Are there advantages in shooting RAW

What advantages do you get by shooting in RAW to say shooting in the superfine Jpeg and is TIFF going out as it doesn't seem to be talked about so much these days also I work in photo developing (High St Chemist)and TIFF files take all day to convert on our machines would this be the same with RAW
Thanks Sue

God yes!!

RAW holds much more information then JPEGs. It allows for much better PP. White balance can be changed along with exposure settings and sharpness and much more. This is why they take longer to load and take up more space on your memory card or harddrive

I almoast always shoot RAW!

I always shoot raw too, because of the reasons K has put.
Raw is not compressed - whereas jpeg always is, even at the highest setting.

I've only ever taken a couple of Raw images but then I couldn't get them open on anything.

I use FastStone and Picasa and they both show RAW (Picasa didn't used to but does now) ..failing that, Nikin should do a proprietry viewer if you are using a Nikon I know that Canon have one

Didn't you get picture project with your camera Phil? Also, when you install it it adds a plug-in to your photoshop so you can view raw files in there. Also... they have a plug-in that let's windows see raw files like normal ones, so you get a preview of them like jpegs etc..

I certainly feel that RAW is a good format to shoot in, however I don't use it all the time. It all depends on what subject and shot I am aiming to get. I take a lot of action shots and the buffer on my camera can only hold 6 RAW files as oppose to 23 JPEGS - this is the reason many sports photographers choose not to shoot in RAW.

Normally though, I use the RAW + JPEG setting so get both

It depends on what you are photographing, if your doing studio work (modeling/fashion etc) then with raw the finest of details can be altered, especially if it is for posters.
I can fully understand professional photographers only using RAW but the average photo JPeg for someone like me is quite good enough.


Bazza

I normally shot in Raw it all depends on what i'am shooting though as sometimes i dont need the detail so shot in jpeg & it all depends on how many memory cards i have with me.

I got Canon Zoombrowser EX with my first Canon IXUS which I've just realised has a raw converter. When I first started putting my pics onto my PC everything went through Zoombrowser into a Canon gallery.

When I got my Nikon I stopped using Zoombrowser and started to use Nikon Picture project (and Nikon Fotoshare) but didn't bother much with Picture project after I got Photoshop. Again this put everything into a 'Nikon' gallery.

From memory I installed Photoshop after the Picture project and Nikon Fotoshare and since then have just loaded pictures into 'my pictures' folder on my PC.