Image Size Question

[Alan Ellis]

A total noob question:

I have my camera set on 2 mb image size but they come out anywhere from 500-600K. I set it on 5 mb and they come out at around 2 mb. Why the difference? Am I missing something? Thanks...

AE (aka...Noobie the Fish)

 

[Helen B]

Don't you mean 2 Mpix gives you a 500-600 kB file, and 5 Mpix gives you a 2 MB file? The setting is probably in megapixels and the file size is in megabytes. The file size will be determined by the bit depth and file format - it may be compressed data.

For example, the uncompressed size of an RGB file with 8 bits per channel would be roughly 15 MB for a 5 Mpix image (3 MB per Mpix). Compression, whether lossy or lossless, brings that number down, as does saving in Raw because Raw files only have one channel of image data instead of three for RGB, though that may be offset by a higher bit depth.

Best,
Helen

 

[Alan Ellis]

That answers it for me. I was confusing mpix with mb.

Now I wish I hadn't drank all that cough syrup.