Fine vs. Economy

[Romphotog]

6mp Economy, file size 1.1mb, zoomed 200%, distortion and halo around edges. Same scene, 6mp Fine, file size 3.56mb, zoomed 200%, looked ok, less distortion.
In fact, if you have to zoom that much to see so little difference between Fine and Economy, it's not worth it to use Fine at all as file size is 3x. BTW, I found burst mode using Fine useless as it took too long to save to card.

Noise/artifacts are reduced by using lower ISO. More MPs simply increases size of pic. ISO400 is 4x noisier than ISO100. More MPs are useful when cropping. However, cropping an 8mp ISO400 pic by 50% will produce the same result as a 4mp ISO200.

 

[Josh66]

What camera are we talking about here?

Other than your issues with write speed in burst mode (which could probably be solved with a faster card) I see no reason to use anything but the highest quality setting...

 

[creisinger]

6mp Economy, file size 1.1mb, zoomed 200%, distortion and halo around edges. Same scene, 6mp Fine, file size 3.56mb, zoomed 200%, looked ok, less distortion.
In fact, if you have to zoom that much to see so little difference between Fine and Economy, it's not worth it to use Fine at all as file size is 3x. BTW, I found burst mode using Fine useless as it took too long to save to card.

Noise/artifacts are reduced by using lower ISO. More MPs simply increases size of pic. ISO400 is 4x noisier than ISO100. More MPs are useful when cropping. However, cropping an 8mp ISO400 pic by 50% will produce the same result as a 4mp ISO200.

Sometimes I have bad dreams like those too :meh: