My digital will take up to about 8 megapixels, with several smaller options. i use it for jobsite snapshots, not for 16×20 enlargements, so I really don’t think 8 mp is the setting to use. So what is a good compromise between quality and file size? I’m thinking something around 3 mp, depending on what the camera has for options.
“Put your creed in your deed.” Emerson
“When asked if you can do something, tell’em “Why certainly I can”, then get busy and find a way to do it.” T. Roosevelt
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Replies
Yup, I shoot at 3.1 mostly, get more pics on the card.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
They kill Prophets, for Profits.
One meg works fine for most for me
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My first digi was 1.3. Seemed fine till I got a 4. Now when I pull up old 1.3 pix I am always disappointed in the quality when I go to zoom in at all. 4 seems fine.
Steve
I always take pictures in the highest resolution and reduce them if needed to post online or email. I look at it this way, I can always reduce the size later but I can never increase the quality. The memory chips are so inexpensive now, I just have a few 2 gig's.
I always take pictures in the highest resolution and reduce them if needed to post online or email. I look at it this way, I can always reduce the size later but I can never increase the quality. The memory chips are so inexpensive now, I just have a few 2 gig's.
I second that. You might want to use some of those photos for print later - like in an ad, say. I upload to flickr.com to post on the web, flickr automatically reduces the pixel count.
edited to add: if its for my website, I use ms paint to shrink the photo to the size I need before uploading.
"...craftsmanship is first & foremost an expression of the human spirit." - P. Korn
bakersfieldremodel.com
Edited 3/1/2009 9:52 am by Huck
I have a 3.1mp I use all the tiime on construction sites and it works very well, if you're just looking at the pictures on your monitor higher resolution really doesn't help much. However, as others have said it's best to take the pictures with as high a resolution as possible and shrink them down later if you need. Irfanview works great for that, it's a free downloadable software often mentioned here - it works good for shrinking pictures you post on Breaktime.
I have a Canon A400 3.2mp camera and I find the optics are not really as good as 3.2 resolution. When zooming a 3.2 picture, it fuzzes out before I run out of pixels.
The thing that surprises me is how bad regular old Kodak pictures, even when shot with a fairly expensive camera, are when you really look up close like we can do with a digital picture.
It is just what you get used to.
I shoot at 1024x768, which is about .8 megapixels.
I prefer to take multiple pictures instead of one that will can be zoomed in.
My pics are typically in the 240kb range.
Jon Blakemore
RappahannockINC.com Fredericksburg, VA
I don't think my camera has on option to go down that far!
As usual there's been a good variety of responses, and everyone has justification for doing it their way. I think I'll up mine to about 5 meg, but only cuz that's the mood I'm in, not due to any of your comments. God forbid that I would take the advice of anyone from this forum. :)"Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
My camera won't even do 5 megapixels. 4 is tops for me.
Jon Blakemore RappahannockINC.com Fredericksburg, VA
I think my cheap phone goes to 5 or 6..I had to lower it from default to be able to email my self without taking too long.
It was cool the last job I was on, a copper roof..the HO is getting old and couldn't "Oversee" my work..so he was inside and I took a pic and emailed it from his porch to 30' away where he was sitting on his computer.
He got a birds eye view that would have made his vertigo go into full blown acid trip. All from the comfort of his la-z-boy.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
They kill Prophets, for Profits.
What you have to remeber is that if your camera is an 8 megapixel camera and you use jpegs you'll only get an 3 meg file.
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shoot in the highest resolution you can... you   can make downsized COPIES in another program ( like IrfanView ) on your computer
shame to have a really, really, great shot.... but not have the resolution to do much with it
some  digitals can take 2 pics at the same time... one in high res... one in something else
EG: i can set my D80 to take a RAW and a .jpg Mike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Edited 2/18/2009 2:02 pm ET by MikeSmith
Mike, I asked before..why are your posts showing as if you space again between words like this is .?
get the funkamunga outta the space bar?Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
They kill Prophets, for Profits.
must have something to do with typing on a laptop
i have to be careful not to let the heel of my hand hit the touchpad
either that or i stutter when i type
Mike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Edited 2/18/2009 4:21 pm ET by MikeSmith
Looks like he is not using PS font, and each letter has the same space.
Nope, that's not it now that I look again, but you're right, the spacing looks a bit wider than normal.
"Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
Edited 2/18/2009 2:27 pm ET by FastEddie
Other, related issues - "quality" of the save, which is related to the degree of "losey" compression of the file, as well as optics.
I take my inspection photos at high res & detail, but I want that sort of detail for the job.
"Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive... then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
Howard Thurman
8mp will produce a roughly 4M JPEG. If you have a 2G memory card that's roughly 500 pictures. And many cameras will take an 8G memory card or larger.
Hardly any point in worrying about file size.
Yeah, too many pics on th card take an inordinate amount of time to load when retrieving the last photo..I hate that.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
They kill Prophets, for Profits.
Plus the technology has improved so fast that you can get very large memory cards for not much money at all.
Yeah, I don't erase and reuse the cards -- I put them in an envelope with the dates and subject matter and file.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. -John Kenneth Galbraith
It depends on the quality of prints you want.
If your printing at 300-dpi, and want an 8X10 picture, then you need 7,200,000 pixels to match up to the dot resolution of the printer.
At 120-dpi, then it would take 1,152,000 pixels to match up.
Since memory cards are so inexpensive now, I have several so I can change them out if I run short of memory, and shoot at as high a resolution as the camera will take.
This allows me the ability to crop to zoom in on details should I need to.
You get lots better results resizing a large picture into a small one, than going the other way. Also, as I have gotten bigger, better monitors, the old lower resolution pictures don't really fill the screen and seem grainy if I enlarge them up to fit the screen.