Andy Williams from SmugMug posted an article about the CHDK firmware enhancement for certain Canon digital cameras back in August.
Apparently, CHDK allows you to extend the capabilities of your Canon digicam, adding features such as RAW shooting. Prosumer and Professional DSLR cameras allow you to shoot in RAW, which gives you complete control over your image.
RAW format is often called “digital negative,” because it must be processed from the original capture into a viewable picture, in much the same way that a negative must be processed to create a picture. Actually, all digital cameras shoot in RAW, but most cameras process the file into a simpler format (usually JPEG), discarding image information it judges unimportant. Unlike just taking a just picture and printing it, shooting in RAW requires you to use software that can open and convert the RAW image into a standard format for printing or display on the internet. It is an extra step, but one that gives you a lot of power to correct mistakes or simply make your image look as good as possible. I have also found it to be a great way to understand the process of creating a picture that expresses what I wanted to say.
I’ve been thinking lately it would be cool if smaller cameras had that capability. It turns out that a few do, but mine doesn’t. Most are designed for people who just want to “point and shoot”. And there is nothing wrong with that. But still, it might be cool to have the capability to do more.
I’ll give this a look. But then I was thinking, even if I can set up my Canon Ixy 800IS to shoot RAW, I would have to see how I could convert the images to use them, because RAW files are proprietary, and not all formats can be read in every converter. I am sure I could do it, but it might be a lot more trouble than it is worth.
Maybe I’ll just stick with JPEGs for my digicam, and leave the RAW photography to my Nikon D70s.
Further Reading
If you’d like to learn more about RAW photography, the Wikipedia article on Raw Image Format is an excellent place to start. As a counterpoint, professional photographer Ken Rockwell has an interesting article arguing against shooting RAW. A lot of people on the internet attack him for this, but I think he makes a good argument. If you take the picture right in the first place, you shouldn’t need to do a lot of image tweeking on your computer.
Here are some additional references, if you’d like to learn more about shooting RAW:
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