128MB on Vacation: RAW or JPG?

I'm going to Las Vegas in a few weeks and am planning on documenting my entire vacation with my G1. I have 1 single 128 MB CF card right now. I'm having trouble deciding if I should take pictures in RAW (which limits me to 46) or JPG-Superfine (71 pics).

This will be my first major G1 photo-taking experience, so I'm really not sure how much photoshop touch up I'm going to want to/have to do on my photos. My idea for using RAW is that I can ignore worrying about white levels and such and deal with it later. Is it worth the 30 less pictures for this convenience?

Also- I saw someone mention that you need a flash card reader to effectively get RAW images off the camera. Can I use that Breeze download program I've seen mentioned instead? After saving raw files this way, I can just import them into Photoshop via the TWAIN driver, correct?

Thanks for the help-
Mike

Why not get a 256MB card? They're dirt cheap, and you'll have lots more fun on vacation not having to worry about storage. For example, 256MB Viiking compact flash can be had at Amazon for $113 after $40 rebate and $15 off 100 coupon (AMZNAMEXBMVD).

Mike Pollmann said:

I'm going to Las Vegas in a few weeks and am planning on
documenting my entire vacation with my G1. I have 1 single 128 MB
CF card right now. I'm having trouble deciding if I should take
pictures in RAW (which limits me to 46) or JPG-Superfine (71 pics).

This will be my first major G1 photo-taking experience, so I'm
really not sure how much photoshop touch up I'm going to want
to/have to do on my photos. My idea for using RAW is that I can
ignore worrying about white levels and such and deal with it later.
Is it worth the 30 less pictures for this convenience?

Also- I saw someone mention that you need a flash card reader to
effectively get RAW images off the camera. Can I use that Breeze
download program I've seen mentioned instead? After saving raw
files this way, I can just import them into Photoshop via the TWAIN
driver, correct?

Thanks for the help-
Mike

Click to expand...

Mike Pollmann said:

I'm going to Las Vegas in a few weeks and am planning on
documenting my entire vacation with my G1. I have 1 single 128 MB
CF card right now. I'm having trouble deciding if I should take
pictures in RAW (which limits me to 46) or JPG-Superfine (71 pics).

Click to expand...

I am assuming you don't want to buy more CF and depending on your length of stay don't discount jpeg medium size = 207 photos. I used this for my trip to Tortolla and in a week easily shot 200+ pix.

I'm not sure what's lost in medium vs. large and would like to hear from others what I sacrificed. Currenty for small excursions I shoot all RAW but a big trip makes me look at the jpeg options - large and medium.

Barry

I always shoot everything in RAW mode. Takes a bit longer to open in Photoshop as well as taking up more space, but the versatility and quality make it worthwhile for me. At the same time I can't imagine limiting myself to so few shots on a vacation anywhere. I wouldn't necessarily get another card, but would consider a digital wallet, Iomega FotoShow, or some other means of transferring my images to free up the card. If all the other options are unavailable, perhaps your hotel room TV will have a video in jack so you can evaluate your shots at the end of each day and delete the ones that are not keepers. In my years of shooting film, I have generally found that only ten to twenty percent of my shots are keepers, and I would have to say that hasn't changed much with my digital shooting. The difference for me is that with digital I usually don't have to ration my shooting - I use a now discontinued product from Iomega based on the PocketZip format that has a card reader, and with just a couple of 32mb cards and ten 40mb pocket zips, I can store 120 images in a shoot. Even that would feel limited, though, on a vacation. I usually can fill those up in one day of walking around with my camera.

Have fun, and hope you have better luck in Vegas that I've had on my two trips (ended up having to stay at a pink cinderblock motel called the Monie Marie my last time there - fortunately it was for only one night, unfortunately it was the last night of our honeymoon - but that's off-topic).

Dan

Mike Pollmann said:

I'm going to Las Vegas in a few weeks and am planning on
documenting my entire vacation with my G1. I have 1 single 128 MB
CF card right now. I'm having trouble deciding if I should take
pictures in RAW (which limits me to 46) or JPG-Superfine (71 pics).

Click to expand...

I would take a mix of both. For the really important shots, use RAW, for the stuff that are just for memeries, shoot JPG. Then delete all of the bad images or ones that you don't want to free up space on the card.

