PS cameras that shoot RAW

[Roberto_Tolin_Sommer]

The S70 works great with raw. The write time is similar to the E-900, but you can continue shooting. The image quality when you process the files in Aperture is very good.

[Tony_Gamble]

The Ricoh GR Digital shoots RAW.

But I am told it takes an age to write it to the card.

I have not bothered to test it as I am currently more than happy with the jpg's it produces.

Tony
London UK

[JimHayes]

The Panasonic DMC-LX1 desrves a second look. If you use a 150X sd card, write times are 2-3 seconds, no buffer though. Yes it's noisy, but nothing that can't be cleaned up in 30 seconds in ACR with just a bit of rudimentery knowledge. Most of the noise is color not luminance noise (again IMO). So there is little penalty to pay in ACR. ISO 400 though I wouldn't shoot.

If you really want 8MP, the Panasonic technically gives only 7MP if you crop to a 3:2 format. But I like the 16:9 format.

What doesn't get mentioned on the reviews much is how incredibly sharp and clear these pixs are (yes, IMO). Noise is simply not that big a deal IMO, although everyone talks about it with this camera.

I think you will find it is also the smallest RAW shooting camera (Olympus is close), unless a new one has come out. You do have to sacrifice a viewfinder.

[Sharon_Lowe]

I just got the Olympus SP-320 with its underwater case. It shoots RAW but is only 7.1 megapixels. It does a great job however and the underwater case is really awesome. I use a 1DsMkII normally but this is a great little camera when you don't want to lug your gear around. We got it primarily for underwater use but my daughter used it on a recent irtp to Disney World and got great shots.

[BWBrock]

I use an S70 for the minimalist shooting requirements.
It is 7mp, good battery life, CF-card slot, and has a 28mm-100mm range so it works great when doing tight-quarters people shots. It also has RAW capture, which works amazingly well with Pixmantec's Rawshooter Premium. I'm very happy with the S70 images although, as with most P&S cameras, the 400iso setting is not so great unless you shoot RAW and use the noise suppression settings in the RAW conversion to make them acceptable.

[Fred_Bopp]

Like you, I shoot RAW most of the time with a 5D and 1D2N. I loaned my Canon S70 to my son for a trip and he won't give it back. My choices were to buy another S70 or go with the new S80 which is JPG only. Based on Phil Askey's review where he stated it was a camera he would buy due to it's performance, I gave it a shot. Even though it does JPG only it is full featured and has pulled me out of situations where I just could not use the other cameras for one reason or another. I have not been dissapointed at all.
Recently used it for a special shot of a church as it was the only camera I had with me. The time, place and lighting was perfect and if I delayed while going after better equipment, all that would have changed. I was not dissapointed again. Was able to make A3 prints and satisfied all concerned.
Give the S80 a look and read Phil's review before you leap.
Regards, Fred

[Ken_Tanaka]

I'll second others' recommendations for the (now discontinued) Canon S70. I've had mine a year and find it a terrific little take-anywhere camera. Its RAW images are really quite good, often on par with those of my old 10D (at least at ISO 100). I'm actually often shocked at how good its images are. Personally I find it the perfect p&s camera for "slumming" photographers. The fact that it also has an optical viewfinder, features full-stop aperture settings from f/2.8 to f/8, and offers full manual exposure and focus controls makes it really an extremely versatile and potent photographic tool.

I was disappointed to see that Canon chose to drop RAW format in the successor S80 but am somewhat encouraged by Fred's report.