[carlo_scute]

Good day,

I purchased an olympus fe 190 camera,and there are different image quality settings.
I just take pictures for leisure,just a beginner and i would print photos in regular size..
what setting should i choose? (i copied the chart here).
If i choose hq st.comp.,would the quality be not as good as in the shq low comp.?
would the difference be clearly visible in the photos.
thanks!

SHQ 2816 × 2112 Low
compression

HQ 2816 × 2112 Standard
compression

SQ1 2048 × 1536 Standard
compression

SQ2 640 × 480 Standard
compression

[bonk]

The higher the settings the better quality the picture for printing etc....but using higher quality it will take up more space on the memory card

SHQ = Super high quality will take up the most space and is the best quality for printing large size pictures.

HQ= High Quality which is what I would use in most cases


SQ1 = slightly lower quality but still OK for printing with normal size pictures

SQ2 = basic quality for printing small pictures.

[slipe]

You should take photos at the highest resolution and quality your camera is capable of. You don’t know where your interests will take you in the future or when you will get that great shot you want on the wall.

That has to be tempered by reality though. If you bought a small memory card and best quality photos would fill the card too quickly then drop down to HQ. Even with a large memory card you might want to drop to HQ if you were going on a vacation and had no way to download or save the photos other than the memory card.

If you have to drop to SQ1 to fit enough photos on the memory card you should check the sales for a larger capacity card. It makes no sense to buy a 6Mp camera and get 3Mp photos. You are also going to a low enough quality that you will start picking up compression artifacts. You wouldn’t see them on a 4 X 6 print and that size is OK for 4 X 6 prints. But should you ever get into cropping and other editing you will find that the images are limited.

Forget about SQ2. 640 X 480 isn’t large enough to make a decent 4 X 6 print. That is only 0.3 Mp. The camera in my cellphone takes 1.1 Mp photos, and I would be hard pressed to waste money on prints from it.

[carlo_scute]

thanks for your replies bonk,slipe, appreciate it! i would use the highest settings possible,and the next (HQ) setting for extreme cases only.

[hewee]

My nikon coolpix say the 640 X 480 is a tv mode. But that is a low end picture and now days with HD tv's that would be a very low end picture.