shackcf

Welcome to the RAW world. I have been shooting Nikon since going digital in 2008. I do not shoot D800 but D3100 & Z6 so I am not going to advise you on the settings. I have read the thread so far and there are great answers in here. I will recommend the Nikon NX studio for processing of your RAW images it's free and does nondestructive edits. Do not shoot TIFF if the D800 does so. Do download the camera's manual as well. I am thinking about the memory card speed as well. Since you have been shooting sports you probably understand that. I shoot dancers in competitions. Due to lighting issues I bump into I always shoot RAW (NEF) Have a great time shooting.

Grimaldi

The largest that the camera can provide. You can always downsize and, these days, memory is cheap.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Last time I tried tif out of the camera I got 8 bit tiffs. Do not use tif from the camera. If you NEED tif (IMHO the need for tif is always a special case) get it from the raw file through the postprocessing software. Make sure it's 16 bit.

cahale Loc: San Angelo, TX

Same downside of any compression of data - you lose some.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

If you use lossy compression you lose some. If you use lossless compression you don’t (as the name implies).

JeffDavidson Loc: Originally Detroit Now Los Angeles

Not sure how you got a new D800. However, I shoot with the maximum size, my personal preference, without regards to the file size. Storage today is inexpensive and it gives you the maximum capability of the camera with regards to size.

kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy

Depends on if is lossy or lossless compressed. Lossless only need for slightly more computer power to unpack. Lossy can cause some artifacts in extreme situations. Sometimes uncompressed is 14 bit and compressed is 12 bit, which means a slight loss of information that would only be missed under a few conditions.