ABOUT SUPER-FINE AND RAW IMAGE QUALITY
Because super-fine and RAW data files are so large, the UHS continuous-advance drive mode can- not be used with these image-quality settings. After capturing five RAW or three super fine images successively, there will be a a few minutes delay while the images are being saved to the memory card. The access lamp will glow and the monitors will be blank during this period.
In the RAW image-quality mode, the image size is set at full and cannot be changed. The image size will not be displayed on the monitors. The digital zoom, enlarged playback, data imprinting, and print functions cannot be used.
Unlike the other image-quality modes, RAW image data is unprocessed and requires image process- ing before it can be used. To view the RAW data, the DiMAGE Viewer software is required. This soft- ware can reconstruct the image and apply the same image processing controls as the camera. RAW data is saved as a 12-bit file; the DiMAGE Viewer software can convert this data into 24-bit or 48-bit TIFF files.
A RAW image is stored with a file header that contains white-balance information, changes made to contrast, saturation, and color with the Digital Effects Control, any image processing applied in a sub- ject-program setting, and changes to sharpness. The changes in camera sensitivity are applied to the RAW data; ISO values can be manually set to control noise (p. 48).
The camera’s image-processing controls apply the affect of the color modes to the live image dis- played on the monitors, but the stored data may not be influenced by the setting. The black and white color mode has no effect on the final image; a raw image taken in the black-and-white color mode can be restored to a color picture. However, black and white filter effects (p. 77) are not applied to a RAW image. The saturation difference between the Natural Color and Vivid Color modes is preserved in the RAW data, but the solarization color mode does not alter the image data. For more on color modes, see page 98.
