Possible dumb question - but no-one seems able to advise...which MP setting is "best"

[SheepDip]

Hi there,

Yes, I know this is possibly a really stupid question, but google isn't really being my friend :lol: and frankly no-one seems to know in the shops I've asked at...

I have a Canon 7MP digital camera. There is though no way on earth I'm ever going to want to print out A3 sized prints.

This being the case, what is the best setting to put such a camera on? There are two schools of thought -

1 - Leave it on the highest possible setting (7MP), even if you view on a pc/TV, and it downsizes the image, bigger image/more pixels is best - right:shrug:

2 - Put it on a lower setting - A4 or even a lower setting A5 (Not sure what the MP of this would be, it doesn't say in the manual, but prob about 4MP), because using less MP means less end processing to downsize it, and besides, for viewing on a pc or TV, or even printing out traditional sized prints to put in the album - just who the chuff would ever notice ;)

Any thoughts? I know this seems a bit of a simple silly question really - but it's something people just don't seem to be able to advise on.

Thanks in advance

[photek]

If you can afford the storage space (in terms of memory card cost, hard drive space and archiving space) then use the largest possible picture size at the best possible quality you can. If you want to publish on the web, print out small 6x4 pictures etc then you can always drop the quality.

Rationale is that you can always lower the quality/compress the file but never add something that wasn't there in the first place.

[photek]

Same goes for cameras with Sepia / B&W modes etc. Do all that as a post-process on your PC rather than via the cameras built in options.

[danek]

Yeah, I'm with photek on this - assuming you have the space for it, leave it on the largest picture setting. It'll mean you always keep your options open, because you never know when you're going to take an absolute belter of an image. And I don't know what the zoom is like on your camera, but if you shoot an image at full size you can easily crop it, which will have the de facto effect of extending the zoom range on your camera.