what is "quality"? and what is Macro.

[agnatha]

just when i thought that i was feeling pretty solid on aperature and shutter speed, now i find another damn button that's seperate from all of that.
it's called quality and it goes
6M F 9 frames
6M N 19 frames
3:2 22 frames
3M 37 frames
2M 46 frames
03 M 227 frames
What in God's name does this mean? Is this something to do with the camera's video capability? I really could care less about that, but I have this really bad feeling that it's something else that's probably important.

Also, what the heck does Macro and Super Macro Mode mean? Is that just one of those things where the camera automates something that i should be doing manually or is it something extra that i also must learn about?

I'm starting to think that it would have been easier to learn Chinese than all of these terms that keep popping up. Each time i knock one down and feel all smart then something else pops up, and now i feel dumb again.

Help

 

[sovietdoc]

Use 6M F 9 frames for higher quality images

MAcro means decrease in minimal focusing distance. In macro and super macro modes you can shove the camera closer to the object.

 

[Patrice]

I don't mean to be a knob or anything, but did your camera not come with a user's manual?


BTW, you have one "a" too many in aperture.

 

[amolitor]

"quality" is usually something like how hard it compresses the JPEG files it's storing your pictures in. The harder it compresses, the smaller the file and the less good the pictures look:

If it compresses them harder, they get smaller, so you get more of them on on your card and they take up less space on your computer and so on. The down side is that they don't look as nice, you get more and more little strange looking "blocky" effects in the lighter areas and stuff like that as the "quality" goes down.

Macro means "focusing close in to things" and is used for taking photographs of small objects closeup. People will argue over what's "truly" "macro" but that's what the setting on the camera means -- close in focusing. How close? I don't know. Super Macro is, I imagine, even closer focusing? Somehow. I don't know the details, it's just some marketing phrase -- "macro" is a real word, "Super Macro" is something the camera manufacturer made up.

Does that help?

 

[480sparky]

..........
6M F 9 frames
6M N 19 frames
3:2 22 frames
3M 37 frames
2M 46 frames
03 M 227 frames
........

It all has to do with the amount of data the camera ultimately records.

At 6M F(I'm guessing 6 mega-pixels, Fine quality), you can record 9 frames because it's not reducing the image size any. At 6M N (6mp, Normal quality), you are deleting data in the camera, so you can record 19 frames.

At 3M (3 mega-pixels), you're throwing away even more data so you can record 37 frames. 2M (2 mp), deletes even MORE data, so you can record 46 images......

Although there is no defined standard on what macro is, the general consensus is it starts at a 1:1 reproduction ratio.

 

[SCraig]

It would be helpful to know what camera you are talking about.