EOS RP Is RAW+JPG standard in A mode?

[AndyInAnnapolis]

Had my RP for about a year and have been using it in A mode.  Just learning about RAW mode and DPP.  If I stay in A mode do I get both a JPG and RAW image for each picture?  JPGs are usually find for most pics but would like the option of editing the RAW image for those shots which I'd like to edit/blow up.  Thanks

[johnrmoyer]

In the camera manual under setting image quality, it shows how to select both raw and JPG.

I have been using raw plus JPG since I have been able to buy enough storage.

Sometimes the out of camera JPG is good enough.

The biggest advantage to raw is that DPP can change white balance, photo style, and colors after the photo is made. DPP can save a JPEG from raw at higher quality than the camera does, or reduce quality or reduce resolution to make a file smaller.

[ebiggs1]

IMHO, there is no good reason for using jpg. Not that it really matters about storage space, jpg just is not needed except in very small limited situations. I take thousands upon thousands of photos. I sell my photos. I have not saved a jpg in decades. Personally, I use Photoshop and recommend everybody use it if they want the best possible images but DPP4 is a very capable editor and you can't beat free. Although I have PS, I also have DPP4. DPP4 makes raw a seamless venture another reason to use raw.

To expand on the reply above, nothing except exposure is basically saved in a raw file. You can set everything at your leisure on your computer screen as you like in post. Now of course you can do some of this editing using jpg as well but not nearly as much compared to raw. Here's the real kicker, all cameras capture any shot you make at full resolution. Your camera uses all of its ability to create that image. When it is saved to the SD that is what is saved when you set it to raw. Now if you chose jpg your camera discards data that it deems unnecessary. It can never be recovered, never. This happens in the compression of the raw file to jpg. Plus the camera settings are baked in the jpg file upon saving. 

[AndyInAnnapolis]

Thanks to both John and ebiggs, great suggestions.  I'm defiantly a casual photographer and graduating from snapshots taken with an iPhone.   Using EOS in A mode works nicely for most of my pix, and expect over time I will graduate to all M and Raw only; fully appreciate the additional editability and resolution the Raw provides and would like to use it if the pix are more than snapshots.  I did finally find the Raw/JPG button in DPP so I do see both images for each shot.  I guess my confusion is more M vs A.  Is it correct that unlike M, A uses the camera to set ISO and Exposure while M adds additional flexibility?

[johnrmoyer · Accepted solution]

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@AndyInAnnapolis wrote:

Thanks to both John and ebiggs, great suggestions.  

...

  I did finally find the Raw/JPG button in DPP so I do see both images for each shot.  I guess my confusion is more M vs A.  Is it correct that unlike M, A uses the camera to set ISO and Exposure while M adds additional flexibility?

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I seldom use M, but usually use Av or Tv. Av when the subject is not moving or I want to control depth of field. Tv when the subject is moving or I want to control shutter speed. I nearly always leave ISO at auto.

I only use the out of camera JPG for more than a preview when I want to send it to someone without putting it on my computer.

I do not know which of your settings your camera has, but I turn off auto lighting optimizer in the camera. I turn off distortion correction in the camera. I turn off highlight tone priority in the camera. I apply those later in DPP if I want them. I use picture style "Standard" in the camera and change it later in DPP if I want another one.

If I were uploading images in real time as I made them, I would do things differently.

What settings to use depends partly upon how soon one wants the image to be viewed and what changes one plans to make on the computer and what will be the final viewing conditions for the image. If posted to social media, then different edits than if printed and hung in a gallery.

[AndyInAnnapolis]

Thanks John; just the advice I was looking for!

[ebiggs1]

"I seldom use M, but usually use Av or Tv."

This is me too. M or full manual mode really has become a last case mode any more. About the only time I use M is for shooting the stars. P mode is your best friend and where you will probably spend most of your shooting situations. When it doesn't do it then Av or Tv most likely will. If you want more than just iphone photos you probably need to forget Full Auto anything. If that's all you want from your digital camera go for it but your camera is so much more.

Once again, Auto Lighting Optimizer is not saved within a raw file. The data from ALO is stored in a tag along with the raw data. You can apply ALO in post if you desire. And also ,once again nothing basically except exposure is saved in the raw data. Here is where folks get confused about what a raw file is, they see the image on their monitors and it looks pretty good with all the settings that they set in-camera. However it is that tag that DPP4 uses or PS for that matter to make a viewable image. A raw fale is not viewable as is, it must be converted. But the kicker is that conversion which dose use all the camera settings a starting place to make that viewable image has zero effect on the original raw file. Nada, nothing, just light on your screen. Even when you make any and all edits or adjustments to the image it has zero effect on the original raw file. It remains as is. Don't like what you just did and saved? No problem just start over with the untouched original raw file. Saving an edited jpg does not have that ability and another downside as does the simple fact of saving. You see when you save a jgp it goes under a compression scheme that also deletes some data. Raw is where it at.

[johnrmoyer]

When any of the exposure parameters are auto, then use of ALO or highlight tone priority will change the exposure before the raw file is recorded. In the camera manual, there might be a comment saying the noise might increase slightly. It seems to me that a higher ISO will be used. It is my experience with the EOS R5 that those settings change the raw file. They do not change the raw file on my EOS 80D, but only change the JPEG.