REDELIJKHEID
The RAW file format holds much more information than you can see with your eyes. Sure, shooting in in JPEG leaves you with smaller size photos (in terms of storage), which results in more photos on your memory cards. This results in faster transfers to your PC, and Photoshop is more responsive to smaller files. So there are numerous occasions where JPEG seems more than enough, until you do need that (little) extra RAW information....
Just watch the following video.
Nuff said, I think.
The LX3 is in my possession for a couple of weeks, and last weekend I noticed something annoying. When I imported the photos in Adobe Lightroom, some of the photos were imported as RAW, and some as JPG.
By default I set my cameras on RAW (if they support it). When I purchased the LX3 there was no RAW importer for Lightroom or Photoshop, so I shot in RAW+JPG. This way I could see the photos and could work with the RAW files when a proper RAW converter (Adobe Camera RAW) cae along.
I checked the format settings and these were set at RAW, so where did those JPG's came from?
After some searching I found that the iA mode of the camera (intelligent Auto) decides which image quality setting to use. Something I didn't find in the manual (or I read over it).
Anyway, it's annoying as hell.
Adobe released an update for Adobe Camera RAW. The update adds RAW support in Photoshop for the following camera's;
The Camera RAW update dosn't include the RAW capabilities for Lightroom. The upcoming Lightroom v2.2 update (scheduled for December 2009) will incorporate the RAW capabilities for these camera's.