Ref
er
enc
e
—Image Quality and Siz
e
28
Image Quality and Size
Together, image quality and size determine how much space each pho to graph
occupies on the memory card.
Image Quality
The camera supports the following image quality options (listed in descending
order by image quality and fi le size):
Mode
Description
NEF (RAW)
Raw 12-bit data from the image sensor are saved directly to the memory
card in
N
ikon
E
lectronic
F
ormat (NEF).
JPEG Fine
Record JPEG images at a compression ratio of roughly 1 : 4.
*
JPEG Normal
Record JPEG images at a compression ratio of roughly 1 : 8.
*
JPEG Basic
Record JPEG images at a compression ratio of roughly 1 : 16.
*
NEF (RAW) +
JPEG Fine
Two images are recorded: one NEF (RAW) image and one fi ne-quality
JPEG image.
NEF (RAW) +
JPEG Normal
Two images are recorded: one NEF (RAW) image and one normal-quality
JPEG image.
NEF (RAW) +
JPEG Basic
Two images are recorded: one NEF (RAW) image and one basic-quality
JPEG image.
*
Size Priority
selected for
JPEG Compression
(
30).
Image quality can be set using the
Image Quality
option in the shooting menu
or by pressing the
QUAL
button and rotating the main command dial. Two op-
tions are available for controlling compression:
RAW Compression
for NEF
(RAW) images (
31) and
JPEG Compression
for JPEG images (
30).
NEF (RAW) / NEF + JPEG
NEF (RAW) images can only be viewed on a computer using the supplied software or Nikon
Capture 4 Version 4.4 or later (available separately;
182). When photographs taken at
NEF (RAW) + JPEG Fine
,
NEF (RAW) + JPEG Normal
, or
NEF (RAW) + JPEG Basic
are
viewed on the camera, only the JPEG image will be displayed. When photographs taken at
these settings are deleted, both NEF and JPEG images will be deleted.
White balance bracketing can not be used with NEF (RAW) images. Se lect ing an NEF (RAW)
option for image quality cancels white balance bracketing.
Image Quality, Image Size, and File Size
See the Appendix for information on the number of pictures that can be stored on a mem-
ory card (
196).
