Do you mean large format, medium format, or 35mm? Or do you mean jpeg or RAW?

I'm going to assuming you mean jpeg or RAW.

Personally, I shoot 100% RAW and recommend everyone make the switch right now if they don't already. It has some SERIOUS advantages over jpeg.

First, you can change the exposure level POST capture. That doesn't compare with your regular brightness and contrast because it changes the overall exposure level just like if you were to change your camera settings when taking the picture! So how does this really benefit you? Well, in many important ways. It allows you to work faster because you don't have to worry as much about getting the EXACT exposure because you can just correct it later. As long as you retain detail in your highlights you can fix about anything. You can also adjust things like white balance, contrast, saturation, sharpness, black and white and the filters associated with that. It's a lifesaver.

Also, in low light situations the most important thing to do is get rid of blur. So with RAW a lot of times I will underexpose and image so I get a faster shutter speed. Then, later in RAW, I just bump up the exposure to where it should be. Your image will be a little noisy depending on what ISO you are at but that is much more acceptable than a blurry image.

The downside is that the files are very large.

Big deal.

Buy an external hard drive (I have two) and get some bigger memory cards (my 16GB SanDisk holds over 1,000 RAW images.)

Honestly, if you are shooting jpeg, then you are limiting yourself as a photographer.
 

Shooting Raw (nef) and have control
 

Or does it mean manual, AV, etc?

I shoot Manual/RAW always...
 

RAW, 100 % of the time. I like the being able to adjust exposure levels after the shot if necessary. JPEG is ok for a point and shoot camera, but with the DSLR, only RAW.
 

95% of the time I shoot RAW...more control in post.
 

Gee everyone seem to be shooting in Digital now and days.
Whatever happen to large format film? I mean like I have a 4x5 camera and I got a Mamiya 645 120 mm and A bronica 220 mm. All three cameras gave me out standing quality.

I know that digital formats have made things easier . But I am still film because I was born with a roll of film in my mouth. LOL
 

I can't remember the last time my digital was set on jepg.
I never know what I want to print, so everything I shoot is RAW.

I shoot more film than anything else, and I prefer large format. I shoot mostly 8x10, but also a good smattering of 120 (6x7) film. I have a couple decent 35mm cameras, but they rarely get used these days. I use my pinholes more often than I do 35mm.
 

This might sound foolish but i'm not sure what RAW is. I thought all photos were jpeg's. Are you referring to auto or manual focus settings or something completely different. I'm very new to DSLR's. I just bought my first one this past summer. Any clarification for the newbie here would be greatly appreciated. =)
 

RAW and jpeg are file formats.

A jpeg/jpg is a compressed file. When you shoot in jpeg format, your camera discards around 70-80% of your color information. This is why you can fit more images on your cards when shooting in jpeg.

RAW is raw. It is complete. It is 100% of all information that your camera captured when you made your exposure.

RAW is a general term. Each camera uses a different file extention for RAW files, example, Nikkon RAW images are .nef, Sony RAW files are .awr, Minolta are .mrw

RAW offers the most flexability and the best colors. If you want to print your images larger than your camera's native file size, RAW is the way to go, especially when you push the print sizes to 20x30 and beyond.

A raw file can be saved as a jpeg after you have edited it, but it is then a compressed image...not as compressed as if you shot in jpeg, but still.

For display on the web, I use jpeg images at 72dpi, for printing, my files are TIFF (uncompressed lossless file format) at 300dpi (dpi = dots per inch)