Digital camera Panasonic DMC-FZ7

[dougmack]

Using Panasonic DMC-FZ7. I can read the SD card from a card adapter on a USB port, and I can read the same images in jpeg format from a direct connection to the
camera. The camera is supposed to be able to create TIFF images, and when I queried Panasonic help, they said I needed a computer program that could read TiFF
images. Somewhere along the way, I saw that I would have to connect the camera to the computer to read the TIFF images, so i have done that.
I have installed dcraw, which is supposed to be able to read all kinds of digital cameras, but I can't even read the .jpg files with it.  I don't know how. I have looked at the
man page for dcraw, but it didn't enlighten me. I have also downloaded flPhoto, Fotoxx Image Editor, CTKam, ImageMagic, and UFRaw. UF raw can print a list of pictures
(as "raw jpeg") but says it cannot decode. ImageMagic can open the jpeg files. GTCam set to "detect" model says "could not initialize camera".
Fotoxx will "synchronize" the images, and then read them--all .jpg. flPhoto doesn't seem to work at all--I put in the path, but nothing happens after that.
Note: I am not certain that the camera actually saved any of the photos in TIFF format as well as jpeg, altho the manual says it makes TIFF at the same time as jpeg.
Altho I have been a moderately advanced amateur photographer for 60 years, I am new to digital photography, and I may not be using the camera correctly.
So I am open to any and all suggestions, help, whatever.  Thanx in advance to anyone brave enough to step in here!
--doug

[dougmack]

In addition to above, I try to install gtkam-gimp-plugin which is listed in the repo. I have tried twice to install it, but the file-finder can't find it, and the Gimp
plug-in directory is empty. What goes?

--doug

[agmg]

I've been through your camera's manual which I found here:

http://downloads.fotosource.com/public/camera_manuals/Panasonic/DigitalCameras/LumixDMC-FZ7.pdf

In page 79 of that manual, I read about setting Picture Quality.
It must be set to TIFF for the camera to save images in TIFF (uncompressed) format.
Have you enabled this option?

[pags]

+1 to agmg

Also, note that TIFF is not a RAW format, it is an uncompressed (and, high bit depth capable) format.  The camera will still only save 24-bit images (like JPEG).

Depending on the camera's compression level in JPEG, the tradeoff (size vs quality) may only be marginal.  You'll have to be the judge of that (which, it sounds like you're trying to do ).

Pretty much any image editor and/or viewer (gimp, krita, gwenview, etc.) should handle the TIFF files from your camera.

[agmg]

+1 to agmg

Also, note that TIFF is not a RAW format, it is an uncompressed (and, high bit depth capable) format.  The camera will still only save 24-bit images (like JPEG).

Depending on the camera's compression level in JPEG, the tradeoff (size vs quality) may only be marginal.  You'll have to be the judge of that (which, it sounds like you're trying to do ).

Pretty much any image editor and/or viewer (gimp, krita, gwenview, etc.) should handle the TIFF files from your camera.

TIFF is better than JPEG in most cases but TIFF files are huge.
They fill up the card's space in no time and may slow down the camera while being written.
RAW may offer better quality (although it too has some trade-offs) but requires extra time for post-processing.

It all depends on what results you're expecting from your photos in regard to your available time

[pags]

+1 to agmg

Also, note that TIFF is not a RAW format, it is an uncompressed (and, high bit depth capable) format.  The camera will still only save 24-bit images (like JPEG).

Depending on the camera's compression level in JPEG, the tradeoff (size vs quality) may only be marginal.  You'll have to be the judge of that (which, it sounds like you're trying to do ).

Pretty much any image editor and/or viewer (gimp, krita, gwenview, etc.) should handle the TIFF files from your camera.

TIFF is better than JPEG in most cases but TIFF files are huge.
They fill up the card's space in no time and may slow down the camera while being written.
RAW may offer better quality (although it too has some trade-offs) but requires extra time for post-processing.

It all depends on what results you're expecting from your photos in regard to your available time

Yes, this is the tradeoff, in this case.

