I Tried 3AW Convertors

[GovtLawyer]

I shot some photos today with my XT in RAW + JPEG. I sampled the conversion process in the Canon software, Raw Shooter Essentials and the Adobe Camera Raw in Elements 3.0. I'm not sure which of the three I liked the best; they all were quite similar to me. In any event, I was pretty impressed with the process; in particular, the exposure process. I shot a black dog on a light background and the dog was underexposed. The exposure compensation was fantastic in this case. Of the three I have, are there any favorites out there, and why? Which functions in Adobe Camera Raw 3.1 are in CS2 and disabled in Elements 3.0.

I was under the impression that one of the programs would be able to compare the RAW and JPEG shot side-by-side. If so, which one, as I couldn't find it?

Now, for the oft asked question; to shoot both or not, when and why? If I only shoot RAW, am I correct in concluding that it makes no sense at all to use any in camera parameter settings; set everything to neutral. My understanding is those settings are ignored in RAW and only used in JPEG. If I shoot both RAW and JPEG, will some of the JPEGS come out so well exposed and processed that I need not use the RAW at all? Is shooting RAW and JPEG at the same time really an insurance situation?

[rg-tom]

if you shoot with the incam parem's set in raw, it will apply them when converting BUT you can of course change them :) Great for seeing how stuff looks b&w on the LCD but having the chance to recover if you want the colour. There is no reason to shoot JPG and RAW unless you want quick access to the pictures (say you needed to submit them to an editor) and still have the "negative" to make high quality adjustmens / prints from later :)

Cheers

Tom

[robertwgross]

if you shoot with the incam parem's set in raw, it will apply them when converting BUT you can of course change them

When you shoot a RAW file, the camera shot parameters are saved along with the file, but they are not used in the RAW data. Then, when you do the RAW conversion at your computer, most converters will give you options. One option is to convert it using the camera shot parameters. Another option is to convert it using a completely standardized set of parameter. Or, convert it with random parameters based on the RAW appearance in the converter program.

---Bob Gross---