Raw images are actually tiff images plus propriatary add-ons and other info from the camera, so you are not losing anything this way.
As far as I know although TIFF are loss-less when saved compared to JPG, they are 'cooked', burned in settings in them, and you lose the flexibility of the true RAW file, such as DR. Check the diagrams here : http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/digital/raw.html
would like some clarification about this.
Tagged-Image File Format (TIFF, TIF) is used to exchange files between applications and computer platforms. TIFF is a flexible bitmap image format supported by virtually all paint, image-editing, and page-layout applications. Also, virtually all desktop scanners can produce TIFF images. TIFF documents have a maximum file size of 4 GB. Photoshop CS and later supports large documents saved in TIFF format. However, most other applications and older versions of Photoshop do not support documents with file sizes greater than 2 GB.
TIFF format supports CMYK, RGB, Lab, Indexed Color, and Grayscale images with alpha channels and Bitmap mode images without alpha channels. Photoshop can save layers in a TIFF file; however, if you open the file in another application, only the flattened image is visible. Photoshop can also save notes, transparency, and multiresolution pyramid data in TIFF format.
In Photoshop, TIFF image files have a bit depth of 8, 16, or 32 bits per channel. You can save high dynamic range images as 32‑bits-per-channel TIFF files.
Image Translation from CR2 to TIFF:
CR2 format: Canon digital camera RAW image format abbreviated as CR2 is an image file format written by the popular Canon digital cameras. Raw format is he data that is directly written to the memory from the CCD or CMOS chip without any alteration, processing and compression. CR2 files contain lot of information and these files are stored as per the TIFF Standards with some modification to the file and are also inclusive of the EXIF details.
TIFF: Tagged image file format abbreviated as TIFF is a tag based file format which is projected to promote the interchange the digital imaging data. TIFF is a globally standardized graphics format that is used virtually by all graphic programs running in the world. TIFF is the only format that has a pro with an equivalent con to itself: there is no compression technique used, no loss of data associated, thus the file size increases to enormous proportions.
All Digital cameras normally save images in either JPEG or RAW format. Most individuals save the files in JPEG format; however it is better to save in CR2 rather in the JPEG format. JPEG deteriorates the quality of the images while CR2 camera raw format keeps the quality intact without losing on the image details. A CR2 format is a camera raw format that can also contain information on text along with the image details and other relevant conditions in the camera that gets captured when a picture is taken.
All the images in a CR2 format are based on the basic TIFF Standard. Accordingly, the final output delivered to client is in the TIF format with the Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) format. On client's request, we also provide output in JPEG format commuted from the camera raw file format (CR2). On the other hand, TIFF is a very flexible format that can handle multiple images and data in a single file itself. The TIFF format is also widely backed up by the image-manipulation applications, thus improvising the final image output through quality driven services.
