In recent years, with the development of science and technology, the shooting effect of mobile phone cameras has become more and more excellent, and even some mobile phones have professional functions that can use RAW format to shoot. So, is it necessary for mobile phones to capture RAW format? Is there any practical significance?

In fact, the concept of RAW shooting on mobile phones has been put forward several years ago, but few people actually use it on mobile phones. In the next year of 2013, more and more mobile phones began to support RAW format shooting. It should be Xiaomi 3 that first started the fire. At that time, I didn't expect that this manufacturer, who has always taken ordinary photos, would take the lead in supporting RAW format shooting, plus being able to control the shutter and ISO. At that time, it really made my mind itch.

However, the small plait has gained a lot of experience, and naturally understands the truth that you can't make up your mind until you get it. Yes, Xiaomi 3 can indeed use a fixed mobile phone to shoot a good night scene with a low ISO and long exposure. The above is a sample shot with a minimum of 100 ISO and a maximum of 2 seconds exposure. It's very good for Xiaomi.

However, unfortunately, the RAW format of Xiaomi 3 can only be shot in automatic mode, and cannot be shot in RAW format after manually adjusting the shutter and ISO. In this way, it really reduces a lot of fun, because when some scenes require us to fix the mobile phone for a long time exposure shooting, although the JPEG that comes out straight after a long exposure is good, if RAW format can be saved, then later adjustments will be more abundant, and the sample will also get better performance. It's a pity. But of course, in the scene with sufficient light, RAW shooting can be adjusted later. If the light is enough, it does not need to consider how to adjust the ISO and shutter to shoot better. However, the image quality of the sample taken by Xiaomi 3 with RAW is slightly worse than that of the JPEG straight out, especially the sharpness. The RAW will be a little more blurry.

This is a comparison between JPEG straight out and RAW to JPEG. From these two samples, JPEG images are clearer and sharper, while RAW images are slightly blurred. When shooting these two samples, the editors try to fix the same composition and focus as much as possible.

But of course, the significance of RAW format is that it can be adjusted according to the style you like. The left side is not adjusted, and the right side is adjusted. However, it is always a pity that RAW cannot be shot under the condition of controlling the shutter and ISO

Then, it was Nokia's turn to make a big move. At the beginning of 2014, Nokia launched the system version code named Lumia Black. Its biggest feature is that high-end Lumia models support DNG format shooting. DNG is also a digital negative and also supports post-processing.

However, Nokia's digital film mode is much more high-end, because it can directly support the saving of a 38MP full pixel DNG format while shooting a 5MP JPEG (the editor here uses Lumia 1020 to demonstrate), and the DNG format definition is also quite good. In addition, it can manually set the shutter In the case of ISO, digital negatives can also be saved in DNG format, which enables better processing of proofs later.

Because the details of the sample saved by DNG are very good, it can be adjusted with confidence.

I also wrote an article about Nokia digital film《 Nokia Lumia 1020 - 41 megapixel digital negative 》You can go and have a look.

After being exposed to Nokia's digital film mode, Xiao Bian felt that it was really possible to relax and adjust at will. The RAW film taken with Xiaomi 3 is always a bit unsatisfactory due to insufficient details and the inability to manually shoot and save the RAW format. Recent mobile phones also support RAW format shooting, such as OPPO's Find 7, but the details of the RAW format sample shot are slightly worse than JPEG straight out, and RAW can only be shot in automatic mode, but the white balance of RAW format is more accurate than JPEG straight out. However, there seems to be a problem with the RAW file of Find 7. The RAW plug-in tool put into Photoshop cannot be displayed correctly. It is estimated that this part has not been optimized.

At present, among the mobile phones that support RAW format shooting, the best experience should be some high-end Lumia models, and the other performance effects are relatively ordinary. If RAW has any significance, the biggest significance is that it can be further closer to the professional direction and can provide the possibility of later adjustment. But it also needs to be able to save excellent digital negatives, which will be more interesting in the later stage. If the quality of the saved digital negatives is not up to the standard, it may be easier to highlight the drawbacks of proofs in the later stage. Moreover, I hope that RAW format is not limited to automatic mode, and that mobile phone mode should also support RAW format shooting.

In any case, the RAW craze is rising. Maybe the later era of the whole people will come. In the future, more mobile phones will support RAW format shooting. We can only hope that manufacturers can use more snacks and not let RAW use too much restrictions.