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taob wrote:
Let me first start off by saying yes, there is a difference between 12-bit vs. 14-bit, and lossy vs. lossless. No question there, since the file sizes suggest this quite clearly. The real question (to be made individually by each photographer) is whether those differences are relevant to their shooting style.
Okay, with that out of the way, let me start with some simple examples. Here are 9 crops at 100% from the D800 at ISO 6400. To make things easier, I've only used the extreme raw compression settings: either 12-bit lossy (about a 35MB NEF) or 14-bit lossless (about a 50MB NEF). Click on the thumbnail to download the full-resolution file:
Can you see any differences? Are you able to tell which images are shot at what settings? This is the point many people have made in the past: there is a mathematical difference between the various compression options, but you are not going to notice 99.9% of the time. I figure I'll use this as a starting point, then move on to situations that do show the differences....Show more →
Thanks for this work Brian. I would be interested in seeing your more extreme examples. I shoot primarily Landscape, so getting the most dynamic range I can out of a shot, and being able to pull as much detail from the extremes of a shot are so important to me. I do remember testing the difference between 12 bit and 14 bit before. It was a few years back, not sure now which camera it was, whether it was the D200 or the D700, but yeah, some shots, when the light range fell well within the dynamic range of the camera, the difference was not really noticable. But in those cases, where I was trying to recover more detail from shadows and highlights, especially highlights, is where I found the 14 bit did give me that slight bit more detail I could recover.
So it will be interesting to see what you discover here. I appreciate your time on this.
Jim
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