NIKON Z SERIES - 2 MINUTE TIPS #73 = NEF RAW settings on the nikon z50, z6 & z7

[@marcelbarriel]

I shoot at the highest quality but your explanation was helpful for when I need higher frame rates. Thank you

[@AF8Images]

Thanks Marcel, glad you found it useful. Regards, Adrian

[@saketpawar6965]

Thank you, its was informative. I was planning 12 bit lossless compressed, but since I don't need high frame rates shots, I would go with 14 bit uncompressed. Always good to have a high quality image.

[@gregallenphoto]

Very helpful. Does the camera have a setting to “stylise “ the raw file in camera ? Great vids.

[@afromalone]

Great vid. Much appreciated. A video describing or demonstrating how to reverse the compression would be greatly appreciated.

[@vladislavkremenetskiy]

Do you have any information about nikon z50? Cause, perhaps, nikon z50 doesn’t have variants of raw

[@AF8Images]

You are right the Z50 has less options when it comes to RAW and it only shoots in uncompressed RAW but you still have the option of 12-bit or 14-bit depth. 12-bit files are ~20MB and 14-bit ~25MB so I would personally choose 14-bit as it gives more color range. Hope this helps.

[@vladislavkremenetskiy]

@@AF8Images thanks for your reply. I was hoping, the raw wouldn’t be compressed

[@AF8Images]

That's good. I believe that it's uncompressed, although with some of the higher end cameras that come with compression the algorithms are becoming so good that it's almost impossible to see👍

[@ThrottleRaaja]

awesome explanation thanks.

[@miloradkaravidin8818]

Thanks for great informative video. My settings are compressed +fine, but definitely will change to lossless compressed +fine*. One question. Do pictures take with electronic shutter have same dynamic range as ones with mechanical shutter. Also when check shutter count do we get number of pictures taken with mechanical shutter only or both electronic and mechanical. Keep safe!!!

[@AF8Images]

I don't believe the type of shutter changes the dynamic range as that is really the sensor. And wrt the shutter count I did a test a while back and from memory it counts both as an actuation. Hope this helps. Cheers, Adrian

[@ponceje2011]

Thanks for information. :)

[@HisenloKentRengma]

I shoot 14 bit lossless on my z7ii but planning to shoot 12 bit to save storage now. I shoot weddings.

[@AF8Images]

Transfer / storage / processing is increasingly the bottleneck as you say. I'm seeing some good results with NEF Hi-efficiency RAW which could be a good option.

[@AF8Images]

I know many of you shoot RAW - so what's your chosen settings? and your logic for them?

[@alanbaxter8457]

Thanks for a great and really informative video, Adrian. I have always shot NEF at 14-bit uncompressed but, thanks to your clear explanations of the differences in compression, I am going to try 12-bit Lossless Compression for a while and see if I can notice a difference in quality. Incidentally, you say this is a reversible compression - I'm not sure how to go about reversing this if necessary. Could you explain briefly please? Thanks again.

[@lawrencefanfair8867]

How to set nikon z 7ii to shoot both raw & jpeg

[@barbarap2757]

I have Z7 and was just advised to set my RAW to compressed. I've watched your video (thank you) a few times. As I follow along on my menu, I touch all the items; yet when I go back to MENU it shows a -- -- next to NEF (RAW) recording -- -- . So somehow maybe I am not getting to do "ON Lossless compressed". Any suggestions. Does it have to do with IMAGE SIZE: CHOICES are: RAW L or RAW M or RAW Small ? I have RAW L. Thank you for helping me. Barbara

[@emersontumata7697]

coming from canon, THANK YOU

[@jpdj2715]

Adrian, "we need to talk". About bit depth. Now the general rationale in your treatment of the subject, fine with me - in line with your pleasant presentation. How come, DxO rate a camera's RGB bit depth at 26.3 bits? That is only a bit more than 3x8 (8+8+8) RGB bit depth you get in JPEG. Two bits more and you have 4 times more nuances. The problem here starts with the sensor. A sensor has no pixels, but photovoltaic cells (PVC - these cells by insiders are often called photosites and they are resistors who's resistance varies by the light falling on them). These PVC are analogue, dead or passive. And a basic sensor is just a grid or array of such cells. Also, these cells are colorblind - they see the visible light spectrum but cannot distinguish colors. We should say they are "monochrome" or as old black & white film that registered nuances of the entire visible spectrum "panchromatic". Yet colorblind. In a digital camera that needs to "do color" we now have two challenges: turn analog into digital and also acquire color. Well the analogue to digital (AD) conversion is relatively easy, but experts in hi-end audio will now say "no it is far from trivial, difficult actually, electronically, to do well). Color is acquired by placing color filters over the sensor. A separate filter over each PVC. And these are arranged in a regular pattern according to Mr. Bayer. In cameras of a couple years old, the AD conversion may still be a discrete circuit between sensor and the camera's compute architecture. But sensors exist that have the AD circuit bundled - integrated if you like. If you read the specifications of these sensors with AD bundled then you can see that they may do 16 bits. Then read on and you will find they actually only have 14 photographic bits for the camera and two are for color or coordinate, I guess. 14 bits at the AD stage level. This is where Hasselblad use a discrete AD conversion circuit paired with an older sensor because they want 16 bits. With the filters, we now have specialized PVC: 50% of the PVC are under a green filter, 25% under a red and 25% under a blue filter. Now a camera with 14 bits depth can scan the sensor (measure resistance of each PVC, convert to 14 bits digital and store these) We do not have 14 bits RGB, but we have PVC readings with 14 bits (raw-raw) related to red cells, 14 to green cells and 14 to blue cells. And we do not have pixels because pixels have RGB trio values. Now the computer and firmware in the camera must start a process to imagine (fake) pixels - this is De-Bayerization. What happens is, the environment of a red PVC is compared mathematically with the red cell and the environment between each other and the software makes a guess of what the RGB value of that red PVC could have been. The resulting "red" PVC (raw-raw) value likely drops now. Colors are extrapolated by interpolation. As the Bayer arrangement of color specialization is a fixed pattern, this naive process causes fake color patterns when there are patterns in the subject called Moiré patterns. Now the software in the camera starts a process to remove that: de-mosaicking. Overall, we lose a significant amount from the "14 bits" we started with and - DxO - end up with a 26.3 RGB bits color space. The bit depth in the camera is important - I prefer 14 at all times, but we need to relate bit depth (nuances, gradation) to dynamic range. Are my 14 bits better than 10 when I have 14 f-stops dynamic range and the 10-bits camera has 10 f-stops dynamic range? I'd say that we both may have equally good nuances in the center 5 f-stops of the dynamic range that we could print on paper. In the process to convert the raw-raw PVC readings, when the camera cooks up RGB, the firmware will also apply some AI like convolution and apply some image recognition as the cooking up can be improved that way and the generation of JPEGs can be improved and the down-scaling for a viewfinder can be improved that way. Bottom line: the raw file saved to card is a cooked-up version. Cooked up beyond well done. Am I saying that our 26.3 RGB "raw" shots are not much better than JPEG? No because the JPEG was subjected to lossy compression and unused data are removed as well as details abstracted. This is hard to get back. So our cooked-up, well-done, raw file has much more information still and allows many more different versions to be generated from that. Would I ever set my camera to 12 bits? I might want to try that actually, when moving into ISO territory where dynamic range is reduced, or in low light levels, thus hoping color noise is reduced.

[@vueport99]

Anyone got any comments on Small Medium Large Raw?

[@AF8Images]

Thansk for the great comment - I've added a thought or two in this Short - kzbin.infoZWwDtUCD_Vs?feature=share