thanks for that link, Azy! it was a good article. Misha, thanks for showing...i do see the difference there. despite the loss in compression when shooting in JPEG, for now, i think i will continue shooting in that mode for the reasons i talked above above. then i will as TIFF as Cindy suggested. perhaps in the future i will find shooting in RAW more to my liking, but not now. i really appreciate all your input here guys! thanks a bunch!