What is the difference between Digital RAW Capture and JPEG?
All digital point-and-shoots produce JPEG images, while high-end cameras have the ability to produce JPEG images or RAW images. High-end cameras shooting RAW capture at least 12 bits, or 4096 shades, of tonal information per pixel. The JPEG format, however, is limited to 8 bits per channel per pixel, so when you shoot JPEG, youre trusting the cameras built-in raw converter to throw away a large amount of the captured data in a way that will hopefully do the image justice.