RAW is unprocessed from the sensor (often 12-bit, sometimes 14-bit).  A lot of processing (colour, sharpness, etc.) get applied, as well as the (not so) obvious bayer-mask interpretation.  Some RAW formats include non-destructive compression, but even without it, TIFF at 24-bit (8 per channel) is larger than RAW, while RAW has more information (but, not all cameras provide RAW, and yes, there are additional processing steps).

A "very lightly" compressed JPEG may introduce only a few artifacts, and if when working on the file, it is not resaved as JPEG, additional degradation can be avoided (it is all very workflow dependant).

I supposed, one could think of it as:
JPEG = Polaroid instant photo
TIFF = a good quality print, but you lost the negative
RAW = the negative
 

[dougmack]

To agmg: I don't really know if the TIFF was selected, but I believe it is now, and I will test and see.  What program is suggested to open the TIFF?  Does anyone know if
the file must be downloaded directly from the camera, as I think I read, or will the file be on the SD card? What about the plugin to GIMP, that I believe I installed, but does not show up anywhere?  I thank all who responded.

As I admit that I am a tyro to digital photography, I have set the camera to simple mode, which seems to do a good job most of the time, and it does seem to support
TIFF in simple mode, if I read the manual correctly. This is so much more complicated than even the best film camera. My Canon A1 only required aperture, shutter speed,
zoom and focus. (And of course, film speed, but you just set that once.) And if you set the shutter speed, you could let the camera select the aperture, unless you needed some special effect.  And everything was on a different control!

But this Panasonic produces nice pictures. They now have a super one, the F200, but I think I'll stick with this one.

--doug

[pags]

You should be able to handle them just like jpegs.  Bear in mind, they probably have the extension ".tif" (just 3 letters), like JPEGs have ".jpg".

As I mentioned earlier, Gimp should handle these files, fine, without any additional plugins, etc.

To give you an idea on the difference on file size, here is the same image (7923x5487) I did in Gimp:

[jpaglia@paglia-e6500 ~]$ ls Documents/Google\ Maps_1309194429224.* -lh
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jpaglia jpaglia  14M Oct 13  2011 Documents/Google Maps_1309194429224.png
-rw-r--r-- 1 jpaglia jpaglia 132M Oct 13  2011 Documents/Google Maps_1309194429224.tiff
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jpaglia jpaglia  35M Oct 13  2011 Documents/Google Maps_1309194429224.xcf
[jpaglia@paglia-e6500 ~]$

XCF is Gimp's native format (save layers, masks, etc., no loss).  PNG is an open source, lossless alternative to JPG.  The compression isn't as good, generally, but there is no degradation (I point this out so you'll understand that a JPEG of this file would be even smaller than listed here...

*EDIT*
Typo ("os" --> "of")

[agmg]

dougmack, this is from your manual:



I believe that only in the "TIFF" setting, the camera will write the picture in TIFF format in the card.
The other two are for JPEG, where you can select quality vs small size (high compression).

As pags said, you can access TIFF files stored in your card like you would do with any other picture file.

[pags]

Going by the Manual information (from agmg), if you're still interested in testing this, I would suggest you try TIFF and FINE.
I neither located nor read the manual, but I would *expect* that in TIFF, it just writes a TIFF file (TIFF, by the way, stands for Tagged Image File Format in this case, and not Toronto International Film Festival  ... the file format existed before the festival...it is a container format with many options on how to store data, but you're camera most likely doesn't provide that level of control...it would give one type of TIFF, but I'm confident whatever it uses, your applications can read).

Take a picture of a static scene (on a tripod, if possible) twice.  Once with the TIFF setting, and then again with the FINE.  Open both files (in Gimp, for istance) side by side, and zoom into the same area of both.  Be as critical as you want...this is purely subjective.  Zooming in can be like using a loupe (if you ever did so with film photography).  Consider the file size of each (using my previous example, the TIFF is about ten times the size of a JPEG...that equates to fitting only ¹/₁₀ the number of images on any given card).

From there, you can decide if you want to use TIFF (fewer pictures/card; better image quality) or JPEG (more pictures/card; slightly less image quality; more universal - i.e., upload photos directly to get lab prints).

Good luck.

Let us know how it goes.