Ok, sing along with me now. I am switching to digital. There I said it. A full blow confession in the middle of the night. Listen, it had to happen. I am tired of running to the lab to get images processed, scanned and then reprinted. Pain in the you-know-where. As I have hinted [ok, more than a hint] I am heading into a camera store near NYC to buy a Nikon D70s. There is virtually no difference between this model and its predecessor – the D70, yet I hanker for the newer version. Ok, ok, the LCD display on the back of the newer version is about 25% larger. And size does matter right?
Well, I have been reading about file formats and sizes and the discussions and differences between capturing images in RAW format or compressing them as JPGS. Ideally, one should be using RAW and only RAW. JPGS simply throw away too much information as it brings the file size down to something we can somewhat easily email. This NYTimes article hammered this notion home, though the author seems to have forgotten to mention that there are variations even among RAW producing cameras. And there might just be variations between cameras made by the same manufacturer. Quite the conundrum, eh? Any thoughts on how I should proceed?
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Hari says
This is a great camera, I would recommend it highly for your money’s worth. Various raw files depend on the sensors built into the cameras, so different Nikon digital camera models have different file sizes and respond differently to the light(curves). Generally, most of these raw files could be opened in Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw which in my opinion has very useful functions like choosing the right color space, setting your shadow/highlight points, color temperature, noise reduction, chromatic aberration(yes, these pesky aberrations do show up and need some work when you use wide angle lenses).
Good thing about these digital files is, the raw files are compressed version of the image on the sensor, they open up to 17mb files (for Nikon D70), and they can be easily Up-Res’ed in photoshop(10% increments) to bigger files for your printing needs.
Just to play the devils advocate-you will be spending more time on your computer rather than running around the labs. Archiving your images is a whole different game, and pretty critical component of your digital workflow. Your images are as good as being found when you need them. So the final step is keyword and caption them(in iView, Photomechanic, Extensis etc)and back them up atleast on two hard drives.
Hari says
This is a great camera, I would recommend it highly for your money’s worth. Various raw files depend on the sensors built into the cameras, so different Nikon digital camera models have different file sizes and respond differently to the light(curves). Generally, most of these raw files could be opened in Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw which in my opinion has very useful functions like choosing the right color space, setting your shadow/highlight points, color temperature, noise reduction, chromatic aberration(yes, these pesky aberrations do show up and need some work when you use wide angle lenses).
Good thing about these digital files is, the raw files are compressed version of the image on the sensor, they open up to 17mb files (for Nikon D70), and they can be easily Up-Res’ed in photoshop(10% increments) to bigger files for your printing needs.
Just to play the devils advocate-you will be spending more time on your computer rather than running around the labs. Archiving your images is a whole different game, and pretty critical component of your digital workflow. Your images are as good as being found when you need them. So the final step is keyword and caption them(in iView, Photomechanic, Extensis etc)and back them up atleast on two hard drives.