I like to bring a laptop with me on vacations simply so that I can download photos nightly from the cf card to my laptop via the pmcia slot. Then you can wipe clean the cf card and start fresh the next day. Then you can also use your laptop to surf the internet and let us all know how your vacation is going.

Serra said:

Mike Pollmann said:

I'm going to Las Vegas in a few weeks and am planning on
documenting my entire vacation with my G1. I have 1 single 128 MB
CF card right now. I'm having trouble deciding if I should take
pictures in RAW (which limits me to 46) or JPG-Superfine (71 pics).

Click to expand...

I would take a mix of both. For the really important shots, use
RAW, for the stuff that are just for memeries, shoot JPG. Then
delete all of the bad images or ones that you don't want to free up
space on the card.

Click to expand...

Marc said:

I like to bring a laptop with me on vacations simply so that I can
download photos nightly from the cf card to my laptop via the pmcia
slot. Then you can wipe clean the cf card and start fresh the next
day. Then you can also use your laptop to surf the internet and
let us all know how your vacation is going.

Click to expand...

I forgot to mention this in my post (sorry, it was late! I am bringing a laptop to download pictures every day. My real debate was whether or not I should limit myself to 40 pictures a day to use RAW mode rather than JPEG.

• Mike

So my advice stands, shoot a mix. JPG for some RAW for the really important ones or one you might want to print.

Mike Pollmann said:

Marc said:

I like to bring a laptop with me on vacations simply so that I can
download photos nightly from the cf card to my laptop via the pmcia
slot. Then you can wipe clean the cf card and start fresh the next
day. Then you can also use your laptop to surf the internet and
let us all know how your vacation is going.

Click to expand...

I forgot to mention this in my post (sorry, it was late! I am
bringing a laptop to download pictures every day. My real debate
was whether or not I should limit myself to 40 pictures a day to
use RAW mode rather than JPEG.

• Mike

Click to expand...

Given that you will have a laptop with you, I would agree with Serra. And if you happen to fill the card before the day is out, there is no place in Las Vegas that is too far from your hotel for a quick trip back to the room.

Serra said:

Mike Pollmann said:

Marc said:

I like to bring a laptop with me on vacations simply so that I can
download photos nightly from the cf card to my laptop via the pmcia
slot. Then you can wipe clean the cf card and start fresh the next
day. Then you can also use your laptop to surf the internet and
let us all know how your vacation is going.

Click to expand...

I forgot to mention this in my post (sorry, it was late! I am
bringing a laptop to download pictures every day. My real debate
was whether or not I should limit myself to 40 pictures a day to
use RAW mode rather than JPEG.

• Mike

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

How do you get Photoshop to open the RAW files? When I look in a directory that contains RAW files, Photoshop does not display any of them.

Dan said:

I always shoot everything in RAW mode. Takes a bit longer to open
in Photoshop as well as taking up more space, but the versatility
and quality make it worthwhile for me

Click to expand...

There's a Canon Digital Camera Plug-in that has to go into your Import/Export folder of the Plug-Ins folder of Photoshop. Then in Photoshop, you choose Import > Canon Digital Camera Plug-In. This opens a browser screen where you select whether you are importing from the Camera or the computer. From here you select the DCIM folder that contains the images you want to open. The plug-in should have come on the CD with your camera. If not, you can download in from Canon, which you may want to do anyway, since I believe there is a recent update to the software.

Eric Jones said:

Dan said:

I always shoot everything in RAW mode. Takes a bit longer to open
in Photoshop as well as taking up more space, but the versatility
and quality make it worthwhile for me

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

The only plugin I can find on Canon's site is for the Macintosh version of Photoshop. Are you using a Mac or a PC?

Dan said:

There's a Canon Digital Camera Plug-in that has to go into your
Import/Export folder of the Plug-Ins folder of Photoshop. Then in
Photoshop, you choose Import > Canon Digital Camera Plug-In. This
opens a browser screen where you select whether you are importing
from the Camera or the computer. From here you select the DCIM
folder that contains the images you want to open. The plug-in
should have come on the CD with your camera. If not, you can
download in from Canon, which you may want to do anyway, since I
believe there is a recent update to the software.

Click to expand...