JPEG
JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. This is a file format that can become lossy through subsequent compression. It is the most commonly used format on digital cameras. Although it can dramatically reduces files sizes, some details of the photo will be lost in the compression.
RAW
This format contains data from the image sensor of a digital camera that are minimally processed. Not all digital camera supports this format. RAW file sizes are larger than that of JPEGs.
As mentioned , digital cameras process the image from the sensor into a JPEG file. They take into account settings either selected automatically or entered by the photographer before taking the picture. These settings process parameters such as color saturation, white balance, contrast, etc.
On the other hand, RAW file capable digital cameras will defer the processing of these parameters. Because of that, RAW format allows the photographer greater control in manipulating the images. A free program that can manipulate RAW files is UFRaw downloadable at http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/
TIFF
TIFF stands for Tagged Image File Format. The good thing about this format is that it can be compressed in a non-lossy way. However, its file size will be larger than that of JPEGS and possibly RAW too. Therefore less TIFFs can be stored within the memory storage of the camera as compared to JPEGs.