Should I use HQ or SHQ ?

I bought a Olympus D 4000 4MP camera yesterday and wondering whether

to shoot in HQ or SHQ. HQ (high qulity ?) mode gives files of 500kB

wjereas SHQ gives 1700 KB. TIFF gives files of 10 mb but I do not

have enogh memory cards to shoot in TIFF. Is a 500 kb file adequate

to print in 4*6 and 8*10. Thanks

Simple answer:

Do a test. Take the same shot with both settings and get 2 prints made.

It's difficult to advise one way or another. Of course the 1.7Mb pic will be nicer, but by how much? And is the 500kb acceptable to you?

If it is, then just run with the HQ mode... When I had my Olympus C2020, I always shot in HQ mode... Personally, I felt that the quality difference (which was minimal to me) was less important then the fact that I could take more pictures.

And even now with the 300D,(recreational use) most of the time I still only shoot in Large Normal (instead of Fine) since I get 60% more pics per card, and the quality difference (for me) is vary minimal.

Ditto that.

 

As suggested, I ran the same shots through each setting and saw little difference between HQ and SHQ, even medium quality was acceptable for e-mail and 4x6.

 

Besides, you can always change the setting if a shot seems special. The best of both worlds!

When I was using my Oly C700 I was seeing noticable artifacts (mostly 8x8 blocking) in HQ mode. No such problem in SHQ. So I would say stick to SHQ if you can.

I don't think you'd see any problems at 4x6 but you likely would at 8x10. Run some tests and see. You probably don't need tiffs. I'd suggest getting more memory as well, you don't want to be stuck at some point having to edit on the fly to finish off an event or a day out, etc. 128 meg SM cards are $35 at Costco (and probably cheaper with some searching) if I recall correctly.