Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8 JPEG versus RAW comparison
To evaluate the effect of the FZ8’s in-camera processing and compression, we recorded a best-quality JPEG followed by a RAW version of the same scene immediately afterwards. The JPEG and RAW files measured 3.3MB and 11MB respectively.
The FZ8's RAW files are supported by Adobe Camera RAW 4.x, so we converted the file in Photoshop CS3 using the default settings and 'as-shot' White Balance, before exporting
the image as a 16-bit TIFF. We then opened the file in CS3, converted it to 8-bit, then cropped and saved the image using the same JPEG settings as above.
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Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8 JPEG versus RAW |
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JPEG, f5.6, 100 ISO |
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RAW conversion, f5.6, 100 ISO |
The crop from the RAW conversion on the right reveals a great deal about the JPEG processing of the FZ8. There's clearly less sharpness, lower contrast and greater evidence of noise. Of course the RAW file gives you the opportunity to apply your own levels of sharpening, contrast and noise reduction using more sophisticated tools, and while it's a concern to find such obvious noise at 100 ISO, we greatly appreciate having a RAW option on the FZ8. Of course as always, different source material, not to mention different RAW converters may deliver different results.
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