Nikon D300 Complete Manual page 238

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Table of Contents

may change often while shooting, this is a good place to

summarize the choices and the method of setting them.

The D300 supports five basic levels of image quality (plus you

can record RAW and JPEG qualities simultaneously:

(NEF) Images are not demosaiced and do not

have camera data applied to them; you're saving

the 12-bit or 14-bit sensor data and a list of

camera settings, not a finished image (though a

finished JPEG basic thumbnail is saved in the

file). The result can be saved with either no

compression or one of two forms of compression

(lossless and visually lossless). The highest

quality image the D300 can capture would be a

14-bit NEF (that isn't compressed using the

visually lossless scheme).

(TIFF) Images are demosaiced by the camera,

camera controls are applied, data is reduced to 8

bits, and the result is stored as a TIFF file. This is

the highest quality image the D300 can produce

internally (RAW requires you to convert the

image externally).

(JPEG) Images are demosaiced by the camera,

camera controls are applied, data is reduced to 8

bits, and the result compressed at a ratio of

about 1:4 and stored as JPEG files. Compression

artifacts are present, but generally not visible.

(JPEG) Images are demosaiced by the camera,

camera controls are applied, data is reduced to 8

bits, and compressed at a ratio of about 1:8 and

stored as JPEG files. Compression artifacts are

present, and may be visible on close

examination (especially if sharpening is used or

you're using a high ISO value).

(JPEG) Images are demosaiced by the camera,

camera controls are applied, data is reduced to 8

Thom Hogan's Complete Guide to the Nikon D300

Troubleshooting