Nikon D700 14bit or 12bit RAW?

Joeturner11

Joeturner11

Messages
6,448
Name
Joe
Edit My Images
No
I have been recently reading online there is no point with the D700 camera's in shooting 14bit raw, I currently shoot 14bit raw and lossless compression. Iam thinking about changing it to 12bit Compressed to save space on the hard drives and cards. Will I notice any difference when shooting my sport and wildlife photography other than more card space?

Joe
 
In my experience it's horses for courses. My default setting is 14bit lossless as it doesn't significantly increase the file size, compared to 12bit, and I'm a firm believer in having as much information in the image as I can get.

If I need the maximum frame rate in continuous shooting, however, I drop it to 12bit lossless. I never shoot 12bit compressed. When shooting sports (like you mention) then I use 12bit uncompressed.

In terms of image quality or what the extra bits give you in post processing; I think you'd be hard pressed to see the difference. 14bit does give you some additional leeway to bump the exposure of shadows without creating visible artefacts. There's almost nothing to be gained in the highlights areas.

Hope that helps :thumbs:
 
had a d300 before my 700 and the video i bought to learn about the settings said leave it in 12 as the difference was minimal, hth mike.
 
I do quite a lot of heavy lifting in shadows and have noticed zero difference in the results obtained when shooting 12 bit vs 14 bit, so I shoot 12 bit.
 
Wider the bit depth, the better. However, the differences are not visibly apparent when just viewing the images, as you are viewing them at 8bit level (or even 6 bit if you have a cheap monitor... or most laptops). The difference is apparent when editing. If you need to stretch the histogram excessively then a higher bit depth image will withstand artefacts such as banding much better.

14 lossless compressed is the best option.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top