Maximum Resolution

[hjoseph7]

<p>Most digital cameras these days allow you to choose from a list of output resolutions such as (minimum, medium, maximum). Minimum produces the smallest file size and maximum produces the biggest and most detailed file size. With that said, do you always shoot at maximum resolution, or are there times that shooting at lower resolutions is more appropriate ?</p>

<p>I'm finding that the more pixels a camera has the more I tend to choose a lower resolution. Not only is it more convenient for posting online and saving to disk, but the pictures look smoother(easier on the eye) on my monitor.</p>

[David_Cavan]

<p>Due to the low cost of cards and disk we shoot by default at highest JPEG resolution, with RAW turned on. It's easy to downsize for various purposes once photos are downloaded, but even then the original sizes are kept and downsized shots are handled as additional copies. At $100 for 2tb drives it makes sense for us to do that.</p>

<p>The exception is if we're shooting action, such as auto racing. If I'm going to turn the camera to multiple shots per second (e.g. following cars through a corner for 20+ shots, or shooting a hockey play) I'll turn off RAW, and very occasionally if I know the shots are just for posting on-line I'll set the resolution down one step. Otherwise it makes sense to me to have the highest resolution available for any cropping or adjustments.</p>

[Wouter Willemse]

<p>I can capture data only once. Next I can spend a lifetime loosing it, but once gone, it's gone. I find it a silly idea to start immediately with loosing data, I rather postpone that moment for as long as possible.</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>The only time I shoot at less than maximum resolution - usually JPEG only - is for experiments with animated GIFs and short time lapse videos. Once I get the knack for time lapse, tho', I'll shoot at maximum resolution.</p>

<p>Many digicams enable in-camera editing and resizing, which is convenient for online posting. But I still shoot at maximum resolution first, other than for some experiments where I plan to delete everything anyway.</p>

[Lou_Meluso]

<p>Max resolution RAW shooter here for almost everything. Exceptions are quick informational snapshots and eBay sales pics. If I shot high speed sports ( I rarely do) or other fast moving action I might consider jpegs for the faster data throughput and to reduce the buffer impact.</p>

[craig_shearman1]

<p>"do you always shoot at maximum resolution"<br />Yes<br /><br />"are there times that shooting at lower resolutions is more appropriate"<br />Never, at least not in my opinion.<br>

As others have said, you can always reduce the file size for uploading, email, web, etc., but you can't go the other way.<br /><br />When shooting news photos for publications, I shoot at maximum resolution. If I know I need to send the photo immediately on deadline, I might set the camera to shoot in raw and jpg at the same time so that I have a jpg file immediately available. But even then it's highest-quality jpg in the camera, then I drop it usually to an 8 on the 1-12 compression scale in Photoshop before emailing it to the publication. But that's always done after shooting, not during shooting.<br /><br />IMHO, there's no such thing as a photo just for the web. You just never know what use might pop up for an image five minutes or five years after you've shot it. And why pay for a 16-24 mp camera and only use 5 mp?</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>I shoot RAW wherever I don't need to take pictures in the dark really rapidly. Used to save Large jpeg too, but now I do only small jpg along with the RAW. When I do shoot jpeg only, I change to Large jpeg. ;)</p>

<p>As I've said repeatedly lately,<br>

A pixel is a terrible thing to waste.</p>

[ali_baba2]

<blockquote>

<p>but the pictures look smoother(easier on the eye) on my monitor</p>

</blockquote>

<p>how so? <br>

Sometimes, if the monitor has a lower resolution and the picture is made to fit the window of what you are using to see it, it might not look smooth. do you find a difference if the pic is kept its natural size so only a portion of it is visible in the monitor (is that portion "smooth")?</p>

[Jochen_S]

<p>I believe the question depends on what we are talking about. I bought a 40 Euro 14MP Casio EX-N1 and set it to 5MP since these are what I bear looking at at best. If I upscaled that Casio's 1/2.3" CCD to APSC, I'd get a 126MP camera I'd shoot at 45MP... - Less pixel density seems desirable.<br>

My other cameras shoot RAW all the time now. - I am not sure what I'll end doing, once I'll face the bottleneck of on the road publishing, right now I don't have a WISP, but I guess, if I get one, any laptop should be powerfull enough to handle RAWs in Picasa?</p>

[jim_momary]

<p>Memory is cheap. Processors are powerful.</p>

<p>Do you more 'senior' guys remember cassette tape storage,360KB floppies, etc.? Do we really want to go back there again? I don't.</p>

<p>Data discarded (small jpeg here) is data forever lost. My 2 cents.</p>

<p>Jim</p><div></div>

[jim_momary]

<p>Space Saver.</p><div></div>

[goldbergbarry]

<p>I always shoot at max resolution - no exceptions for me. </p>

[Spearhead]

<p>I shoot at the small jpeg setting for Craigslist and things like that. Works just fine and I don't have to run it through a processor or worry about it being too big, just load it out of the camera.</p>

[ljwest]

<p>Raw @ full resolution. If I'm extremely pressed for space, or on a vacation or other sojourn where the vast majority of my images qualify more as "family snaps" than "photography", I switch to JPEG, but still with all the pixels. If something comes up that I may want to play with later, my Canon 7D has a one-button function I can enable to switch me back to raw capture for that shot.</p>

<p>If I need to post something online, I resize in post. Why let the camera do it?</p>

<p> </p>

[Peter_in_PA]

<p>I believe I have never shot at less than maximum resolution. Not once.</p>

[sgust]

<p>If there's any chance that you might revisit an image in the future, go with max resolution and RAW if your camera is able. I used to shoot only in jpeg because my Raw conversions were worse than those of the camera, because of inexperience and I didn't like Sony's conversion software. Now I regret it, because of all the detail that was lost when the camera converted the images to jpeg. The same issue applies to saving at lower than max resolution.</p>

[dan_south]

<p>Go big. Shoot raw.</p>

[john_cooper9]

<p>When I shoot stuff for Ebay I use a Sony A100 and Minolta 100mm f:2.8 macro at the lowest resolution since Ebay downsizes the images anyway. They look good on my Retina 15 inch MacBookPro. Obviously these are not "keepers" but are only serving as a tool for selling. Not all of my images are for the ages! In fact I don't think any are. Except, maybe some of my old 4x5 chromes that have been turned into Cibacrome prints. Even if not worthy they should last a long time and perhaps "worthiness" will be redefined in the future.</p>