QUICK ONE .... What size RAW to shoot ????

Obviously new to RAW here. Is there an advantage, disadvantage, or other reason to shoot one size RAW file over another? Is it merely dependent on your desired resolution? Or will my IQ be the same no matter which size I choose? After I post process, save as .jpg, will I lose IQ during compression? Sorry for all of the questions. A guy has to start somewhere ....
thanks in advance....

Always shoot the largest format you have unless you're running out of card space and you're 100 miles from the nearest store. The more data you capture, the more options you have later on.

When you save your processed image as a jpg, some data is discarded in the compression process but this is not a problem unless you over-compress. If you need to make additional changes to that image, go back to the raw file, edit that, and save a new jpg. Do not repeatedly open and save the same jpg because that will reduce quality significantly.

Small raw is a pseudo raw format, not full raw. It's pretty good, but it's not as flexible as a full raw file. Always shoot largest if you have a choice. You can always use the DNG converter to make it smaller later, either by throwing away pixels or saving it as lossy raw.

More RAW = more data on the picture which you can tweak later. I use TIFF after post process, JPG loose some color regardless the size/quality. Mind you that TIFF has way bigger file than JPG (about 12X). I use JPG only so that I can deliver through Dropbox. So it depends on your workflow.

thomasjpello wrote in post #15734841
JPG loose some color regardless the size/quality

I'd like to hear more about your claim.

Jpeg files are fantastic for a final copy of an image, and when printed will look exactly the same as a TIFF. TIFF is better if you plan to edit the image later.

Thanks, everyone for the pointers!!! I shot RAW recently for the first time and was blown away by the file sizes. That's why I'm asking. I'll stick with the largest RAW files that my camera will save and edit from there.
PG

Memory cards and disks are cheap. Processing big raw files can be a bit slow, 36MP is double the triple to my regular 12MP files. So I'll avoid buying a 36MP camera, or if I do I'll use the DNG convterter to downsample them.

Go big or go home