asjohnston3 Loc: Irving, TX

Just ordered a D7100 a couple of days ago from Adorama. (factory refurbished body, 499.00) I've been perusing the manual and have come across the section that deals with file saving options. With my D5100 things were easy. I just set it for NEF + Jpeg (fine) and clicked away. However.... The 7100 seems to have options for NEF compression (??) and saving as NEF on one card & Jpeg on the 2nd and on & on & on.... Just curious If some of you Nikonians out there could advise me on what settings YOU use..... (& why)

Nick K Loc: Long Beach CA

I use standard NEF and jpeg on the second card most of the time. This way I can look at photos or post them without editing right from the second card while on a trip. I only carry a small laptop when I travel. I save the NEF for when I get home or transfer to external hard drive. I use 32mb cards I have 8 to 10 of them, you will find the 7100 uses storage much faster then your old camera.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

NEF compression is the worst of all formats. It compresses using the average of 4 pixels in each pass (R, G, B and L) then produce a 'like raw' file that is not half as accurate than the regular one with absolutely no gain.

As to what to use, well, your choice. I shoot raw and rarely with raw +JPG fine. One card is the overflow to the other but honestly since I use a 128GB card as the primary it never over flows.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

You are confusing the RAW Small format available on some of the full frame Nikon bodies (but not describing that correctly either). It is not available on the D7100 (nor on the D7200).

NEF Lossless Compressed and NEF Compressed are the two NEF formats available on the D7100. Compressed is a non-reversable lossy compression that produces smaller files but loses some of the image data in the process. NEF Lossless Compressed doesn't get as good a compression ratio, but no data loss occurs. The D7100 does not have an Uncompressed NEF file format.

Almost all users will want to shoot in Lossless Compressed mode.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Correct on the nef compression I was alluding to sraw.

If not an option disregard my comment.

raw compression is lossless.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Nikon has included a lossy RAW compression since about the D2H or D2X model, ten years ago.

jethro779 Loc: Tucson, AZ

My choice of file format is determined by whether I am sharing files on the computer to friends and family. If I am sharing I usually shoot .nef & .jpg medium. If just for me .nef only.

Capture48 Loc: Arizona

Most of this is a personal choice of course. Shooting RAW + JPEG kind of wastes space and a card. D7000 is my backup camera. When you are getting paid to shoot using the 2nd slot as a backup makes the most sense. Or even if you just don't want to take the chance of losing photos because of a card failure. If the possibility of losing photos does not worry you then use the card as an overflow, and double your shooting capacity.

In general for me, shooting two formats is a complete waste of time since a JPEG can easily be exported from a RAW file in seconds. There are however times (specific times) when I shoot small JPEG's. Really the only time is when I am using my CamRanger and shooting Star Trails, or many files that I know I will stack. The problem with shooting two formats on two cards is that the cards fill up at different rates. Unless you know how many of the formats you can get on the second card and keep very good track, you have to change it with the 1st card. This wastes a bunch of space since the RAW card will fill up much quicker.

Ron 717 Loc: Pennsylvania

I shoot in Raw format and had been using a setup that the second card was for overflow. Recently after realizing that the second card was never getting used I changed the setup so that the camera wrote to both cards simultaneously. This way I am more assured that when finished a shoot if by chance one of my cards is corrupt or dead then I still have the all of the shots on the second card. Peace of mind.

catalint Loc: oslo

I use my D7100 with only raw files and overflow to the second. At the same time I have turned off finesses like Noise reduction, Auto ISO, and I know there was one more option I just don't remember which.

Why did I do this ? When i got my D7100 last year, i was surprised that it was slower then my old D5100 when doing sports. Even if the camera was in burst mode, I was not able to burst more then one or two photos, before it stopped and processed the pictures onto the sdcard. It was like 1, 2 shots, and stop. The camera was doing something and then i could continue.

So i discovered :
1. I had a slower SDcard. So i changed to a faster SDcard
2. When shooting JPG there is a PP for each picture. cropping, noise reduction etc. This will delay your next possible shot. After switching to only NEF, and turned off all fine tools to finalize your picture, I can now hold the button down and it burst until buffer is filled. If I would not be using LR to PP my pictures, then I don't see a reason for raw files, and the in-camera option for finishing the picture will be better. So I would use the JPG settings. Otherwise, I do switch to a JPG setup from time to time when i need to just give a picture and I dont have time for PP, or some scene modes to compare results between my manual attempts and the program modes.

As for you guys with RAW on one card , and JPG on the second, do you experience any lags as I mentioned? Maybe I misunderstood the whole case and analyzed it wrong.

Nick K Loc: Long Beach CA

Interesting I have noticed a lag I do not do sports shooting but on rapid burst sometimes i have to wait for the camera to catch up i will try what you suggested.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

That one is definitely a problem, and will cause what you have described.


I'm not sure what you have going on, or exactly what you might have been able to turn off... but the processing of the JPEG image cannot be turned off! Even when you shoot in NEF mode only, the JPEG is processed, and is used as a preview image for the LCD screen. It is also embedded in every NEF file.

The only change when NEF mode is switched to NEF+JPEG is that the JPEG is then also written to the memory card. If that is a separate card with a very slow write speed it would be noticeable.

catalint Loc: oslo

I read an article about differences when camera saves in NEF and when in JPG.
When camera is not shooting RAW, the camara is actually shooting a RAW files and process a JPG based on the settings the camera was set to,and that mean the camera will do in-camera PP for each picture. Like noise reduction, cropping, and strips the files for the rest of the info that is saved in the RAW. This is noticeable when shooting sports. If you take one shot it does not matter.

Even I now have a fast SD card, and shoot in RAW, i keep Noise Reduction in camera OFF. It is noticeable when using burst mode. Under Blood Moon , i noticed my camera was slow when saving each file. I know that normally it goes lightning fast. At first I thought that something happened to my camera. It was not that slow. Suddenly I remembered that before starting to shoot Blood Moon, I read a post here on UHH, where the subject was about Why using Noise reduction in camera. Apparently there has been a discussion where you benefit from Noise Reduction in camera ON or OFF. So that's how I turned it ON again. As soon as I turned it OFF, the saving process was faster again. So I am willing to bet that the more in camera option are enabled to make the final picture, the slower the process in saving the file.

I have never tried to have NEF and JPG at the same time, so I cant comment that.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Yes there are options that slow things down. The point was to make sure you understood that it is not a matter of whether a JPEG is being produced. The JPEG data is always produced, just as the NEF data is always produced. Since the JPEG file is relatively small compared to the NEF file, shooting JPEG only is faster than shooting NEF only, and that is faster than shooting NEF+JPEG, but only by the amount of time writing the file takes. Processing the data happens the same no matter which files are saved.

Things you want to turn off are Noise Reduction and Active D-Lighting.

Also you mentioned turning off Auto ISO, and you probably want to turn it back on. If shooting speed in burst mode is a priority, higher ISO values that allow a faster shutter speed will be helpful. The frame rate cannot be any higher than allowed by the shutter speed.

catalint Loc: oslo

Ah , the Active D-lighting was the last one yes. :) And thank you for the tip regarding Auto ISO.

Must say, I shall give it a try with having Both RAW+JPG , on seperate cards rather than just RAW. I am also in the position where I rarely fill up the first card with RAW, and I've been in situations where I was in need of the JPG to give them right away.

Still learning, so good to get out my thoughts and experience with my fellow hoggers :)