Cameras are generally able to record your photos in two different formats:  jpeg and lossless (RAW, TIFF, etc.).  The lossless format requires a lot of space, but preserves all of the original data as it comes from the camera's sensor.  The jpeg format requires less space, but because of its compression, looses some of the data from the camera’s sensor. 

In general, I find that jpeg mode is perfectly adequate.  For my Nikons, I almost always shoot in jpeg fine mode.  Lossless formats are simply not significantly better to justify the added space and hassle. It doesn’t help that Nikon’s lossless format is essentially unreadable by most photo editing programs.  Also, jpegs are smaller, and can be written onto memory cards much faster, which enables the use of continuous shooting modes for longer until the camera’s memory buffer runs out.

To see for yourself, shoot a shot in RAW and another in JPRG fine, and see if you can see the difference. Probably not.