What resolution # do you all set your ca mera at?

“I am learning to use my new camera and wondering what to set the resolution at, and also the compression.
This is what I can set it at either 2592 X 1944, 2048 X 1536, 1600 X 1200, or 640 X 480
Could anyone please tell me which one of those I should have it set at?
And the compression they have super fine, fine,normal??
Im thinking the 1600 X 1200 and the fine compression, but Im just not sure
Thanks for any help!”

“IMHO, memory cards are not that expensive, so I always take the highest resolution photos I possibly can. You can always photoshop the image later to fix the color, reduce the size or resolution later, but you can never increase the resolution after you take the pic.”

“I leave mine at the highest pixel resolution but store jpeg images with medium compression which loses some detail but I can't tell the difference, and my camera takes forever to store an uncompressed tif, and furthermore the memory card only holds like seven tifs where it can hold 130+ jpegs. Jpegs only take a couple of seconds to get written to the card. My camera btw is an Olympus C3030 and I've been pleased with it.”

“It all depends on what you plan to do with the picture. The higher the resolution, the bigger you can make the picture. For instance, 1600 x 1200 makes a good 4x6, and a descent 5x7. 2048 x 1536 will do a good 5x7, and an okay 8x10. The highest setting will give you a good 8x10. Each of these will take longer to load the higher the resolution, and will take up more space. So, if you are just taking snapshots at a party, use the middle two setting. If it is a family portrait, use the highest, and if it will solely be for the computer (web pages, email, etc.) then use the lowest setting. You can purchase high speed memory cards to speed up the storing.”

“I shoot in RAW ....not to be confused with "in the raw"....I always shoot with my clothes on ;)

On my 6.3 megapixel camera RAW = 3072 x 2048 when converted to a .tif file it's around 18 MB per photo....takes up some serious space. I shot over 400 photos on the Whitney trip.

Just as OX has stated.."It all depends on what you plan to do with the picture"
You can always bump up the res. when you are shooting something special.”

“I do not print much anymore. Most of my images are visualized on a 17" computer monitor or projected by LCD. 1200 x 1600 is a very good working resolution for that. For publication or that special shot, I shoot at max. I work almost exclusively in jpeg. Am I losing something by not using RAW/TIFF?”

“I store mine in Jpeg format, and then I photoshop them to my desired size, and compression level. I don't feel like I've lost anything, but I could be wrong”

“I usually shoot at the maximum resolution, which Canon calls the "Superfine" mode and is the one that is 2048 pixels wide. Being that my camera is only capable of 3.2 MP, that gives me the most option to be able to do stuff with the picture on the computer, and still have a decent looking image in the end. On my 256 MB card, that allows me to shoot about 150 pictures.

I did however drop my camera to just "Fine" mode at Glacier, thus allowing me to take about 270 pictures. The raw images look just as fine as the "superfine" ones, but they don't blow up as well if you try to crop the picture and then blow the cropped part up to full size.
last edited: 8/20/05 11:40:18 PM”

“RAW is awesome Pathman! You should experiment a little. You can convert to .tif or .jpg I save the originals as a .tif file with no compression. Small stuff for e-mail, web posting I save as .jpg. The most noticeable difference is zero artifacts from compression.”

“NICE, Wind Walker! :-)”

“RAW is the way to go if you have a camera that can do it...You get the best detail! You can then compress it or change to .jpg, .tif or whatever else you need.

Use the highest pixel level setting if you can.. (of course, like others have said, it depends on what you plan to do with the photo.) If only showing your pics on the web, then you can get away with lower resolution... if you plan to make enlargements, then go with the highest resolution possible.

Note: Most places that enlarge photos will tell you that 200 dpi is the finest needed to have a decent image when you enlarge it... (your eye will tend to blend in the dots....)

I have a Nikon D100-- I've blown my images up to 17 x 20, and people generally haven't been able to distinguish them from one shot on film.

Also, the higher the ASA setting (if you have one), the grainier the final image will be (just like with a film camera). So, try to keep at the lowest ASA possible for the best image. I generally don't go higher than 400 on my camera...”

“Thank you all so very much for all your help on this, I sure appreciate it.
I will change the resolution to a higher setting and just experiment with the camera. Im so use to my old sony, it only takes pictures in 640 x 480 and is so simple to use, so this new one is going to take me a while to get use to all the things it has on it.
Thanks again everyone
Have a great Sunday! I love that picture WW!”

“MiT,
I checked my settings when I saw this thread, and had it on a lower resolution from our longer trip in July. I was afraid of running out of memory so I lowered it for some pics, and forgot to change it to high res. Glad you posted this. I use superfine, but maybe I'll switch to RAW. I have a 1GB card for daytrips, which gives me ~400 pics at high res.”

“I shoot in RAW too! :-)

I took 127 pictures yesterday in Yosemite. Don't try that with film!

”

“HM, I always enjoy the pics you post. Another great one.”

“I use the 2nd to lowest resoloution. I take a lot of pictures but I ain't an artist (see my posted photos for examples). I use my camera as a documentation tool and "good enough" is "good enough". That plus I take so many photos and my camera is such a piece of crap and memory cards are so expensive I can't really do anything else. :(”