch after you finish testing for the rest of us.

 

[PKM-UK]

I did some side by side tests between RAW and CRAW a while back and I really struggled to discern any difference (but there was a very slight difference in some shots - mostly involving fine detail in shadow areas). I’m not sure anyone outside of the obsessive pixel-peeper club (i.e. people like me) would ever notice (or care). These days I have 2 saved camera sets for my R5 II - 1 intended for zoos (CRAW), 2 for everything else (RAW). I regularly forget to switch back to set 2 after visiting a zoo - and the world keeps turning. Karen shoots CRAW.

(Edit: I just checked and on our most recent tour I did remember to switch settings and shot full RAW... ).

Look at our images - which were shot RAW and which were shot CRAW? (I have no idea without looking). Make of this what you will…



Phil

 

[JCBigler]

I just checked on my R6 mkIII, and with an empty card, if I move from RAW to CRAW, then my 128GB Prograde CFX-B card will go from 3400+ pics to 6900+ pics in CRAW. Plus the camera still shows that CRAW gets 99 shots in the buffer, same as RAW.

That's crazy. I don't know what I would do with almost 7,000+ photos on a single card. Plus, I have TWO 128GB CFX-B cards for my R6 mkIII and a 128GB Prograde v90 SD card.

I'm not running out of storage any time soon and if I ever approached 21,000 photos for one shoot before having to offload them, I don't think I'd ever be able to go through them all.

 

[Archibald]

I've been shooting CRAW almost since it became available. Reports at the time from highly-regarded photographers were that the differences were not discernible.

A couple of times I've shot in JPEG when all I wanted was stuff to email. But I forgot to go back to raw, and that was not good. So now I never switch to JPEG.

Actually, JPEG files are pretty good. The main difference as @SwampGrizz also said is the ability to recover highlights and shadows.

 

[Archibald]

I just checked on my R6 mkIII, and with an empty card, if I move from RAW to CRAW, then my 128GB Prograde CFX-B card will go from 3400+ pics to 6900+ pics in CRAW. Plus the camera still shows that CRAW gets 99 shots in the buffer, same as RAW.

That's crazy. I don't know what I would do with almost 7,000+ photos on a single card. Plus, I have TWO 128GB CFX-B cards for my R6 mkIII and a 128GB Prograde v90 SD card.

I'm not running out of storage any time soon and if I ever approached 21,000 photos for one shoot before having to offload them, I don't think I'd ever be able to go through them all.

There are folks that have 1TB cards. They shoot at 40 frames/sec and have heavy fingers. They don't want to miss a slight improvement in the pose of their wildlife subject. It's not my style of shooting! My card is 256 GB and I go months before formatting.

 

[Only RF]

There are folks that have 1TB cards. They shoot at 40 frames/sec and have heavy fingers. They don't want to miss a slight improvement in the pose of their wildlife subject. It's not my style of shooting! My card is 256 GB and I go months before formatting.

They would be culling after one shoot until the next version of their camera came out.

 

[tpatana]

Some 15 years ago I switched from jpeg to raw. About 5 years ago I switched back to jpeg after I noticed ~nobody will know the difference. Barely even me. (that's with the modern bodies, if I still had the 15 year old body I'm sure raw would be better, but modern bodies jpeg are amazing good)

When shooting studio I still go raw+jpeg, but otherwise it's just dual-jpeg to both cards.

I never tried craw, that's kinda interesting compromise between those. Especially sport events I get too many photos so probably will stick to jpeg.

 

[JCBigler]

There are folks that have 1TB cards. They shoot at 40 frames/sec and have heavy fingers. They don't want to miss a slight improvement in the pose of their wildlife subject. It's not my style of shooting! My card is 256 GB and I go months before formatting.

I always assumed that most of the people shooting on 512GB-1tB+ cards are doing video work and shooting at 4K, 6K, 8K etc...

I've been wanting to get the 240GB Prograde CFX-B card, but mainly just because of the higher sustained write speed compared to the 128GB cards.

 

[Archibald]

RAW files have more data in the deep shadows, and apparently finer detail in the midtones. Raw also allows AI denoising, which currently is not possible with JPGs in Lightroom. Here is a comparison of edits made on the raw file and separately on the embedded JPG. These are 100% presentations. The RAW and JPG had the same pixel dimensions.

Raw on left, JPG on right

 

[tpatana]

That's quite crazy difference. What's the file size for the embedded though, is it heavily compressed?