Sophie

A camera raw image file contains minimally processed data from the image sensor of either a digital camera, image scanner, or motion picture film scanner. Raw files are named so because they are not yet processed and therefore are not ready to be printed or edited with a bitmap graphics editor.

RAW is the raw image that the camera shoots. It saves all the data and the information for the image, with minimum processing. JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Expert Group. It is the most commonly used format for photographs. JPEG is specifically good for color photographs or for images with many blends or gradients.

If you save the RAW data, you can then convert it to a viewable JPEG or TIFF file at a later time on PC.

Both CCD (charge-coupled device) and CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) image sensors start at the same point -- they have to convert light into electrons.