Size vs Quality

[Punk]

Hi,

Just bought a PowerShot A80 a couple of days ago. Being new to the world of digital photo and figured out all the options fairly OK and are able to use them in full. However, there is one setting I need help/advise on. That being Size/Quality setting.
Is there a rule of thumb as to what setting I should use? I've read a lot about setting requirements for different size prints etc. But I'd like to find a perfect balance between - occasional printing, good quality for PC viewing and saving precious memory on the flash card.

I'm especially confused as to what is more important - picture size or quality. Is it better if I have less pixels but super-fine quality? For printing? For viewing? Currently the settings are M1-F (Medium size / Fine quality). I know that L-S would be ideal, but hey, who has that much space on their flash for a long holiday.

So, can anyone advise on what would be the perfect size/quality taking (occasional) printing/viewing/memory availability into consideration?

Thanx!

Punk

[JCW3]

A friend of mine is looking to get that camera, so I went with him the other day to try it out and see how everything was with it. Over all its a great little camera for the money that works nicely in Auto modes, but gives you some flexablity with some manual control if needed.

As for the settings I personally always try to shoot at the highest quality jpeg possible. Its nothing worse than to get the shoot of your life and want to do a blow up print of and to find you will be hampered with the quality of the image.

The differance between the two settings your talking about is actually very dramatic on the output. The first setting is going to be the dimensions of the image, such as 4mp, 2mp, 1mp, and so on. Over all 4mp is going to allow you to grasp the most detail, but at the same time it has much larger files sizes. In all, if your only going to print 4x6 prints (like most people do with 35mm) you will find the 2mp mode will serve you good. 2mp will even give you enough detail to get a soft 8x10 out of it. Its not going to be top quality, but good for frameing on the wall if needed. But as you have probably figured, the 4mp mode will give you more detail, so if you plan on cropping or playing around with it, its better to have more detail, than not enough.

The other setting your talking about is the compression ratio. This is the big factor that really changes the quality of a image. I personally found the A80 to have a rather large compression ratio and found a good bit of image degradeing with the higher compressions.

I would recommend doing a quick and easy test. Just go take a few photos in each mode. What you will see is on the higher compressions the image file size is ALOT smaller, but when looking at it on the computer you will see what looks to be a BLOCKY look. You will really notice this on diagonal lines. I personally found the A80 to be very aggresive at its higher settings, that led to what I would call un-usable images, but thats a personal choice everyone would have to decide on.

As for compression on the A80 I would try to leave it on S (I think it stands for super fine) or what every the best settings was. Again the fine will work if your in a pinch, but I personally would rather set the camera down to 2mp and S that leave it at 4 and compress the image.

But at the same time memory is super cheap, you can get a 256mg card for as cheap as $40 from time to time, and normally runs around $55. To me I personally would rather spend the money on memory than degrade my images. I mean the whole point in getting a decent camera is quality output.

[RTaylor]

I would suggest you buy another flash card for space. Do you use a laptop? When I go away on weekends, I bring mine to off load pictures.
If any of the pictures you take you think you would want to print at all, and possibly an 8x10, then I would use the highest quality. If you think you will only print some at the standard 4x6 or 5x7 then you could use the medium but then you could never print larger than that.
You didnt mention what megapixel your camera was. So I looked it up on dpreview.com and found it is a 4mpx same as mine. But it only gives you a 32mpx card. That will never do for any cameras if you leave the house to take pictures. Probably lucky if you get 12, and who buys 12 exposure film
For $98 you can get a 256mg CF card. You might even be able to find one cheaper if you look hard enough.
I wouldnt go lower than 256. Each picture for a 4mpx camera should be about 2-3meg. You take a whole lot more pictures with digital than you would a standard camera because you know you are not paying the price for each to be developed. Plus you can always delete a picture right on the camera if you realize its a totally bad picture

Oh, one last thing since you mentioned you are new to digital.
buy 2-3 sets of rechargable batteries. The exra cost is worth it. I have been using mine every day for the past year and they still havent worn out to the point of tossing them.
Hope this helps

[Punk]

Thanks for the advise!

First of all - of course I did take the same pic with different settings, but they more or less looked the same.

I'm not planing to do any major croping.

I'm buying 256 card this weekend but it will still fit only 130 or so superfine large pics, definitely not enough. And since I'm going on a 3 week holiday in a couple of days, and it's a brand new camera so you know I'll want to take LOTS of pics - I'm in a jam.

On another forum people were paying a lot more attention to image size, everyone was ignoring compression. Now you guys talk about compression... Oh well, I guess I'll learn

Thanx for confusing me further haha

[RTaylor]

Glad I could add to the confusion lol.

If you have the money, then I would go for the 512 unless you find the price of 2 256's even cheaper.
I use one card sometimes 2 per day, so you wont have enough
I know there are devices that you can offload pictures to even if you dont have a laptop, but dont know enought about them to tell you a name brand or one that has a good price.
You will have to upload your holiday photos so we can enjoy them

[Punk]

I do have a laptop but I'm not planing draging it around on holidays. I guess I'll have to invest into a better FC after all...

But tell me this:

2272*1704 high compression

or

1600*1200 medium compression

???

[apeipon]

If you are not printing or editing, (crop), medium resolution should be fine. Most computer screens are set at 1024x768 pixels or smaller -- which means that larger pictures will not fit on the screen. In addition, emailing large files can be a problem.

When printing larger than 4x6’‚’‚…‚’‚‚� picture the larger files are necessary, but not for viewing on the computer and email.

[JCW3]

Well from what you have said you will be doing and know a little about the A80's compression, I would go with the 2mp (1600x1200) photos and med compression. I know in reality it sounds good to be shooting at the full 4mp, but if your going to compress it that heavy you will see major compression marks.

Again a 2mp image will look great at a 4x6 and if exposed and taken right in the camera will make a decent 8x10 depending on the viewers standards.

With that 2mp and med compression is my vote...

[RTaylor]

2272*1704 high but that shouldnt mean high compression, mine is the same size and is not high compression, its SHQ resolution. Unless yours has different features. I have one of that size that I was able to print 10x14
I only print my special shots but the option is always there for larger if I needed it.

I would bet even if you chose (1600x1200) .. that you would still run out of CF card space by the end of your first week. If you already have a laptop, it seems a lot easier to just offload every day or couple days when your cards fill up than to worry about buying way too many CF cards. If I was gone for 3 weeks, even my 1 500mg, 3-256's and 1 16 wouldnt hold me out
I vote bring the laptop but just use it at the end of the day or whenever you get a chance. I never leave pictures on my cards too long incase I get an error on one.. then I lose them all Errors do happen on digital cards, its common but retrievable with software

[Punk]

OK. Thank you all!

I guess I'll go for 1600*1200 fine. I've been also convinced to go for 526 card straight away. Needs double the $ but I'm sure I'll regret it if I don't get it.

Oh, and 4*6 prints is what I'm after so I guess I'm alright with those settings.

Cheers!

[RTaylor]

512mg is fine if the price is no more than the 2 - 256's. I just waited for the prices to come down from when they first came out. They seemed to drop dramatically.

Its always good to have a second card besides just the 32
Only because of the posibility of a card error while out shooting which happened 2 x's to me in the past year and a half.

Have an enjoyable vacation