Image file type

[~Raven~]

You will get better results if you shoot in RAW but you need to process them in photoshop (via the RAW plugin) or the software that comes with your camera. It doesn't take too long once you get used to it.

It is great because although you think you have done everything right, sometimes you can have an unexpected result such as a colour cast from the wrong light balance which is a disaster in jpeg but in RAW it's just a click and it's fixed. You also are able to adjust the exposure with better results than with a jpeg file (sometimes jpegs will look noisy or grainy if they are underexposed and you try to lighten them).

I read an explanation of it somewhere that was kind of like this:
RAW saves the data just as it appears. Imagine a line of 100 white dots. RAW will save the image as "dot No1 = white, dot No2 = white, and so on to dot No100 = white.
Jpeg will compress the data and save it as dot 1-100 = white.

It's a huge learning curve so perhaps just shoot in jpegs to begin with and then try out RAW when you get the hang of it.

[Schmickers]

RAW essentially saves raw data from the CCD - not a picture, but a stream of data that can be processed in various ways to produce a picture. It is the "first step" in the process of creating a digital image from the camera.

JPG actually processes that raw data to produce an image. The file is able to be opened and viewed.

For most people, JPG is the best option. The reason that RAW is used is that it allows professional photographers to take the burden of processing the CCD data from the camera and onto their PC afterwards - and as mentioned, this means they can be flexible with the way that image is processed and produced, which is not possible on the camera itself when you have it automatically convert it's images to JPGs.

[Heaven]

Thankyou guys for all your information!!
Makes sense now!!