Last week I bought a Minolta A2 (8 mega pixels) and two 2GB Hitachi Microdrive cards to take on vacation next week.
Unfortunately I know little about digital photography but I have to start somewhere so I plan to take a few pictures using the Raw quality setting, but for most of my shooting I think I will be using the extra fine JPEG quality setting at an image size of 2560 x 1920 which according to my owners manual will give me a file size of 4,920KB per image.
Spend about 4 hours with your new camera, the manual and your computer. Just go outside into your yard and take some pix, then come in, download them and take a look. Do that until you know how to use the camera, including, if possible, how to set your white balance.
The D100 I borrow from time to time is a 6 Megapixel camera. The JPEG fine files I get from it open up to 17M. Your 8Megapixel camera should produce larger files, not smaller, although the RAW size, which is compressed, will probably come in around 4M.
With an 8 Megapixel camera you should be able to print an 18x24 or larger without appreciable grain unless you choose an ISO above 400 or so. Your uncompressed files will probably come in around 20 - 22M.
Hope you have a large hard drive and can burn CDs.
2. Can I make copies of selected images at a smaller size using Photoshop Elements so I can send them as email attachments or maybe place them on the web?
Sure. Web files are 72dpi or 96 if you wish by 2x3 or 4x6. Your files from your camera will be 72dpi by something ridiculous like 36"x48".
Even if you shoot in JPEG fine, you should be able to do anything you heart desires with the assistance of Elements. Just save all your keepers as TIFFs, and leave the rest as JPEG fines in case you decide one of them is actually a keeper. Burn a CD of your complete capture, maybe daily, and include a folder of your adjusted keepers renamed and saved as TIFFs.
HTH.
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Emily L. Ferguson
mailto:elf@xxxxxxxx 508-563-6822
New England landscapes, wooden boats and races, press photography http://www.vsu.cape.com/~elf/
