How raw is RAW format?

Does anyone have a(n exhaustive) list of what features are done after RAW
images are taken and therefore adjustable with the RAW files?
I can think of the following: white balance, exposure compensation, in
addition to the effects like B&W, sepia, etc.

I'd much appreciate if someone can give a clear explanation for why certain
things are NOT adjustable (ISO, shutter speed, etc.) Thanks.

 

Sharpening, saturation, contrast.

Shutter speed is not, since shutter speed determines the time
light can hit the CCD/CMOS. You can not determine what happened
after the shutter closed from historic data.

Same goes for aperture. Determine the physical size of the hole that
light will pass through.

Usually when changing ISO, the aperture/shutter will be adjusted
accordingly. So you can't change the ISO afterward, but you can use
levels to regain some of the 12-bit info that can't fit into 8 bit
of JPEG. Seen an example where details burned out in highlight could
be saved from RAW.

 

But the speed and shutter are what put the photons on your
charged-coupled device. And that's basically your RAW. TIFF is
post-processed, typically. So it's not really what the camera sees.
RAW should be.

The advantage of RAW, apart from the smaller file size compared to
TIFF, is that you can salvage difficult shots, with a wide tonal
range. You can go into PS and select highlights and shadow separately.
And you might avoid blowing out highlights or dropping shadows, which
might happen if you allowed the firmware to generate a TIFF or JPG.

RAW just allows you to make a better photo with what the CCD sees,
depending.

 

Raw is what actually comes off the CCD before the computer applies an
algorithm to create color gamuts and saturations that the sensor actually is
insensitive to but are assumed to be there in the original.

 

Depends on the camera.

The ISO is adjustable in the raw conversion utility for my Fuji S2.
(See, I told you it depends on the camera).

RAW format isn't always just the output of the CCD cells. This may be
a Fuji-specifc weirdness, but my RAW format is a rectangular grid at
12mp, not the diamond grid at 6mp that's actually there. Too bad,
because it makes the file twice as big.