whats the advantage of shooting raw? i took some pictures today in raw format and it took forever to up load them to my computer.

<a href="http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/05/why-you-should.html" target="_blank">http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/05/why-you-should.html</a>

Buy a firewire card reader.

If you don't want to bother with RAW files learn to use the custom picture settings your particular camera uses during jpeg conversion. A lot of Pros don't bother with RAW either but between their knowledge of proper exposure and those settings they'll get the quality they need. <BR> <BR>One of the best things about RAW images is that if you get that really great shot but don't have it exposed quite right you have a lot more headroom to fix it.

I shoot both (Raw&amp;JPEG) at the same time. Make sure you have plenty of memory cards if your going to shoot both.