Deen Hameed <deenhameed@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: > At 2004-05-29, 22:33:13 lea wrote: > >>I'm curious about something and I'm pretty sure someone here can >>explain it to me. >> >>I shoot with a Canon 10D which is a 6.1 megapixel camera. Mostly I >>shoot on the large/fine setting; now and again on medium/fine and if >>I'm doing quick light checks I shoot on small/fine. >> >>Each of these images is, of course, a smaller size respecitvely. >> >>What I don't understand is what is changing. I don't use a 10D; but I think they will be using fairly "standard" nomenclature for the different shooting modes, so I'm fairly confident in saying that "large", "medium", and "small" refer to the actual resolution (pixel dimensions) of the image, and that "fine" (and probably other choices you don't mention) refers to the jpeg compression level. > Even better... > > Normally I would shoot my Nikon D70 on RAW+JPEG, but that only > gives me 23 shots on my 256MB card. So when I want to just > shoot away (like at my son's birthday party today), I thought > I'd shoot in JPG. > > QUESTION: Should I shoot 6MP files on Normal compression? or > 3MP files on Fine compression. In general resolution (6MP) makes more difference than jpeg compression level (normal or fine). Hence, if your choice is between those two settings, you'll generally get better pictures on 6MP/Normal than on 3MP/Fine > Both options give me approximately the same number of images > on the card (~140). Let's say mostly the images are not going > to be printed more than 5x7 or max 8x12. Emily is entirely correct to point out that you can't ever "recover" information not recorded in the original shot, and that you can't really tell in advance what you'll need a photograph for. The obvious response to this is to shoot everything in your highest mode. But I don't always do it that way; if I'm blazing away at snapshots at some gathering, I've been known to go as low as 6MP/normal compression (about 1MB per picture). And I rarely shoot RAW mode (12MB per picture). Mostly I shoot 6MB/fine compression. (Fuji S2 in my case). The difference between over 200, over 100, and 19 shots per card often dominates my thinking (256MB cards; and while I could certainly get bigger cards, then I couldn't back them up onto Zip disks in the field, so I'd be limited to the number of cards I actually had with me). -- David Dyer-Bennet, <mailto:dd-b@xxxxxxxx>, <http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/> RKBA: <http://noguns-nomoney.com/> <http://www.dd-b.net/carry/> Pics: <http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/> <http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/> Dragaera/Steven Brust: <http://dragaera.info/>
