Stupid RAW/mp Question

[Biomech]

This is going to sound pretty stupid. My old camera is 10.2mp, my new camera is 16.2mp, I don't want 16.2. I shoot RAW and the files are unnecessarily huge. I realise that they have basically stuffed extra pixels into the same sensor size - so I'm assuming there is absolutely no way in the world to reduce the pixel count when shooting RAW right?

[inkista]

Nope. This is why some cameras are now offering sRAW formats. But afaik, the A580 doesn't have any settings for sRAW.

[prabbit237]

Originally Posted by Biomech

This is going to sound pretty stupid. My old camera is 10.2mp, my new camera is 16.2mp, I don't want 16.2. I shoot RAW and the files are unnecessarily huge. I realise that they have basically stuffed extra pixels into the same sensor size - so I'm assuming there is absolutely no way in the world to reduce the pixel count when shooting RAW right?

Converting to DNG format would shrink them some and still allow for editing the same as a raw file. See DNGforpowershot (not exactly sure if it can handle .raw files. I used it for some formats that chdk can produce but I think it can handle any RAW files.) It'll compress them somewhat (like maybe down to an average of 12MB.) Of course ya still have to save them to the memory card in 16MB files but it saves a bit on the hard drive.

[kirbinster]

Since card memory and disk storage is so cheap I don't understand why this would be an issue these days. I just bought a 2TB eSATA drive a few weeks ago for $99. That said, can you change the bit depth on you camera. Mine allows me to pick either 12bit or 14 bit raw. What about shooting in compressed RAW if your camera allows it. My Nikon lets me pick lossless compress or lossy compression - these will reduce size.