False RAW

[Agilulfo]

This is a very interesting report in Spanish DSLR Magazine that reveals there are no such thing as raw files in compact and CSC cameras.

It starts explaining why asymmetrical angular lenses are prone to have barrel distortion and tele lenses, pincushion distortion. For size and price reasons, distortion isn't easy to correct in compact and CSC lenses, so they often produce a great amount of it.

Then it shows examples of in-camera JPEG conversion, raw conversions with common software (camera manufacturer software, ACR, Lightroom, Aperture) and the real raw image captured by the sensor without this pre-process.

The conclusion: raw files are actually processed files, in order to hide the heavily distorted images given by some lenses. Sometimes, this correction process produce very low definition images, because of the need to “stretch pixels” and interpolate information.

Even if you don't understand Spanish, images can give you a very clear view of the subject.