When cameras come out the company often states that the image processor is upgraded.
Does such an upgrade matter when one only shoots in RAW?
When shooting RAW the image is taken directly from the sensor. The processing happens off-camera on the computer.
Does the on-camera image processor process the RAW image or is it just used when the camera outputs JPEG?
If it comes into play when shooting RAW, what does it exactly do?
Answer
Short answer: Yes.
Because it isn't an "image processor", it is the camera's CPU (assuming that you don't speak about beasts like Canon 1D X which has three processors).
It matters for:
How many sustained Frames per Second do you have. IOW how quick it moves the images in the buffer and how quickly empties the buffer on card. This also requires processing: creating the thumbnail, writting the EXIF data, appling some image processing options which are applied to RAW - for example Highlight Tone Priority (in Canon therms, google for it - Nikon has a similar feature).
AF engine management. Speed, two-way communication with the lenses etc.
- Metering management
- digital push/pull for certain ISO values.
- Lens corrections (Vigneting, some CA etc.)
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