Re: recommendation for digital camera -=> Shameless Nikon plug

[Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org>]

Micha Feigin <michf@post.tau.ac.il> writes:

> Some cameras actually compress the raw data BTW. I think Nikon does
> that since nef (raw) output takes less space then tiff output.

On some Nikon cameras they are compressed using a "visually lossless"
algorithm.  Some recent posts on the D1scussion group indicate that it
reduces the effective bit depth from 12 bits to 9.  Ick.  My camera
has a toggle to select compressed or uncompressed, but I don't
believe the lower-end ones do.  

But even the uncompressed ones can be smaller than TIFFs, since they
only log 12 bits per pixel, where the TIFFs are 8 bits per color per
pixel.  So uncompressed should be about half the size.  (This is
because each pixel is only R, G, or B straight from the CCD.)

> There is also a plugin that allows using draw to open the raw files
> directly in the gimp. That should rival the Nikon capture software.

In terms of quality (assuming a 16bit/color gimp), yes.  In terms of
ease, no, since Nikon Capture has a lot of prepackaged actions which
do exactly what a photographer wants to do, and the gimp doesn't.  Of
course, they could be added... 8^)

-- 
Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> - I am the rocks.
Idiolocation: "You are here->" on any map.