From: Paul J Gans
RAW mode in Canon and other cameras and NEF mode in Nikon cameras supposedly produces an image with 16 bits per color channel per pixel.
I’ve never had reason to doubt that those images did have 16 bits per color channel. Perhaps I should have.
Actually most of the digital cameras output 12 bits/channel or 8 bits/channel, not 16. I have the Canon 10D and 1Ds and both are 12 bits max, even though the files open in 16 bit mode in Photoshop.
Also, many scanners are 12 bit or 14 bit/channel, with some of the newer ones true 16 bits. I think my first film scanner was 12 bits (Nikon LS-2000) and the one I’m using now is 14 bits/channel (LS-8000).
All 10 bit, 12 bit and 14 bit files get saved as if they were 16 bits because it’s easier to pack the data into 2 eight bit bytes, even if they have to fill the upper bits with zeros. These files all open in 16 bit mode in Photoshop but actual data is limited to what the capture device provided. Maybe that’s where you got the idea that all these images actually have 16 bits/channel, but most of them don’t.
I think 12 bits for photographic images is very useful but much beyond that and you’re reaching the point of diminishing returns, based on editing thousands of 8, 12 and 14 bit/channel images.
In any event, the practical question is whether to load the RAW or NEF mode image into Photoshop (it will, with Adobe supplied plug-ins, accept either) and do the conversion there or to do the conversion in the manufacturers’ less-capable software.
They are still 12 bits (at least the Canon RAW files).
However if Photoshop is indeed throwing away half the color range….
LOL … don’t think so 🙂
Bill