During a trip to Wyoming I decided not to take my laptop. I used the Nikon Wireless Mobility app to transfer photos to my iPhone camera roll. I then pulled the photos into the Lightroom app for editing. Are these photos the original RAW? Or is there some sort of compression or jpeg conversion going on here?
I am shooting RAW on a Nikon D750.
Yes, the WMU app is capable of downloading the real NEF files, but it is unwieldy. When you tap "Download" while viewing an individual picture, the app asks you to "Choose the size at which pictures will be saved". Your options are Original, Recommended size and VGA. Take pictures in RAW mode and select Original, and the NEF file will be downloaded to your device.
Unfortunately, as far as I can see, this does not work when selecting multiple files and then downloading them all at once. In that case, even when you shoot in RAW-only mode, you will only be offered the last two options, and the app will save JPG files. Choosing a size in the settings menu will also not help, because again the "Original" option is missing. So if you take a significant amount of pictures, this approach quickly becomes unworkable.
Doubtful - think of how poorly these wireless sync applications are programed (buggy, slow, few features), and who they're aimed at (casual users).
One way to confirm if RAW files are being transferred is to take a photo in JPG+RAW mode with the camera setup to record a black and white image. The RAW file, being RAW data from the image sensor, should appear as full color in Lightroom.
While researching this answer, I found that 3rd party iPhone apps exist which are able to transfer RAW files. For example: ShutterSnitch and qDSLRDashboard.
