After all this discussion (so far) I kinda hate to jump in. I teach digital photography. I even taught a class called: Should I shoot Raw? After 3 hours of discussion and looking at examples the answer was - depends. Let me try to share some of my thoughts in a brief manner. Are you a computer whiz? Do you like to spend more time setting at the computer than you do taking pictures? Shoot raw. Realize that when you shoot raw you have not yet created a picture. You are required to spend some time at the computer to turn that file into something. If you shoot jpg, you have a picture. Yes, in theory there is more info in a raw file to play with. I have yet to meet many people who are great at extracting this additional info. Let's shoot side by side, same camera, subject, light, etc. I'll shoot jpg and you shoot raw. I have a lot of experience doing this. Trust me. My jpg straight out the camera will look better than anything you can create in say, 2 hours of work using your raw file. I am not bragging, just trying to make a small point. In all my photography classes I strive to teach people to become better photographers and not people who need Photoshop. I do not have or use Photoshop. Yes, Irfanview is wonderful software that I tell all my students to get. If you have a Canon camera you already have a great processor for jpg or raw files - called DPP. Final thought - do what works for you. Stop reading 98% of what Google leads you to. Gene
