I have a Sony a77ii with multiple lenses.  I have been taking pictures since I was 10 with my first camera KODAK 127.  I took 10,000 photos while in nam so I have a pretty good understanding of photography but am still looking to learn more.  I have been a digital user for about 7 years and am just now getting to feel like I starting to understand some things.

I have some questions if there is someone out there who can help me. 

I would like to know in the "QUALITY" section of my menu, it lists the following: RAW, RAW & jpeg, STD, FINE and Extra Fine.

Could somebody please explain what each one means and which one should I be thinking about.

 

Thanks.

Welcome to our forum!

I'm not sure I understand your question. Generally, there are two possible photo formats - uncompressed (raw or RAW) or compressed (JPEG). RAW gives you the best quality, but it comes with bigger files and you have to "develop" the photos with a software for RAW editing. JPEG files are compressed lossy and come with smaller file sizes. Additionally, they store special colour settings  configured in the camera (e.g. black and white) which RAW doesn't, since the RAW data results directly from the reading of the sensor with no additional processing. For JPEG you can select different quality profiles - Extra Fine will give you the best results. If you choose RAW & JPEG you'll get 2 files - RAW and JPEG STD.

Welcome to the forum. I use RAW when best quality is needed, otherwise JPEG Extra FINE