Digicam file formats

Looking at the digital camera, a person can visualize it as a combination of a camera with a miniature computer system that stores images as files or sets of bits, rather than a chemically treated film. Therefore, it is going to be a fact that there are certain file formats, as these images of photographs captured by the camera are stored. And again, this is the subject of discussion for understanding the digital camera properly. In this effort this discussion reveals the intricate but overlying to provide a brief overview for readers about file formats in digital cameras.

Basically, strictly in light of, there are three file formats used by digital cameras to create images of photographs taken of them. These are JPEG, TIFF and RAW. These are the names of the formats but like their strange names their identity remains in darkness, if not spoken in a small detail. The most vast and widely used file format for digital cameras is the JPEG file format. It is again and again the lone available file format on the primary and some intermediate standard digital cameras. Many advanced digital cameras allow users to choose between JPEG, TIFF and RAW. But professional photographers usually prefer to shoot RAW. But this estimate remains with the human preference only.

It is a fact that the acronym JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Expert Group "after the group that developed this file type. To make things easier it must be clarified that JPEG is a compression technique that can significantly reduce the file size of a photograph or other continuous tone images. Almost all digital cameras have a series of JPEG compression levels and quality settings to choose from. Users can make use of them as per estimate and took the picture. Thus jpeg images do not consume much space on a memory card. Another specialty of this digital camera file format is that JPEGs store camera settings and scene information. All these advantages make this file format so popular and accepted differently.

The next digital camera file format is TIFF (Tagged Image File Format). This file format has greater advantage of no loss of image data during compression and also as a result it takes a lot of space from a storage card compared to a JPEG image. Due to this detailed storage, also takes extra time to retrieve information on the card. Basic TIFF compression reduces images to about a third of their original size as per convention.

Coming to the next digital camera file format. It is defined as the RAW file! It is also sometimes referred to as an appropriate digital negative. Most advanced digital cameras allow or permit the ability to shoot RAW in professional standards. The interesting part is that in a RAW image no changes have been made by the camera (such as sharpening or white balance). And it gives full control to the photographer when he or she processes an image later. However this RAW file format is not used extensive due to the fact that most image editing programs can not open it and computer-processing time is also more. But the fact remains that a RAW image is a smaller file size than a TIFF. With all these discussions about the different digital camera file formats, it is clear that the three most widely used file formats have their own advantages and disadvantages, but they are unique in some way or another that makes them special in their own way. The knowledge about these digital camera file formats, storage method not only yields greater understanding of the camera, and it also opens the eyes towards the fantastic results of technological progress in our daily lives.