What is Raw Data?
Raw data, also known as source data or atomic data, is data that has not been processed in order to be displayed in any sort of presentable form. The raw form may look very unrecognizable and be nearly meaningless without processing, but it may also be in a form that some can interpret, depending on the situation. Raw data can be processed manually or by a machine. Raw data in some cases, can be nothing more than a series of numbers. However, the way those numbers are sequenced, and sometimes even the way they are spaced, can be very important information. A computer may interpret this information and give a readout that then may make sense to the reader. Binary code is a good example of raw data. Taken by itself as a printout, a binary code does very little for the computer user, at least the vast majority of users. However, when it is processed through a computer, it provides more understandable information. In fact, binary code is often the source code for everything a computer user
RAW data can be described as the actual original information that your digital camera collects from viewing an object. So to say: RAW data is the original information that is received before being processed by the components of your digital camera. Digital cameras consists of various electrical components, however the fundamental principles of taking digital pictures are simple. As you can see in the above illustration, light from an image passes through the lens of a digital camera and is then projected onto the image sensor (referred to as a CCD or CMOS image pickup device). The image sensor is the device that converts the light into digital data (light intensity value). The data converted by the image sensor is called RAW data. Usually, this RAW data is then converted to JPEG or TIFF format (pictures that you would usually view on a computer) by the digital camera and saved in the memory. If you take a picture and save it as RAW data, you cannot view the image before it is processed
