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The image

Large or small, the sensor is not the only factor determining the quality of the final image. Digital images go through a complex series of processes before you can actually view them, even on the camera’s own screen. This is especially true of those images which are recorded by the camera as JPEG files (extension .jpg).

The advantage of JPEGs is that they land on the camera’s memory card in a ready-to-use form. You can print them or upload to sites like Flickr right away. But this advantage can also be a disadvantage. Because the image has already been processed by the camera, there’s a lot less room for manoeuvre if you want to do more to it later. You can open it on your computer and make it lighter or darker, make the colours warmer or cooler, and so on, but the fact is that a lot of the original data has already been discarded, leaving a lot less to play with.

A few cameras still offer the option to record files as TIFF format, but there’s rarely anything to be gained by it and they take up a lot more memory card space than JPEGs.