How big are the resulting TIFF files from the D80?

[ronald_smith2]

It appears I am getting a new D80, prices have dropped low enough and I am not a person who needs the latest. For

some, the D80 might seem "old" but I can live with "only" 10MP. I am also getting the 16-85mm VR and SB-800, plus

a copy of Capture NX.

 

Being familiar with RAW from my experiences with the Canon PowerShot G6, how big are the TIFF files in 8-bit depth?

[jay_poel]

There are no TIFF files from a D80.

 

RAW files are in Nikon's .nef format - approximately 12.4MB.

[ronald_smith2]

I think I have you confused - I know the D80 does not directly shoot TIFF's, I assume you can create these from the proprietary NEF files. With Canon's RAW system, the CRW files can be processed into 8 or 16-bit TIFF files - can you do the same with Capture NX?

[liljuddakalilknyttphotogra]

Ronald,

 

with Capture NX or NX2 you will be able to save a D80 file into either 8 or 16-bit TIFF files.

 

How large.... OK, I just converted one of my friend's D80 shots I have. In NEF it was 9.6MB, as a 16-bit TIFF it became 57.7MB as an 8-bit file it became 29MB

 

hope this helps...

 

Lil :-)

[joe_a2]

A compressed NEF (RAW) file from my D200 averaged 8-9MB, and that's basically the D80 sensor. I just converted one with View NX. The NEF was 8.1MB, a 16-bit TIFF came out at 57.6MB, and an 8-bit TIFF was 28.9MB.

[ronald_smith2]

Good stuff, folks. Unlike the RAW files with my G6, I think I'll start saving the original NEF's on one CD and resulting TIFF's on another disc. I have to decide if the 16 bit depth is worth saving or just use 8.

 

I get 20.3 MB TIFF's from the G6 if I save as 8-bits, 40.6 MB if I use 16 bits.

 

Thanks, again.

[bill_keane2]

One pro I respect saves as NEFs and as JPEGs. Now I do too. Why? Because for the vast majority of cases a full size/quality JPEG will be more than adequate. If, in some rare case, it's not, then you can always make a special case TIFF from the NEF. And finally, 57.6mb TIFFs take up WAY more space than 5 to 7mb JPEGs.

[azn137]

I'm with Bill on this one. Why store in TIFF when you can create them at will?? NEF and HQ JPEG should do the trick.

[ronald_smith2]

I guess that's a good compromise for space purposes, too. The big debate is if there ever will be some standardization on RAW, each maker has their own version. I'd like to think the NEF files (or CRW files for Canon people) will be accessible for years to come.

 

I am inclined to think I will save most as 8-bit TIFFs and, naturally, I'll have the original NEF's if needed.

[waltflanagan]

If you're concerned about RAW standardization you could convert everything to Adobe DNG. I find that PNG files are smaller than compressed TIFF plus PNG is more standardized while TIFF has gotten to be a mish mash. Heck, RAW files are usually TIFF files with custom sections.

[mendel_leisk]

Uncompressed tiffs are directly related to the pixel *area* of the image, 16 bit images are twice the size of 8 bit, and

rgb's are obviously 3 times the size of greyscale. You could look up the x/y dimensions of your pending camera (it

should be spec'd. in a white paper somewhere) and calculate the area by multiplying those 2 numbers.

 

For reference, a 16 bit rgb tif with x/y dim's of 5624x3624 is 119,451 KB (122,317,561 bytes).

 

FWIW, I don't see the point of saving tiffs either, if you have the raws.

[mendel_leisk]

Hmm:

 

5624 x 3624 x 2 (16bit) x 3 (rgb) = 122288256 (bytes?)

 

Pretty close.

 

So, for 8 bit rgb tiffs omit the 2x and you should be close. To get from bytes to whatever, you repeatedly divide by 1024.

[Landrum Kelly]

Recently I have been saving JPEG and RAW together. I download the JPEGs and find out what is worth looking at more carefully before I even bother with going into the RAWs. I toss a lot of files at that stage and free up some disk space.

 

Sometimes I go ahead and convert even a good JPEG into a TIFF if the JPEG is good enough--and many times it is. Then I can start processing and save each change to the TIFF as I go in case I want to go back a step. Finally, I go back and try to throw out the various modified TIFFs that I don't need.

 

I used to convert directly from RAW to TIFF, but that got cumbersome in the extreme. If there is one best way to do this and save time and disk space, I would like to know about it.

 

For what it's worth, I just bought a D80 to use with my Nikon 600 f/4 manual focus, as well as my Nikon 300 f/4 AF. In other words, I plan to use the cropped sensor D80 almost solely for my telephoto shots now that the D80 has dropped into the $500 range. This sounds expensive, but it was cheaper than trying to buy the full-frame camera(s) that would give me the same magnification, although I did shoot the 600 f/4 on the Canon 5D for a while. For some applications it was a pretty good work around, until it occurred to me that it would not cost much to buy a cropped sensor Nikon to go with the long Nikon lenses--and I could stretch that old manual focus 600 out to 900 even without a teleconverter.

 

So now I am using a cropped sensor Nikon and a full frame Canon. Anybody want to buy a Canon XSi still in the box? I've got to simplify my life, not to mention pay some bills.

 

One of these days I might decide which horse I am going to ride.

 

--Lannie