I'm not sure what you mean by "will it be full size". The iPad wont resample the photo to a lower resoution for storage purposes. The iPad screen doesn't have as many pixels as the image -- but neither do any computers. A very high resolution computer display is still just a few megapixels... vs your camera's 18 megapixels.
Some applications will resample the images to a smaller size. I have Photoshop Touch on my iPad and it's limited in the maximum resolution of a single image. But it will create a copy of the image.
A RAW image file has a filename extension of .CR2. RAW means that the computer inside the camera wont apply any changes to the image which results in a loss of original data. There are reasons why this is an advantage that make more sense when you find out how JPEG images work.
When the camera shoots JPEG it will apply many adjustments to the image. It will apply a "white balance" adjustment based on the setting you selected. It will also apply "picture style" adjustments. It will process the image to reduce noise if it was shot at a high ISO. It may also apply some sharpening. But the big issue is how JPEG handles compression to reduce filesizes. If two adjacent pixels in JPEG image are not technically the same hue and brightness -- but they are so close that the human eye probably wont notice the difference... then a JPEG image aids compression by changing the pixels so that they are exactly the same hue and brightness. In a RAW image, those pixels would have remained as-is (no change can be applied to a RAW if it would result in a loss of original data.)
This means that if you want to adjust a JPEG later to recover some detail, you may discover that the JPEG has lost the detail completely... but the RAW file still has the detail. This is especially noticeable in highlights and shadows. For this reason, RAW files are much more friendly to you if you need to adjust the image on your computer... a JPEG may not cooperate.
JPEG, however, is an excellent "final output" format because the main drawback of JPEG is the limitations on being able to adjust the image later (and if it's a "final output" it wont need to be adjusted later.) JPEG is far more universal -- just about anything can read a JPEG. RAW is more a "concept" than a specific file format... every camera model has it's own camera RAW nuances and if you hand your friends a RAW file, they may not be able to view it.
RAW files typically NEED at least *some* adjustment after you take them. I woudl never shoot an image in RAW format and just hand it to someone without doing anything at all to it... unless I knew the person receiving the image was planning to perofrm the adjustments themselves (e.g. someone in the publishing industry might do that.) JPEG comes out of your camera with most adjustments already applied. If you nailed the exposure and if the image doesn't have problems with highlights and shadows, then the JPEG image will come out of the camera looking better than the RAW image.
The Canon software that came with your camera can handle all of your cameras formats. If you do plan to shoot in RAW someday, be aware that there are some photo processing applications specifically optimized for working with a RAW workflow. On a Mac, Aperture is very good ($79). On a PC, Adobe Lightroom is very good ($149).
Just remember:
JPEG - more universal, smaller sizes, but less adjustable if the image needs work. Camera applies lots of processing in-camera before saving this file.
RAW - not universal (your friends will probably not be able ot just open a RAW file), big files, but provides the best possible adjustment latitude if the image needs work. Camera does not apply any in-camera adjustments to this file.
Tim Campbell
5D III, 5D IV, 60Da
