SX10-Does using CHDK and shooting in Raw really increase photo quality?

Just wondering-still image quality on the SX10 appears to be better than the SX20-just wondering if SX10's image quality can be further improved via CHDK and shooting in Raw.

The Canon Jpeg engine in the powershot cameras is wonderful, very little if any improvement can be achieved processing your raw into jpeg. Then you have to learn how and that isn't easy. Having said that, some improvement can be achieved if you blow the shot (exposure) or if shooting under poor lighting. You can chose how much noise reduction to use or you can correct white balance after the shot is taken. All of this requires post processing. My Pentax DSLR has a poor JPEG engine and RAW can help greatly.

Hans

I would tend to agree with hnikesch. To improve over the camera's firmware you would need to implement the conversion to jpeg in a way that was somehow better. Shooting RAW allows you to choose processing that might make a particular image better for your needs. The camera firmware doesn't know what you are trying to achieve. That being said, being able to shoot RAW is a long way from being able to reliably process the image in a way that would consistently produce noticeably better results. When you have an image that is out of the norm, (bad exposure, very low light, etc.) that is when you can alter the processing in ways the camera's one size fits all process can't do.

I have tried raw but compared the jpg's produced by the free software(gimp) compared to the cameras and the camera is very hard to surpass. It is a hassle to get chdk to work on my 8gig sdhc card but I learned a lot doing it. I still have it installed because I like the battery indicator which estimates the time left to charge. My laptop (toshiba 1.5gig memory, pentium-M, intel extreme graphics video) struggles to post-process a 14.1mb raw file.

It's very debatable. Also, there are no officially supported RAW editors for the SX10, so you can't really be sure you are getting the best from your RAWs. ANy program you use is just guessing how to interpret the file.

Any gains are going to be very minimal so if you are struggling to process them, don't worry about it.

pittguy578 wrote in post #8613248
Just wondering-still image quality on the SX10 appears to be better than the SX20-just wondering if SX10's image quality can be further improved via CHDK and shooting in Raw.

Yes. Absolutely. I wouldn't shoot in any other mode.

tkbslc wrote in post #9467788
It's very debatable. Also, there are no officially supported RAW editors for the SX10, so you can't really be sure you are getting the best from your RAWs. ANy program you use is just guessing how to interpret the file.

Any gains are going to be very minimal so if you are struggling to process them, don't worry about it.

The in-camera DNG files from the newest CHDK firmware are spot-on. MUCH better than the conversions I used to have to do from non -standard CRW files.

I find the SX-10's sharpening algorithms to be less than optimal and do all of my serious sharpening in post with software that performs actual deconvolution instead of simple unsharp masking. Slow, but worth it.

I agree the DNG files from CHDK on my SD990 are also very good, much better because it is supported by Photoshop Elements

I've got the SX1, and have been converting RAWs on other cams for 12-14 years.

I can get MUCH better results on all my cams in RAW. It takes a lot of learning with your RAW converter (if it's Adobe Camera RAW, there's -complete- control of lens correction, by-color-channel color control, sharpening, tone curves, and much more).