Digital BW, The Print

As a digital photographer for 10 years now, I'm on my 30th digital camera.  
Starting with the 200 series Kodaks, we were forced to shoot RAW (it wasn't  
called that back then, Kodak stupidly called it a .TIF). This moronic naming  
convention was copied by Canon (a Kodak partner for the 500 series of cameras)  
up until very recently.
 
In tethered event photography or doing pictures of kids with Santa at the  
mall requires SPEED, while maintaining quality. This also applies to coporate  
parties where couples wearing evenening clothes are photographed with instant  
delivery of 5x7 dye sub prints in folders.
 
By having a modern digital camera with Firewire that does "Jepegging" in  the 
camera, the image would come up on the screen in about 3 seconds vs. 10.  
Muliply that number times 7,000 customers and you can see why Jepeg is  superior.
 
I have printed, on a 4000, with BO, a Jepeg of a beach scene in Pacifica,  
CA. The original from a 50mm prime lens on a Canon 1D Mark II, handheld at 1/800 
 s. was a perfect exposure with K values ranging from 0-100 percent. After  
using my faovorited color to BW conversion, I applies a whisper of USM and a  
Tri-X curve sag. I then hit the print button. My older Zoner friends looked at  
this print in disbelief, thinking it had been done with a 4x5 or MF camera on 
 tripod.
 
The main reasons to shoot RAW is to have the ability to use the full  dynamic 
range of the sensor for luminance compression in the image, do a  different 
"emulsion characteristic" than what is offered with camera controls,  or to 
correct for lens aberrations.
 
Other than architectural or landscape work, I can't see why the extra time  
is ever needed for RAW workflows. Photos under controlled flash lighting and  
custom white balance to compensate for system color shifts in the ambient  
environments are just fine from high quality Jepegs, even when printed on large  
format inkjets. Jepeg is data lossy, but not visually lossy when "done  right."
 
Claude


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