Ray Sachs
Legend
- Location
- Not too far from Philly
- Name
- you should be able to figure it out...
I've been a raw shooter ever since I got back into photography a couple of years ago now. Except for Fuji. When I got the X100 last year I was getting jpegs that I could not match with my own raw processing skills, and the jpegs had enough latitude for plenty of post processing. When I got the X-Pro early last month, I was even more impressed and pleased with the jpegs and, even though there's no real raw processor for me to try my hand with the raws, I'm pretty sure I won't. For the short while I had a Ricoh GXR I shot with both raw and jpeg and could do more with the raw files, but was more than satisfied with the jpegs when doing a comparison, so I often just shot with jpegs on that camera too, but not always - in challenging situations I'd often shoot with raw.
So then when I got the Olympus EM5, I started shooting with jpegs because that's all that was supported initially. And I was happy with them - really happy with them. Everything I shot in New York that made it into my New York City Blurb book started life as a jpeg. No problems. So I thought maybe I'd stick with jpegs on the EM5 as well. But Apple added raw support recently and today we went for a hike in a nearby agricultural preserve and I took the Em5 and shot raw+jpeg just to do a comparison and see if I'd really be OK with the jpegs. And, turns out I'm not. With virtually every raw+jpeg pair I brought back, the jpeg looked really weak in comparison to what I was EASILY able to do with the raw files. Now I'm not the most sophisticated post processing scientist you'll ever meet, but I know what I like and I usually know how to get there, whether I could ever explain it or not. And I've generally found some benefit to shooting raw, but the Fujis have really challenged my assumptions about that. And I thought that as good as Olympus jpegs are generally considered to be, I might be just as well off sticking with the jpegs on that too. But it didn't happen and it took me about a minute and a half to be sure. Those EM5 raw files have a LOT hidden in them that the jpegs don't and I was able to pull up some shadows and even recover some apparently blown highlights in ways that the jpegs wouldn't even begin to allow.
So, I guess its still a case by case basis for me - I'm sticking with Fuji jpegs (although maybe I'll give the X-Pro raw files a shot once there's a good processor in Aperture), but for Olympus - no way. Still raw all the way.
-Ray
So then when I got the Olympus EM5, I started shooting with jpegs because that's all that was supported initially. And I was happy with them - really happy with them. Everything I shot in New York that made it into my New York City Blurb book started life as a jpeg. No problems. So I thought maybe I'd stick with jpegs on the EM5 as well. But Apple added raw support recently and today we went for a hike in a nearby agricultural preserve and I took the Em5 and shot raw+jpeg just to do a comparison and see if I'd really be OK with the jpegs. And, turns out I'm not. With virtually every raw+jpeg pair I brought back, the jpeg looked really weak in comparison to what I was EASILY able to do with the raw files. Now I'm not the most sophisticated post processing scientist you'll ever meet, but I know what I like and I usually know how to get there, whether I could ever explain it or not. And I've generally found some benefit to shooting raw, but the Fujis have really challenged my assumptions about that. And I thought that as good as Olympus jpegs are generally considered to be, I might be just as well off sticking with the jpegs on that too. But it didn't happen and it took me about a minute and a half to be sure. Those EM5 raw files have a LOT hidden in them that the jpegs don't and I was able to pull up some shadows and even recover some apparently blown highlights in ways that the jpegs wouldn't even begin to allow.
So, I guess its still a case by case basis for me - I'm sticking with Fuji jpegs (although maybe I'll give the X-Pro raw files a shot once there's a good processor in Aperture), but for Olympus - no way. Still raw all the way.
-Ray