300D,Which file size?

[mike from ebbw]

hi.as some of you know i have just bought my first digital slr,an eos 300d.what i want to know is if i put the quality down to jpeg medium size file instead of large file will i lose resolution when i upload them to the computer or will i just get a smaller picture.i am still yet to try it out!i am hoping to get out tomorrow to get some pics of some local hobbies hawking dragonflies before they move on to warmer climes.any tips at all will be greatly appreciated.

thanks,mike.

[eskander]

If you reduce the file size you do reduce resolution because the file is smaller. You will only notice this however if you view the file at the same size on screen as the larger file. For example if you zoom in on the picture you will be able to zoom in further on the larger file before losing detail.

Also the difference is more likely to show in a print than on screen.

I would always shoot RAW if you want quality and you will need it trying to shoot hobbies since you may need to do quite a bit of cropping since I doubt that you'll get close to them.

[RAH]

if i put the quality down to jpeg medium size file instead of large file will i lose resolution when i upload them to the computer or will i just get a smaller picture
I don't own the camera, but when you say "jpeg medium size file", do you mean more jpeg compression (i.e. lower "quality")? Most cameras allow you to pick both the resolution (the image dimensions in pixels - width x height), and also pick a jpeg "quality" - maybe called "fine" and "normal" or "super" and "regular", or such words.

I believe you should always use the highest resolution your camera will give you - i.e. chose the largest image dimensions - again, that's width x height in pixels. As far as whether you use high quality vs regular quality for the jpeg setting, you can experiment and see if you see any difference. On a lot of cameras, you won't see any.

You could also shot RAW. I assume that RAW always gives you the highest resolution, and I doubt if compression is an issue.

[baillieswells]

hi.as some of you know i have just bought my first digital slr,an eos 300d.what i want to know is if i put the quality down to jpeg medium size file instead of large file will i lose resolution when i upload them to the computer or will i just get a smaller picture.i am still yet to try it out!i am hoping to get out tomorrow to get some pics of some local hobbies hawking dragonflies before they move on to warmer climes.any tips at all will be greatly appreciated.

thanks,mike.

Always use the highest rsolution setting, if you don't need it, it doesn't matter, but if you do yo cannot alter it later.With the 350D, and I think the 300D is similar, I always use the Raw + L setting. This produces two files of each shot, one in RAW and the other Large Fine which is in JPEG format.If it is a really important photo which I wish to manipulate, I do this from the RAW file. If I don't, I delete the RAW file and just keep the JPEG one. The only disadvantage of this method is that each photo takes up about 10MB. However with compact flash cards now dirt cheap this is no problem.

[eastwood]

Raw is, of course, the best. But I am too lazy to process Raw files, so I always shoot Large fine. You can reduce the size in computer if you don't need it. But if you shoot in smaller formats, you cannot blow it up to the large size one without loss of quality. All you need is a larger capacity CF card. The only advantages to shoot in smaller size is you can take more shots in the same card and that you can have a greeater burst rate (but not faster) because the camera writes smaller size pix to the card faster.

[mike from ebbw]

thanks for all the advice people.here is one of the shots i took yesterday.i must say i am very impressed.this was taken on jpeg/large/fine setting.
mike

[eastwood]

Well done, Mike. I have used the 300D for a couple of times borrowed from a friend. I did not notice any difference in quality from my 350D when I view the images on screen.