Canon 7D Raw <-> JPEG

[Elliotte Rusty Harold]

Reviewing photos from a recent trip, I noticed that quite a few of my 7D photos were taken in JPEG, although I usually shoot raw. Furthermore, the camera seemed to switch back and forth every few frames. Anyone have any idea what happened? Was I pushing the raw/JPEG button by accident? If so, why has this never happened to me before? Is there a function somewhere on the camera to turn this off?

And on a related note, it is surprising how often from a group of photos of the same subject my favorite is a JPEG image. It is often sharper, and usually has much better color and exposure. This suggests to me that maybe Lightroom 4 is not doing such a great job of developing the raw files, if the camera's internal Digic Chip can convert it better in realtime than my 6-core MacPro can do it after the fact.

[Doug Brown]

It sounds like you were hitting the RAW + JPEG button, but that's not such an easy thing to do during shooting. Could be a camera malfunction too. RAW files will always produce better optimized images than JPEGs will. Remember that much of the image optimization is being done in camera when you shoot JPEG. Getting better results with RAW files takes a little more work; you just need good workflow. Perhaps you could send me a few frames shot in both RAW and JPEG where you like the JPEG output better than the processed RAW file. I would need the full-sized JPEG and RAW files.

[Elliotte Rusty Harold]

Up to about Day 9 from that trip, and I'm definitely noticing some runs of photos where it seemed to switch from raw to JPEG and back almost every other photo. Is there any way I can turn off the raw/JPEG button completely? I.e. set the camera to ignore that button?

Or is it possible that function got switched to some other button that's easier to hit?

[Joe Murphy]

If you were accidentally hitting the RAW + JPEG button, you wouldn't just be getting JPEG's, sounds like it's some sort of a malfunction with the 7D.

[Steve Uffman]

do you have any of the custom functions programmed? I think if your dial switched to one of them where you had the setting to jpeg, this could happen....but I will need to check.....also auto might do the Jpeg as well.....I am doing this from memory, but I think when I used some auto for some quick family snapshots, I got Jpeg even though all the rest of time in Manual, Av, Tv and Custom, I shoot Raw....

By the way, when I sent my 7d in for a repair one time, I had them add the lock to the dial...Made a huge difference as that dial often got bumped in the field and I would end up with unexpected parameters