difference between and L jpeg?

[timsf]

what's the difference between RAW and the L-JPEG besides file size? (sorry if this is a dumb question). My 350D manual says "The RAW assumes that the image will undergo post processing with a personal computer...."

What does that mean? I can process or otherwise manipulate the jpeg file too, right?

When should I shoot in RAW?

[grego]

You can do much more with post processing with a RAW file than JPG.

JPG is already compressed and the camera chooses options, while the RAW is pretty much untouched and gives you many options to work with.

Here's an example of Adobe Photoshop CS working with RAW files. It gives you many options to post process your photo. You can change your white balance right there and make it custom with the temperature, something you can't do with a JPG for instance.

http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/350/rawexample5sc.th.jpg (http://img392.imageshack.us/my.php?image=rawexample5sc.jpg)

You also lose quality when you shoot in JPG. If you shoot raw and convert to Tiff, you retain much more detail shooting in JPG. You can always turn it into a high quality JPG later if you like, but its always nice to have the highest quality image file possible.

[chemicalbro]

this question has been asked about 50 bzillion times...do a search for why shoot in raw :)....
the short of it is that raw is infinately more editable than a jpg....... Raw is an uncompressed format so you lose no detail.... jpeg is a very lossy format.....

a raw file is way easier to manipulate (brightness, contrast, etc)
you can change certain settings after the shot was taken (for instance if you forgot you left white balance on daylight and shoot indoors under tungsten light, you can change it to tungsten wb with a raw file) or if you were messing around with black and white shots and forget to change it back to colour (you can return a black and white raw file to the original colour)...
raw files converted to 16 bit tiff (lossless) also looks better when printed than a jpeg does....
my camera NEVER comes out of raw mode

[chemicalbro]

need to learn to refresh b4 posting :)

[PhotosGuy]

Why I love RAW - '53 Ford Sunliner (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=43761&highlight=sunliner)