MrBob Loc: lookout Mtn. NE Alabama

Why be penny wise and dollar foolish ? You are shooting with a top shelf camera and worrying about card capacity... go buy extra cards as they are relatively cheap compared to your camera. Raw plus Jpg will give you the best of all worlds whether you PP now or 5 years down the line as your expertise improves.

Barney006

I've been shooting a combination of RAW+JPG for quite some time. The nice thing about the camera you're going to use is that it has dual card slots - one CF and one SD. What I do is use the faster card (the CF) as the RAW repository and the SD card for JPG. That way, you can just pull out the JPG card to review the photos to see what you like and what you may want to post produce. Once you've got that list down, then take the RAW card and use that for post production. Also, in doing some research on camera cards, I discovered that read speed and write speed are two different animals... the Lexar cards I was using have a read speed of 95mb/sec, but only a 20mb/sec write speed -- so if you're doing high speed continuous, it's going to bog down pretty quickly. Spend the extra money for a SanDisk 95mb/sec SD card (it has a 90mb write speed). On Amazon, for a 64GB card, it's only $45 -- and for the trip you're taking, get the best you can! Also, spend the money for a CF card -- it's worth it to have that higher speed for RAW files. Please post some pics if you can -- I'd love to see that area!

jwn Loc: SOUTHEAST GEORGIA USA

raw only, just use the DPP4 software that came with camera to convert to jpeg. you 5ds has big files. After you load to computer, open the DPP4 and the file, review your pics, those that you want to email or post, just "save" and the software will ask what format, pick your jpeg. The DPP4 is good editor for those shots you want to touch up before sharing.

warrenhansen

I use RAW only. Actually, I believe there is a JPG image imbedded in the RAW file. In any case, you will have to do some post-processing, so just take pictures in RAW and clean up when you are home. Try not to get caught up in the chaos. Your job is to take pictures that YOU like; most of us are never going to work the skill level of Ansel Adams.

My personal rules:

Shoot in raw

If you have walked a distance, bracket your exposures. Trash can be deleted at home.

You can't have too many pixels. I shoot a 7100 or a 610. Then you can crop in post processing, and still produce large finished images. This is especially important (to me, anyway) in panoramas and wildlife.

Don't fret about lenses. Most of us can get by with few, although I have 11. The old pros didn't need them. Old lenses work very well on new cameras. My old Nikon manual focus 135 f4 and 80-200 f4 are as sharp as any other lens in the bag.

Many times walking will take the place of a telephoto lens.

A camera body exists only to support the lens. The reverse is also true. My first was a Kodak Brownie. Go take pictures, have fun and enjoy yourself.

An old photographer once told me "if you don't know what you are doing, buying more equipment won't help you become a better photographer, so take something and start learning".

I'm done now. I'll go back to my corner.
W

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

It's not free! Takes more store time and space to shoot and store both on the card(s). If you're shooting action in continuous mode you be will slowed significantly. I know disk space is cheap but it is still an additional factor. In essence there is a cost and specific to the persons needs.

bull drink water Loc: pontiac mi.

if you have a few days, or have a big box or foto store near by , pick up a few extra cards.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Shoot raw only and buy some 64GB or 128GB cards. Those 50 megapixel images are huge. I have a 5D IV and use 2 32GB cards in the slots it frequently spills over to the second card. Never happens with my 20 megapixel camera body. But 50 megapixels? You need larger cards. Memory is cheap. You have a nice camera body, don't cheap out on cards. Buy the best. Lexar or SanDisk.

PhotosBySteve

IMHO, it would be a disgrace to save inn anything but full raw with such an exceptional camera. Even out thou are not well versed in PP, you can always do an "Auto" process in post and export or save as a jpg and keep the original RAW file for editing at a later date when you are more comfortable with PP.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

If you don't want to buy cards, you can buy a portable storage drive. If you are taking a laptop, you can store the images on flash drives.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1039044-REG/lacie_9000298_rugged_mini_disk_2tb.html/?c3api=3679%2Cbing%2C2763659972%2C4584688609991674
Mark

jenny Loc: in hiding:)

[quote=burkphoto]

One really powerful reason for recording both types of files is learning control. You can get mighty sloppy with raw exposures and fix a multitude of sins in post. (That can be a very good thing, especially in run-and-gun situations!) But with JPEG capture, you have to do everything correctly at the camera, just as we pros did in the heydays of slide and transparency photography.

Getting great looking JPEGs right in the camera takes a surprising amount of discipline,

Raw is for rookies, and rightfully so, since it affords a built-in safety net.
* * * * *
burkphoto always gives the great answer to cover all situations! I would just like to point out one little possible
hurdle to overcome in the statement that,"Raw is for rookies". The rookie isn't learning how to use a camera but
is learning a pp program. It can lead to a lot of misunderstanding then to lead the rookie in the direction of never learning
to use the camera well.

jhcarvajal

I shot always in RAW and after processing each picture, I convert it to jpg. Processing RAW its much better than processing jpg.

Bob Smith Loc: Banjarmasin

Both

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

My personal preference would be RAW only. However, since you are going on vacation, may want some wonderful photos of the time spent there, and some good results, I'd suggest both RAW and jpg. The jpgs will give you something to use immediately. RAW takes a bit to get accustomed to the necessary processing that they require. You can learn that sometime later. The jpg photos you can enjoy and share immediately. Just purchase a few more cards to make sure you have enough storage capacity for your vacation.
--Bob

SierraDeltaPhotog Loc: Prescott, AZ elevation 6,000 ft

My suggestion is ALWAYS shoot RAW. Your Canon Digital Photo Professional software will let you batch process the RAW files into JPGs, saving you memory card space while you are shooting & you can do some post processing before converting if you like. The only possible exception is when you don't have enough storage capacity, but even then, try to shoot RAW on photos you consider more important.

Before I learned what could be done with RAW files, I would make minor changes then convert them to JPGs and delete the RAW file to save space on my hard drive, what a huge mistake. I've always been on a tight budget, but I wish that I had saved all of the RAW files I have deleted. RAW enables you to make so many corrections after the shot & as your post processing knowledge, skills & software tools & capabilities grow, you might be able to revisit some older shots & make substantial improvements. Post processing modifications of JPGs is very limited by comparison & your photos can suffer from compression artifacts, banding & other issues with limited ability to fix them.

Even if you are an excellent & very methodical photographer & always shoot using the optimum settings, I'd still recommend using RAW.

One last thing, if your 5D is like my 7D, you can do some minor post processing in the camera & then create a JPG from a RAW file in the camera if there are photos you want to post or share immediately.

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

[quote=jenny]

I'm a big fan of Burkphoto and his reasonable replies. That said, i was not enamored with the global statement that "Raw is for Rookies" While one can fail to learn their camera and rely entirely on PPing, that does not mean one can not be very proficient with their camera and STILL enjoy PPing. And if you going to PP then 14 bits is much more flexible. I'd be willing to bet stacks of money that Ansel Adams would jumped on Computer PPing tools rather than hours and days mixing chemicals and breathing evil air.

I find This straight out of the camera as finding the Holy Grail and anything less a little, disingenuous. This hearkens back to not having indoor plumbing and real people still use the outhouse or ride your horse to work. Without a doubt growing up in film and succeeding was harder but lets not degrade the tools of today.