The RAW format: Highest quality, smallest size, but risky.

Another popular option is the RAW format. The RAW format is popular because it's the closest you will get to a digital negative. It is simply the data that comes straight from your CDD. (Charged Coupled Device — One of the two main types of image sensors used in digital cameras) The advantage of this format is that the image can be saved in a lossless format that is considerably smaller in file size than TIFF (discussed next) which is important to some people but the main reason photographers choose this format is that the image has not been processed or modified by the camera settings in any way. You are starting with the raw data that the camera collected when you tripped the shutter. In my opinion there are some good points to using RAW as an arhive format but there is one main drawback and it is a big one. You can't open this format with a normal photo program. You need to use what is called an "acquire module" that allows you to access the file via a plug-in for your software. The most common used module is TWAIN which installs into your image editor and brings the image into your software.

Doesn't sound so bad right? Well, the kicker is that there is no universally accepted standard RAW format yet. In fact each camera maker and sometimes each camera has it's own format. So if you are in agreement with me so far that we only want to dedicate ourselves to popluar formats that are widely used and will stand the test of time, RAW is not my top choice for archiving my images just yet.

There has been news lately about a standard proposed by Abobe — the DNG (Digital Negative) which will be a new, publicly available archival format for the raw files generated by digital cameras. By addressing the lack of an open standard for the raw files created by individual camera models, DNG helps ensure that photographers will be able to access their files in the future.

This new format hasn't been adopted officially yet so in the meantime keep your eyes and ears open for more news on DNG formats at ArchivingDigital.com but at this point I would recommend shooting in RAW format mode and then immediately converting all your images to another "lossless" image format like .PNG or TIFF for archiving. (Discussed next)