Viewing raw image on the back of a Sony mirrorless camera

[step72]

Hi everyone
Can anyone tell me if viewing a raw image from the back a Sony mirrorless camera is the same as viewing a raw image from a dlsr as in the image is a jpeg ? It's not until you upload to your pc that you see the raw file/image?

Hope this makes sense

Thanks Mickey.

 

[StewartR]

You can never see a raw file, either on the camera or on the PC. It has to be processed first.

 

[Faldrax]

As Stewart said, when shooting RAW the camera will automatically create a JPeg for every shot which is what you will see when you review the image on camera. It will use whatever your current settings are, even if not applicable to RAW - so if you have DRO enabled, for example, it will affect the JPeg shown (which is the same as embedded in the RAW for other applications to use for preview), but not the RAW data itself.
This is the reason that you often see the image change when you load a RAW into Lightroom for the first time - it will initially display the preview JPeg created by the camera while it generates it's own image from the RAW and any processing defaults you have set, then it will switch to it's own image as soon as available.
This is for Sony DSLR / DSLT / Mirrorless - I believe it is the same for other manufacturers as well.

 

[chris malcolm]

You can never see a raw file, either on the camera or on the PC. It has to be processed first.

Exactly so. The processing you see on the camera LCD is whatever you have set up in the camera, e.g. whatever scene moide, white balance, plus whatever adjustments you may have made to those. The processing you see in your computer before you've made any changes is whatever the default parameters of JPEG processing are set up in your RAW editor, which may or may not involve using the same parameters as used in the in-camera view.

If you want a better estimate of RAW dynamic range than in-camera default JPEG gives you on the LCD, then turn contrast as low as possible and saturation down a notch or two. The result will look unpleasantly flat and weak. On the other hand, as a JPEG, it will be capable of being pushed further in post processing than the usuasl JPEG.

 

[step72]

Thanks everyone much appreciated