Picture Quality Settings Canon 400D

sashie

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My question is regarding JPEG Fine compression vs JPEG Normal compression. Which on the Canon menu has a quarter circle for fine compression and a jagged stair-step for normal compression. Which of these compression settings would be the best?
 
Use the 'fine' option. It's the best quality...and you should always use the best quality settings. To that point, I suggest learning about and shooting in RAW mode (plenty of discussion about that on the forum, just search for it).

The only excuse for using a lower quality level or size, would be to conserve memory card space....but cards are so cheap these days, it's not much of an excuse.
 
If you must use JPEG I agree that fine is absolutely the way to go. But, if you have the software to work with it, use RAW instead of JPEG. It provides better quality originals and lossless editing. It will lower the number of images that will fit on a card but as mentioned above, cards are cheap, go for quality.
 
Thanks so much for the information. I guess I'll need to buy more cards. One other question, why would someone use JPEG + raw? Is there some advantage to this?
 
Well RAW shots have to be processed before they can be used - they also tend to open rather slowly - or not at all - with windows photo viewer - so the JEPGS can be a good way to work out which shots to work with in RAW.
Further when you first start out editing in RAW you might find it hard to get the results you desire - having a JPEG there as a safty net means you won't lose shots in the early days (going back and editing is always a trial that tends to get left in the "to do" list ;))

As for cards - go for around 4GB size for working with RAW - that gives a good number of shots for a good price - under 4GB and you can use a card up very quickly.

Further don't feel pressured to move to RAW until you are comfortable editing in JPEG - you don't have to be a wizard, but basic things like levels, curves, sharpening, noise removal, adjusting tint and temperature should be things that you idealy want to be in control of before moving - that is because RAW shots always need processing over JPEG which get a lot of processing in camera - so first times in RAW can be daunting if you don't know your way round the editing side
 

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