CR2 to TIFF

Quick question I think I know the answer to but would like some confirmation. I currently have CS4 with a version of ACR that is to old to support my new 7D. I can't update it as...well...um....it may not be a licensed version. Until I cough up to money for CS6 (soon as I am a student and that version is really cheap) I am going to convert my RAW files in DPP to TIFFs and then process in ACR etc.

My question is, is there any degredation or loss in the conversion from RAW to TIFF?

Cheers

Adobe has a free DNG converter, basically converting you CR2 files to DNG (Adobe's raw format), allowing all the latitude of a raw file but usable with your version of ACR.

Yeah to the DNG suggestion, you can download the DNG converter and set it to produce files compatible with your version of ACR. DNG is a "wrapper" format for Raw files.

As to your original question, tiff is in fact lossless, as regards "compression". What you do lose with the tiff conversion is the "latitude" of the Raw file, since a tiff has been "rendered", processing your pixels into RGB pixels from the non-RGB Raw data/pixels. This is why the DNG conversion could be preferable!

I'll confuse things ... but really trying to help

Why bother ever upgrading from CS4? Why not get LR instead, use it for close to 95-99% of your photography needs and CS4 for the 1-5% of the time you need a pixel editor?

Using LR I almost never create any additional files (jpegs or TIFFS) from my RAWs. There's no need since I can print directly from LR and upload to my image hosting side directly from LR. The only time any kind of jpeg is saved on my system (except for the small amount of time where I need a pixel editor) is when I export an image to email. Even for email I prefer to provide links from my image sharing site.

After switching from an "ACR -> TIFF -> sometimes jpeg workflow" to using LR, I consume less than half of the HDD space I previously used. I deleted all of my jpegs and TIFFs that had no pixel editing.

+1
With a student discount you can get LR5, the latest and greatest, really cheap (in the near future 5.2), with free updates for the next year or so and eventually discounts on LR6, LR7, etc., while CS6 is a dead end unless you will be willing to go the Creative Cloud route in the future or go back to cracks (NOT RECOMMENDED).

Thanks for the advice, I can get a student version for just over $100, lokks like the way to go. I also like the idea of less HDD usage Bob suggested.

Cheers

There is also the option of using DPP (comes free with every Canon camera) to convert the CR2's to TIFF.