Wednesday 25 July 2018

canon - What are the advantages/disadvantages of sRAW or mRAW files compared to fullsize RAW?


Are there any non-obvious advantages/disadvantages of setting my 7D to use small or medium RAW instead of large?


I seldom print pictures, and the way I take photos the sensor is almost never the limiting factor when it comes to resolution. Hence I tend to use small RAW size, as that gives me more shots from the same CF and limits disk-guzzling.


Apart from the risk of missing out on some great shot that could've been even greater cropped or printed in large sizes, are there any technical considerations doing this?


Theoretically, less pixels in the final image than in the sensor should leave room for noise-reduction through interpolation, but I guess that's not happening?




Answer



You may be able to sacrifice a bunch of pixels before your final rendering of the image, especially if you're just going to display the image on the web. However, by choosing a smaller filesize in camera, you lose control over how those pixels are lost. There are many different ways to downscale an image (this question shows several); each has its own set of advantages and disadvantages; some are sharper for certain image types than others, etc.


Probably the most useful way to throw away pixels is by cropping. You won't be able to crop as tightly and still have a sharp image if you're only storing half-size RAWs.


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