Motorsport Snappers Survey?

What do you shoot?

  • RAW

    Votes: 40 54.1%

  • JPEG

    Votes: 33 44.6%

  • Other

    Votes: 1 1.4%
  • Total voters
    74
  • Poll closed .
P

PDS

Messages
217
Name
Peter
Edit My Images
Yes
Just a quickie aimed at Motorsport snappers..

What do you shoot, RAW or JPEG ??

Also, do you save them in a different format you shoot them in?

And if you can... WHY?
 
I always shoot RAW, i aim to get a couple of good shots from an event but only shoot for enjoyment and not for business. So i prefer to have full editing ability. I then save out a Jpeg after editing.

If you aiming at track days and trying to sell, shoot jpeg to avoid having to edit them all, but be confident about your settings and composition.
 
Always jpg also has the advantage of much more jpegs versus RAW when on burst mode.
 
Always RAW, bought a descent PC to handle the files - gives a higher 'keeper' rate as quite often shots that would get binned if they were JPG can be saved easily from the RAW file.

.DAVID.
 
RAW for me, but I am ruthless when reviewing images in camera to minimise transfer and processing time when I get home. I use a 1D3, so the RAW files aren't as big as the 7D. I also upgraded my PC at home last year so Lightroom 3 handles the images effortlessly.
 
JPEG all the way, I hate editing and do it as little as possible, so if I can upload a photo without touching it I will.

I'm tempted to try it one day, mainly because when playing around with super slow panning (which I do, a lot) it can be near impossible to nail the exposure, so I would be interested to know how many shots I can retrieve that appear to be overexposed.
 
For the amount I take at least, storage is relatively cheap and transfer speeds needn't be too slow.

I can see the advantage of jpg at times, but much prefer the quality of RAW.
 
So, at the moment pretty even 50-50? Well it is 10-10 actually!
Curious... From what the people that use or who haved used RAW seem to be saying (unless I have got this wrong) the adjustments made to RAW are better?

Then my question is: Do you need to adjust them THAT much??
 
Also depends on the camera, some cheaper models can't shoot a high enough burst rate in RAW, the high end can, mine can handle RAW quickly enough which also depends on the card you are using too.
 
Jpg unless it's a really challenging low light subject like night racing.

Raw is too big for the amount I shoot week in week out and most of the time the flexibility isn't needed for what I do.
 
JPG, without exception.

Over a race weekend (three days), I could spend upwards of ten hours shooting trackside. That's far too many pictures to be editing in RAW...
 
I shoot jpeg for everything.
I know that with RAW you have more chance of recovery if you get it wrong but with the histogram and the lcd on the camera what are the chances?
I know I am in the minority but I have never seen the advantages personally.
 
JPG all the way. I literally can't see a point for my type of shooting. Im not usually that bad at taking photos that i need a second stab at getting it right.
 
PDS said:
Curious... From what the people that use or who haved used RAW seem to be saying (unless I have got this wrong) the adjustments made to RAW are better?

Then my question is: Do you need to adjust them THAT much??
Click to expand...

In short ..... No. Shooting RAW doesn't mean you forget about getting it right in camera.

Any PP adjustments, no matter how small, are best done to the original file, which can then be output to a (compressed) jpg format. Personally, I never do anything to a jpg file, I just see it as a final output (both in the day job and for my photography).

That said, file size can be an issue...

Cheers,

David
 
No of course you can have a standard process just the same as you get in camera and lightroom can apply it as you import but the amount of space consumed both in memory cards and storage and backups is mental.

Plus how often does the limitations of jpg processing really come into play?
 
Doing without it is CHEAPER :)
 
D_M_J said:
Any PP adjustments, no matter how small, are best done to the original file, which can then be output to a (compressed) jpg format. Personally, I never do anything to a jpg file, I just see it as a final output (both in the day job and for my photography).
Click to expand...

So.. you shoot in RAW and save a copy in jpg?

I'm not judging, I'm just trying to find out what other snappers do?
 
PDS said:
So.. you shoot in RAW and save a copy in jpg?

I'm not judging, I'm just trying to find out what other snappers do?
Click to expand...

