Frank wrote:.

Are tiff and raw the same thing with different names?.

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a relatively standard bitmap format. For a camera to generate a TIFF file, it has to process the data it gets from it's sensor so as to agree with the standard. Raw files are the supposedly unmodified signals from each sensor pixel and are different for each camera..

So if you have something that reads TIFF files, it should read any TIFF file from any source. But you need the specific translator for each camera's raw file to read it..

Leonard Migliore..

Just expanding on what Leonard said, TIFFs are good for either archiving or if you want to do further processing after doing the RAW conversion. RAW (and TIFF's too I think) use a loseless compression algorithm, as opposed to JPEG which uses a lossy algorithm. So you can make changes to TIFFs and RAWs with no degradation of images (artifacts) that you see with JPEGs or other file formats that use a lossy compression algorithm. Like Leonard said, TIFFs are widely recognized and most imaging software can recognize a TIFF file, whereas a RAW file is specific to your make of camera, so you either need a plug-in to recognize the RAW file or use the software that came with your camera..

What I've found is that TIFFs are MUCH bigger than RAW. I don't know if it's b/c the TIFFs my RAW converter generates are not compressed or if the compression algorithm is worse or what. But as an example, I have the Canon XT, 8MP camera. One image I had was around 7Mb in RAW format and 22Mb in TIFF format. I only convert to TIFF though if I want to do some further processing in Photoshop Elements..

Just trying to learn.

Blog: http://novicephotog.blogspot.com/Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9778447@N07/..

Riceowl wrote:.

What I've found is that TIFFs are MUCH bigger than RAW..

That's due to demosaicing. Every pixel in the TIFF is RGB, in RAW is R, G, or B..

Seen in a fortune cookie:Fear is the darkroom where negatives are developed..

Frank wrote:.

Are tiff and raw the same thing with different names?.

Raw is, as it's name suggests unprocessed or "uncooked". After processing, the result can be saved as a jpeg or tiff..

It is a one-way trip. That is to say, you can create a tiff file from raw. But you cannot create a raw file from tiff..

Tiff is used in preference to jpeg to save the result of procesing the raw file for two main reasons:.

1. tiff is lossless, unlike jpeg which discards information in order to reduce file size..

2. tiff may contain 16 bits per pixel (or 8 bits), but jpeg has only 8 bits per pixel.Regards,Peter..

Adobe Camera Raw converter is usually pretty good if you don't want to install the bloatware that comes with the camera. It supports a lot of cameras & it's a free download..

I like shooting in RAW, it's easy to fix the white balance (keep messing that up) & it doesn't kill the photo to edit it. But the file sizes are much larger than JPEGs.'OOOOOH, they have the Internet on computers now!' Homer J. Simpson..