Digital camera memory

UNfortunately I cannot see a review of the camera on
www.dpreview.com
but I suggest that look at a review of a similar camera and see the effect of the different compression rates on image quality.

YOu also have to determine what you plan to do with the images - do you want to look at them on the screen of the PC only, or get them printed - or edit/crop them to make them more attractive and then print them up to say A4 size.

The further you take the process the better the quality of the image is required - so I would suggest that as you have paid for a 5mbp camera then you should take the images as 5mgp images.

If you do not expect to do much heavy work on the images after you get home, I would be tempted to use the compression rate of aproximately 1/8 this will give you a file size of aprox 1.2 to 1.3 mgb - allowing you to store just under 200 images on a 256gb card. Check the camera manual for what term they use to describe the 1/8 compression.

A full 5mgb image will be about 15mgb in size, by using the JPEG compression routines it can be reduced in size by removing some data. The key thing is to determine how much data you are prepared to lose.

Depending on when you are going away you may be able to run a few tests at different compression rates and get the images printed to see if can see the difference between the 1/8th compression rate and the 1/4th rate after you have printed them.

Be also aware that you other major resource you have to have with you apart from the SD cards is tha ability to recharge the batteries of the camera.

Also do not delete pictures while looking at them on the camera unless they are totally washed out or black. It is quite surprising what detail you can resue from the file on the computer when you get home..

Derek

<< >>

Derek - Thanks for the advice and the link I found the camera review here:

http://dpreview.bizrate.com/marketplace/product_info/reviews__cat_id--402,prod_id--7352733.html

I plan to view the images on the PC screen and tend to crop to around 2/3 of the original size

Unfortunately the review does not include sample images - so you will have to do a test so that you are then happy that you are getting the smallest acceptable file size with the largest image resolution. Select subjects with plenty of detail eg a field of flowers and also of a clock or watch face and look at the detail around the numbers on the clock face when you enlarge the image on the screen.

Enjoy and good luck

Derek

<< >>

Bosh

Do you have a portable computer? If so you can take it with you and empty your SD card every day. In which case just go for max resolution.

If not how good is the camera display for viewing images? Though it is always best to keep as many photos as possible a daily critical "edit" session would extend the time to fill up you 256MB SD card.

Finally how long is your holiday and if you are honest how much is it costing you? If it is a trip to an exotic destination you may never go to again ask yourself what the real value of your precious photos will be and weigh that against investing in a few more storage cards.

Also do a calculation on how much you would spend on film and processing including the "bum" photos and offset the cost of re-usaable SD cards against that.

Storing pics in 3M res should give you very good quality 8"x 10" images, but going to lower res to save on the cost of an SD card for what may be the only opportunity to take the pohtos is IMO a false economy.

regards
GEOFF

Thanks guys

I've done some test images and found that 5M with fine or standard compression is better than 3M with none. There was minimal if any loss from fine compression (1/8) which gives 100 images on my 256Mb card

Taking the laptop isnt really practical so just got another Hi speed 32x Lexar 256Mb card from UK memory card supplier on Ebay for £34, unfortunately got stung £9 for shipping.

A further quick question re file format

I'm shooting in 5m pixel/fine settings (1/8 compression) giving a 1.6Mb file size which gives me an acceptable 100 images on a 256Mb SD card

How come when I save the JPeg file I've edited in Photoshop it degrades it further (does this even with just cropping) even with 12 compression level which doubles the files size to 3Mb (using .tif massively increases the file size)

Any advice very much appreciated

My version of Photoshop gives you the option to save JPEG's in one of four different resolutions ranging from "HIGH" to "LOW". Do you have that option configured for "LOW" perchance?

GEOFF

Listening every day planning to "not fade away"

Geoff

My version is photoshop elements 1.0 and allows you to save in 13 JPeg resolutions (0-12)

Saving at 10 keeps file size the same, 11&12 increases the files size and 0-9 decreases it progressively. All decrease the resolution (even 11&12) with 0 being most lossy

quote:

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Originally posted by Bosh:
How come when I save the JPeg file I've edited in Photoshop it degrades it further (does this even with just cropping) even with 12 compression level which doubles the files size to 3Mb (using .tif massively increases the file size)

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JPG files are not stored as "pixels", per se, but rather as changing colors, supposedly as they perceived by the eye. To make matters more complex, this is done on a diagonal, versus horizontal, fashion.

If you load and save a JPG, it will almost NEVER be the same as it was before (unless you're using the exact program/settings/windspeed/etc. to create, load, and re-save the image. That's curse attached to the benefit of lossy compression. Check out www.und.edu/webhelp/graphics/definitions.html for more info.

-=> Mike Hanson <=-

A digital camera question but not quite on topic I'm afraid so apologies to Bosh!

I'm toying with the idea of getting a cheap(ish) digitla camera (round about £200 - maybe one of the Nikon Coolpix models) and have noticed many comments about a delay between the pressing of the shutter button and the photo actually being taken. This would seem to be quite a problem especially when taking action shots. Is this common functionality for all digital cameras, or does it only occur on some?

Any thoughts very welcome.

Cheers

Matt