RAW is also greater than 8-bit, yielding more information that can't be displayed on a monitor (unless you have a VERY nice monitor) but will show up in prints or in the quality of the final image after many adjustments (gradients for example will retain greater smoothness).

I also shoot RAW for effects reasons; most people don't seem to mess with them, but there are a whole slew of tabs at the top when you open a RAW file that let you adjust all the fine details (sharpening, saturation, curves, etc) before the image is converted and opened. These options can be saved as profiles that allow for some quick style conversion.

 

14 bit RAW for me Disk/card space is cheap.

 

I shoot RAW exclusively.

I got three Sandisk Extreme III SD cards for $4 each after rebate so I have plenty of storage for shooting as a hobbyist.

I was the "backup unofficial photographer" for a friend's wedding and still didn't fill two cards (I had about 800 photos). So, I can't see myself shooting more than 1350 picture (that's about what my 3 8GB cards hold) at a time, so RAW works just great for me.

 

Ive started to shoot RAW only now as well.

Only have a 2GB card, but I dont shoot everyday alld ay

Maybe one day I will and if I do I will get a few 4GB cards as most here do as well.

 

I shoot only RAW due to the extra controls I can pump out if I do need to adjust stuff. This gets me adjusting many images each time I dump photos from an event, which I consider good for practicing. I only have a 4GB card, but being my picky self I find myself deleting out useless pictures during downtime of the day. Haven't run out of space yet. I think the limit for 261 pictures (given the 4GB card) stresses the need to take better quality pictures over quantity. Although I would consider myself a noob and hobbyist, I understand the need to take thousands of pictures to make sure a moment is captured and captured well.

 

Really?

Quality over quantity any day. Learn to do it right and you will change your thinking.

 

That what I said before that for my idea, but I was saying that for maybe a wedding reception or presidential event or something once in a lifetime where you would snap a bunch of shots. *shrug*

 

I always shoot RAW+jpg. Editing RAW destroys anything jpg related.

 

ehhh, even the pro's shoot a ton of frames. It's not like it cost anything to shoot extra frames to make sure you have multiple options.

 

It costs in editing time, and time is money for a pro. But it is true that getting the shot matters most.