RAW or JPEG?

You should be able to set up the camera as best you can for all the conditions you are shooting in, so this means custom white balances, any MFA if you have a camera with MFA, AF settings, and finally the correct mode. Even if you shoot raw, but use DPP, this will save you ALOT of time later.

I will say that for those of you that don't shoot with a 7D2 or 1DX (or 1DX2 or 80D now), having a fully working auto ISO in manual mode is a godsend for sports. You can now set up your aperture and shutter speeds for the visual elements you want to control (DOF and how much action to lock down), and let the ISO float around on you with whatever exposure compensation you need to guarantee a better exposure than just pure manual.

If you do these things and have those capabilities, the need for raw diminishes greatly.

When I had the 50d and 5d it was raw exclusively. With this new panasonic and canon SX60 I have been shooting both and finding that the jpg needs little or no processing.

This thread shows the great variety of ways we can do things. I love standing out in the field, so to speak, and hate pp work. Always have. Doesn't matter to me if it's snowing raining or sunny (which we managed last Saturday all in one race!) I just love the capture side of it.

RAW only. If it's worth my time pressing the shutter button, it's worth my extra five minutes to process. The only exception is when shooting high-volume gigs, when Darkroom will only print JPEG shots. One of the above posts that shows the male athlete shows the power of RAW processing. Your talent is worth showing.

All RAW, all the time - no exceptions.

Shot RAW. Left: RAW file. Right, developed RAW. Any questions? The RAW holds SO MUCH more data for you to work with...

RAW when I'm shooting for a client but JPEG if I'm shooting for a wire - speed is king!

Purely RAW and convert to DNG.

For Sports its JPEG only, (using a 1Dx):
1) for the write speed, to avoid filling the buffer (12 fps, bursts of 8-10 shots even with gaps between can cause issues)
2) for space, I shot 2-3,000 frames per session over 3 days (14,000 total) never filled a 32GB card
3) for computer space, I always run out of room for editing 'on the go' even with a 512GB internal disk
4) for transfer speed/time, when I take a card out, I want it transferred to the computer before I zap the duplicate card.

For big events, I write to both cards simultaneously. This protects me against card failure, at the expense of a more limited number of frames. I carry 6 CF cards (32GB each). After a session or before a card is full, I remove one card, put a new one in. Once the card is copied to the computer, I format the remaining one in camera, and keep a card with the full set of images until the computer is backed up at home.

For this workflow to make sense, I have to hit the exposure more accurately than if I use RAW. I usually stick with manual exposure and fixed ISO - being fairly lucky with very even lighting!

And yes, I throw away 90%, but I probably wouldn't get 'that' shot with RAW. It's on the 'fourth burst' of 6-10 identical sequences, where the buffer would have filled and the camera stops or slows shooting (...don't ask me how I know this...)

TeamSpeed wrote in post #17987973
You should be able to set up the camera as best you can for all the conditions you are shooting in, so this means custom white balances, any MFA if you have a camera with MFA, AF settings, and finally the correct mode. Even if you shoot raw, but use DPP, this will save you ALOT of time later.

I will say that for those of you that don't shoot with a 7D2 or 1DX (or 1DX2 or 80D now), having a fully working auto ISO in manual mode is a godsend for sports. You can now set up your aperture and shutter speeds for the visual elements you want to control (DOF and how much action to lock down), and let the ISO float around on you with whatever exposure compensation you need to guarantee a better exposure than just pure manual.

If you do these things and have those capabilities, the need for raw diminishes greatly.

Having seen some of your recent work here in these forums in sooc JPEGs, raw shooters who are losing interest might look more closely at shooting JPEGs because the JPEG engines have improved dramatically.

Whilst I have always shot JPEGs even for weddings I must say my 1DX and 5D3 JPEGs are a big improvement over previous generations of JPEG engines. The 5D4 is appealing and I'm just holdng off hitting the 'buy' button because of it's JPEG engine alone (having seen your 5D4 sooc JPEGs recently )

You hit the buffer that quickly?? As far as storage, $40/TB is pretty cheap these days... If you're filling the buffer that fast in HS shooting, maybe you should just get a 1DX2 and take 4K grabs..Now that Darkroom 9.2 supports RAW, I'm all in. I'm happy with the JPEG's but then when I see what I can do with the RAW's it's almost religious lol

JPEG

I shoot absolutely everything in RAW, except the high school sports I shoot. I do that in JPEG.

rejay14 wrote in post #18011699
Shot RAW. Left: RAW file. Right, developed RAW. Any questions? The RAW holds SO MUCH more data for you to work with...

Hosted photo: posted by rejay14 in
./showthread.php?p=180​11699&i=i264050844
forum: Sports

Not really questions, but that "after" image looks like it got bitten by horrible compression artifacts (well, "before" image did too). It also seems the post processing exaggerated the chromatic aberration along the terminator.

So the RAW looks better than the JPEG? I'm not sure what Swartzenegger has to do with the pic..

rejay14 wrote in post #18241661
So the RAW looks better than the JPEG? I'm not sure what Swartzenegger has to do with the pic..

Lol! Terminator is the shade line on the moon.

I just don't think that photo makes the case that RAW is the way to shoot, due to other issues with the image.