Hey guys. I'm currently using a Sony DSC W7 and it allows shooting in 2 different detail levels - Fine and Standard.

I took 1 picture with each mode yesterday and it came up to about 2.7MB for Fine and 1.5MB for standard.
But when I open the pictures up with paint and click on save, both the files become to about 500kb size. I compared this 500kb picture with the original and there wasn't really any noticeable difference.

Is this a normal occurence among all other digital cameras? Also, is the quality degradation (if any) significant? I did say there's no noticeable difference, but that was only one shot and I'm not sure if it applies to other pictures.

you should compare the 2.7mb vs 1.5mb version, not when both are at 500kb.

Well, it could be due to the screen resolution you are using.

Lets say if your screen is 1024x768, of course a picture with higher resolution wont shoo much significance.

You gotta tell us your desktop resolution and your save picture from paint resolution.

This post has been edited by calvin_gsc: May 26 2007, 01:17 AM

Goldfries, I'm more concerned about the quality difference between the 2.7MB and 500kb version. It is already expected for there to be a difference between the 2.7MB and the 1.5MB one.

But perhaps calvin_gsc explained why.
My monitor resolution is 1280x1024, my pictures are 3072x2048, 7MP shot in 3:2. Reckon that would be the reason why I'm not seeing any difference between the 2 pictures?

ok. i think i understand your question better now.

tell you what - host those pictures some where so that we can see for ourselves what you did.

your 500kb is using the same resolution i suppose.

http://www.geoduckies.com/yah00r3allysucks/3mb.jpg



Imageshack won't let me link the 3mb one so I had to host it on geocities..which has a miserable 4.2mb bandwidth limit per hour. Both are the same resolution, the only thing I did was to open the 3mb one with MS Paint and re-save it.

/edit For some reason, they keep auto-changing the URL from geocities to geoduckies. So if you're trying to access the picture, just change it from geoduckies to geocities.

This post has been edited by Chinoz: May 26 2007, 03:24 AM

yes, really no noticeable difference between these modes, it is the same for other brands of camera.

some argue that the one with higher compression will show artifacts when PP, but there is no proof. most ppl prefer fine anyway. for me i use std, can take more pic.

those who are really into these stuffs usually go for RAW.

ok so i tried photoshop layer vs layer comparison.

i had to zoom in 5 times to see the difference, even so it's negligible.

the most noticable difference is in the attached file. sorry i forgot to label them, the top of the pic is from the 3MB bottom of the pic is from the 678KB.

both are blowed up by 5x just to show the difference. notice that the picture at the bottom seems blocky?


Attached thumbnail(s)

blow up x5 times, plus in low contrast, then can see a bit difference, not that striking too, if view at 100% it'd be harder to see any diff. worth the decrease in size imo.

So does it mean we can use "standard" now instead of "fine"?

yup. imagine, i'm viewing it on a 1680x1050 Dell 20" UltraSharp. i had to zoom that far, examined quite a few areas on the picture to notice the difference. if you were to look at the other areas like the buildings or yachts, it's negligible.


sure, up to you. perhaps you could give it a try yourself on the quality. for me, i didn't bother, using 2GB CF on 8MP shots i could get quite a lot of shots before i have to offload them.

if the quality difference is negligible, then i don't see why you shouldn't go for the smaller file size.

too bad the <1mb shot wasn't from the camera.