Erik,

It all depends on what you do with your images. If you want the ultimate in control and image quality and do a lot of editing of your images, then RAW is the way to go. It allows for making many decisions when you import the image, rather than making those decisions at the time you take the picture, or worse yet, have the camera make the decisions for you. Tiff gives you lossless compression, but tiff files are much larger than RAW inspite of the compression and don't give you the advantages that RAW gives you.
Jpg may be all you need if you don't need the ultimate in control and image quality. Jpg files are way smaller because of the (lossy) compression.

Like I said, it all depends on what you do once you trip the shutter. You may want to study this subject further to find out what would work best for you, keeping in mind that over time you may want to do more with your images than what you currently do. If you work in RAW and save the unaltered images, then you will have all the advantages of this format available in the future.

Frans Waterlander
pixographer

P&s cameras probably don't have raw anyway.
I have read that Tiff files may prederve highlight and shadow detail better than Jpeg because of the lack of compression. (SB March?).
In any event, it is difficult to see anything with the thumbnail pix that were uploaded.

Ronk,

Tiff files, because of lossless compression, preserve any and all information that is present at the time of saving. As a capture format however, tiff converts the in-camera raw information and you loose the capability to later-on change color temperature, exposure, etc. where RAW capture preserves those capabilities. So as a capture format, RAW gives you the maximum flexibility to make adjustments BEFORE the image is converted to the format of your choice.

Frans Waterlander
pixographer

Frans, thanks for the reply.

So...I'm seeing that TIFF apparently isn't "RAW", and "RAW" is supposed to be better input for PhotoShop processing. Yet I have little trouble getting what I want in Elements 2 - color temp type stuff and things like that.

Ronk - Thanks, too for your input. And you're right, this "P&S" type EVF camera doesn't have a RAW mode.

Those photos were NOT meant to be "thumbnails" - in fact the very opposite, they are very small crops from very-highly "digitally zoomed" files, TIFF & JPEG (fine) directly from the camera, showing the individual pixils as recorded by the camera from the exact same exposure. I deliberatly didn't label which is which to avoid influencing any answers. It took a bit of "doing" in PS Elements to get the photos uploadable without changing them in any way. For some reason the upload process reduced them back down.

I've tried again, with a screen grab of the Elements workspace, including the enlarged "thumbnails", which shows what I was talking about.

Please have a look at the new attachment.

I'm also uploading a photo of some other ducks at a similar distance - full frame from the 12x Zoom photo, resized to 4.5"x 6", 72 DPI, from the original 24" x 32", 72 DPI size., in a seperate "reply", as it looks like only one attachment per post.

I have no idea why the camera recorded BOTH JPEG & TIFF to the memory card from the same exposure, but it allows a really interesting look "inside" the two formats - and, looking inside there, I don't see a significant difference, which is why I'm confused -- still.

And here is the "real world" duck photo, full frame.

As stated, it's another picture, as I only saved the original as enlarged.

Erik,

Your camera's menu may give you options for saving to the memory card different formats, like RAW only, jpg only and RAW + jpg. The last can be useful for saving the best format, RAW along with the smaller jpg version, so you can use the jpg images for quick evaluations and decisions like keep or delete; the drawback is that it takes longer to store the images, increasing the time between shots and it fills up your memory card faster.
Depending on what you do with your images, you may never notice a difference between images shot as raw or jpg (or between 12 bit and 8 bit for that matter), but there are situations where you will (if lots of adjustments are made and/or large prints are made on a high-quality printer). Of course the other major advantage of RAW is the ability to make adjustments to the RAW image later, rather than lock yourself in at the time of capture.

Frans Waterlander
pixographer

>>I have no idea why the camera recorded BOTH JPEG & TIFF to the memory card from the same exposure, but it allows a really interesting look "inside" the two formats - and, looking inside there, I don't see a significant difference, which is why I'm confused -- still. <<

With your particular camera both the JPEG and TIFF option is generated from the image processing chip, just saved in a compressed and uncompressed file format. That is typical of cameras with a TIFF option. There should be no difference in content or bit-depth, just in file size.

Erik,

Many thanks for posting this VERY interesting comparison between JPG and TIFF. (Like thousands of other photographers, I had read many times about these two formats but never took the time to make a thorough comparison.)

OK, on my screen, the RIGHT pic clearly displays a HIGHER contrast than the LEFT pic.

Also, in the mid-tones, overall, the LEFT pic displays MORE nuances of tones than the RIGHT pic does.

Thus, as a starting point (as downloaded from the camera), the LEFT pic seems to be the better one... although, for some subjects, lighting situations, etc., that differnce isn't likely to be much in the finished product.)

So, now it's your turn: Which of the two is TIFF?
(my guess is that it's the Left one... but that's only a guess)

Back to your original questions:
(Reading the answers you got so far, I'd not be too surprised if you still wouldn't be 100% sure -- I'd not.)

RAW and TIFF are two totally different formats that have absolutely nothing in common. So, your interpretation of the answers you got was right.

I checked the specs of your cam, and, from all I could find, it captures images only in JPG and TIFF -- NOT in RAW, just as Ronk had suggested.

Finally, as to which of the two formats is "best", well, if you see the same differences between your two pix on your screen as I see, then you already have the answer.

I sure am looking forward to find out which of the two pix is TIFF...

Thanks again!

cambug

Erik,

If your camera lets you choose between tiff and jpg, then you are looking at two very different image modes. The enlarged images that you posted are NOT a good way to evaluate the pros and cons of these formats. Again, depending on what you do with your images, you may or may not experience a difference between the two; jpg will loose some image detail, but if you don't do a lot of editing and/or print really big, you won't notice. If you DO a lot of editing/printing big, you will notice the difference. Jpg files are relatively small and will allow you to put a lot of images on a memory card and do it faster. So, as always, you will have to make compromises depending on what you need.
RAW, although apparently not a choice for your camera, is in most regards superior to tiff; it's file sizes are smaller, yet it contains the maximum of image information and let's you make choices AFTER image capture.

Frans Waterlander
pixographer

Cambug,

You are right! Left one is TIFF! I see so little difference, particularly at normal enlargements!

Frans is also right - no RAW in this camera! I often play around quite a bit in PhotoShop Elements, but still see no particular reason to go with TIFF for what I do.

Thanks for all the input! -Erik