Garbled display in RAW mode?

[Laziferous]

Hello all,
Was just wondering if anyone was experiencing what I am:

When I shoot in RAW, the image preview in the LCD looks all pixelated. When I zoom in to check if I got the focus right, it gets worse.

The odd thing is, sometimes it's very clear, and other times, it's just plain horrible.

The first time this happened, I lost a few shots, because I thought they were out of focus... so I deleted them (in camera). When I converted the rest of the images on my computer, I found them to be very sharp, and crisp. So now I know the problem is with the display of the RAW file in camera on the LCD.

Could this be a firmware issue? I have noticed it more in cooler temperatures, and also when there's a strong contrast between dark and light (night shots for instance).

Experiences, questions, solutions?

Thanks in advance.

[msvadi]

Well, I can say that I see it too.

In my opinion, it has to be the fact that when you shoot in the raw format the camera preview mode shows the thumbnail. It's a small image, about 5kb, that represents the actual image. You can see those images also if you download files with breezebrowser ( *.THM files).

Remember that RAW is a compressed file, so viewing the actual image in camera's LCD would require in-camera conversion, and I don't think that anybody wants to do that.

Naturally, when you magnify a thumbnail you get more pixelation. Probably, it's not very convinient to verify good focus. The only solution I can think of is the usual shoot and re-shoot, and delete files only after viewing on your computer.

If the picture is badly out of focus, then you will be able to detect that from thumbnails too. So, may be "plain horrible" actually means that the picture is out of focus.

[Laziferous]

So, may be "plain horrible" actually means that the picture is out of focus.

That would make it much simpler. Even the ones that were "plain horrible" looked outstanding after conversion. For example this one, it looked terrible on the preview in camera:
http://www.bytephoto.com/photopost/data/500/16CRW_2649-small.jpg

I understand that a magnified thumbnail will look like crap, and was not aware that it was only a thumbnail being previewed in the LCD. I assumed it was the entire file. Silly me.

That still doesn't explain why it only happens sometimes, and not others though.

Eh, it doesn't matter. I don't even care anymore. The solution is, just don't delete anything until I've seen it on my monitor.

[es839145]

The explanation why it looks sometimes more horrible than at other times: It is the jpg compression algorithm that tries to pack the picture in that small 5kB thumbnail. It depends on the contrast and granularity (how many and how small the details are) of the original image, what the enlarged view of the thumbnail looks like.
The thumbnail file that is generated beside the raw file is intended to show you WHAT you have just shot - not how good or if it was in focus. It's not intended to zoom-in on it to see more details.
This is what I do to navigate around that limitation of the RAW and thumbnail format: When I want to see if -for instance- my astronomical pictures that I shoot afocal through a big telescope are in focus, I go first to the JPG-Large-Superfine mode. I then can check the focus in replay mode and zoom-in on it. Only when I'm satisfied after adjusting to reach best focus I switch to RAW mode.
My pictures are at: www.pbase.com/es839145