Photography purists will surely scoff at this claim. According to Canon, their PowerShot G7 compact camera doesn’t have RAW mode, but the JPEGs it produces are just as good with “no discernable improvement in image quality compared to … superfine JPEG mode.” People have said that they favor RAW mode not so much because of image quality, but because of all the extra information it contains.

As one commenter put it: “A RAW image is like a roll of film. A JPEG image is like the printed photo you get when you turn that roll of film in to a cheap photo lab at your local drugstore.” In other words, RAW images can be put through “all sorts of post-processing” that JPEGs just can’t take, ultimately resulting in greater quality and greater customization.

Sure, the G7 is a great camera and all, especially for people without professional photo-quality needs, but without RAW, it’s going to lose a sale or twenty. Of course, you could always just up to ante to an entry-level DSLR.