Canon G9: JPG or RAW? Why?

v steffel wrote:

Skippy,

Thanks for stating why you prefer JPGs with the GP

Thanks for providing your suggested settings in JPG. I will experiment with them.

I look forward to learning much more about photography with the G9.

Here's a shot from today. I used RAW+JPEG mode in the Canon G15. I suppose if I shot RAW and then JPEG, I would have a better JPEG because than I would have had some in-camera controls which the Canon G15 doesn't offer in RAW+JPEG (not that I know of, anyway).

Both were tweaked in Lightroom verison 5.7 64-bit. Can you tell which one was from the RAW file?

To be fair, I also have another set where I saw much more detail in some snow that was almost totally blown out in the JPEG file and I couldn't recover it. In this case, it's clear which one came from a RAW file.

In some lighting situations, it is wise to shoot in RAW, for sure. In my examples it seems that just shooting in RAW all the time is needless for optimal image quality and just shooting in JPEG all the time results in lost opportunities to improve an image otherwise ruined by in-camera processing. My conclusion would be that the RAW mode should be viewed as just another setting, like ISO or iContrast. It should be up to the photographer to determine what is the best exposure control based on the lighting and subject at hand. This is what differentiates the novices form the experienced shooters.

To me, it doesn't make sense to cripple yourself by never using a useful camera function, like in-camera JPEG customization. It's another tool for control over your art. To me, it's fun to play with all the buttons.

Cheers.