[RMXO]

My GF & I just got a digital camera for X-mas: Pentax Opti 330GS. This is our 1st digital camera. we was wondering whats the quality lvl you use when taking a pic? we have a 128mb CF Card. I understand the higher the resolution the more memory it takes on the CF Card. is bigger always better?

we will import the pics into iPhoto then do a touch up on Photoshop 7.

thanks,

[JeremyA]

I wouldn't consider myself an expert but...

It depends on what you are going to use your photos for. The resolutions at 1024X768 and below will probably only give you sufficient quality for viewing on your computer, but that will be fine if you only intend the photos for web use or emailing to friends. The 1600X1200 size should give you OK prints at 6"X 4" and the 2048X1536 should allow you to print a bit larger than that.

Personally I would always use the highest quality setting because I usually don't know whether I'm going to want to print a picture until I have seen the full-screen view on my Mac. Also you might come back to a picture in the future and want to use it for something different. A 128Mb CF card should hold quite a few photos even at the highest quality setting.

Jeremy

[zigzag]

Like the man said, it depends on what you're going to do with it. If you don't do any cropping and just look at your photos on a computer screen, you don't need to use more resolution than your monitor has (a 15" iMac has a 1280x960 screen). If you intend to make prints, though, you'll want to use a higher resolution - I'd say at least 1600x1200 for 4x6 prints.

Don't forget that if you crop a picture, you're throwing away pixels and therefore losing relative resolution. In other words, if you crop 25% off each edge of a 1600x1200 image, you end up with a 800x600 image, which will not make a very sharp 4x6 print. And cropping is usually unavoidable because prints have different aspect ratios (e.g. 4x6, 8x10) than the jpg your camera makes (4x3). I learned this the hard way. My strategy now is to shoot at high resolutions and leave extra room around my subjects to allow for cropping. This uses more memory but makes life easier because I don't have to worry about framing the photo perfectly when I take it - I know I can always crop it later.

[icruise]

Always shoot at the highest possible resolution. That way you can crop or print without losing too much detail. In addition, think of the future -- in a few years computer displays will likely have considerably greater resolution than they do now, and those 1024X768 pictures are going to look tiny. I have some pictures I took with an early digital camera at 320X240 and 640X480. They seemed ok at the time (a little small, but about the right size for snapshots) but now they are incredibly tiny on a high resolution screen.

[chabig]

I agree with everyone else. I have found cropping to be the best reason to shoot at high resolution. With a film camera I always tried to frame my subject in the viewfinder. Now I just shoot with wild abandon and do the "framing" later.

Perhaps if I had the eye of a professional I'd do it differently. But I don't have the talent for knowing how it will look good until after I see the picture.

Chris

[memento]

I've been using digital cameras for years. For the resolution/quality question I always say the same thing:

You can always decrease the resolution of the photo in photoshop, but you can never increase it because the photo is already taken (I know you can extrapolate, but it's not the same). So go with the largest and you can shrink if need be. I also use the highest quality jpeg.

[RMXO]

thanks peeps. guess i will stick with the highest resolution & buy a CF card with more memory....

[lland]

Totally agree with Memento you can cahnge the resolution down in Photoshop!