I shoot RAW only, then ouput (after any PP) to JPG, output differently depending on use (website/print etc.). Occasionally output tiffs, but they do take some space ;)

Its is very interesting to see what others are working.

Cheers,

David
 
Jpeg all day long. I never really do much editing to my motorsport shots so it's just pointless wasting my storage space on files that aren't needed.
 
i find you cant do such dynamic range with jpeg.. thats why i miss RAW..
could shoot something into the sun and brighten up the underexposed bits and recover the sky... looks very bad when you do that with jpeg.
 
jpeg for me

used to shoot raw when i had my 10D, just took up loads of space and didnt notice it to be any better, and i dont edit that much anyway
 
Last edited:
Gary said:
i find you cant do such dynamic range with jpeg.. thats why i miss RAW..
could shoot something into the sun and brighten up the underexposed bits and recover the sky... looks very bad when you do that with jpeg.
Click to expand...

Thats a situation that you can switch to RAW though. For the majority of shots you can stick with jpeg.
 
I shoot raw when shooting for my pleasure.

Jpeg gives you a higher burst rate. It depends on your cameras capability and where you are on a track for example. Cars goign through a slow corner lets you get away with more than a fast corner to try and capture.
 
I don't think burst rate has a lot to do with it, apart from those rare crash drama moments.

I've always thought what a motorsport camera needs is a "panic button" which instanstly drops the camera into high speed frame rate and ups the shutter speed to something mental along with raising the ISO to match.... so you can be in single shot, ISO100, 1/20th panning then when something crashes, whack the panic button and hose away.

Neither Canon nor Nikon have answered my emails on the subject... bloody non-motorsport togs!
 
Like the panic button idea !

Whilst Lightroom makes handling either JPG or RAW easy, its simply the time taken to download images off the card, review them, process them, and get them on their way to the people who need them on a Sunday night/Monday morning - or during the course of a race weekend, that makes JPG the preferred option.

I guess if I had a 1D I could send JPGs to one card and RAWs to another and have some of the best of both worlds.
 
I've thought about that panic button before. Whether you'd remember to hit the button during a crash is another thing though lol
 
I guess the nearest thing to the panic button is the custom modes on the dial of some Canon bodies, but still a bit more fiddly than needed.
 
Love the panic button idea

Hate it when im playing at low shutter speeds and something happens. Never seems to come out right when a crash happens and im in 1/25th or something like that
 
andrewc said:
Like the panic button idea !
I guess if I had a 1D I could send JPGs to one card and RAWs to another and have some of the best of both worlds.
Click to expand...

I thought this. Good in theory, poor in reality in my experience.

In reality you use the JPG images and never touch the raw images as lets face it you dont want to edit images twice!
 
My 40D had the custom modes on the left hadn rotary knob/dial that I programmed to have two different shutter speeds, and ISO settings. I would use one setting for cars coming towards me, then turn the dial with my finger to switch to slower shutter speeds for panning as the car passed. It was great for cars that only ever completed one lap ;)

Never thought about having another setting for something like 1/800th and higher ISO, and think a panic button is a fantastic idea. I always seem to capture crashes with a shutter speed of 1/80th and end up with a blurry mess most of the time :D

In Shutter priority mode, I can use the top dial on the 1D3 to quickly change the shutter speed, normally 3 clicks takes me from from 1/320th to 1/160th and vice-versa.

I've only once used the write RAW to CF and JPGs to SD function. I saved small JPGs to the SD card, and never had any intention of using them for final images. I was supplying images for the circuit to use on their website throughout the day, and low res JPGs was all they needed. Only took them a minute or so to copy from the SD card, which I then reformatted when I put it back in the camera, ready for the next session.

John
 
Used to always shoot RAW (Nef) and Jpeg so I had it just in case
BUT
rarely used it
so now shoot Jpeg especially when I may need to catch a lot of shots (buffer runs out after 8 or so in raw)
Use Jpeg and raw though still for static shots "just in case" but dont think I have had to use the raw this year
for me its a speed / number of frames issue with raw enabled I felt I was losing some shots as the buffer filled to capacity and couldnt write to card fast enough
 
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