Canon Digital Camera help!! resolution help???

Question

I bought a Canon Powershot A720 digital camera. 8.0 mega pixels

I found something which I THINK is the camera setting resolution, but it's :

"M1" which is 2592x1944

"M2" 2048x1536

M3" 1600x1200

"S" 640x480

Which is the best way to go? I don't take that many pictures and I want the best setting, but I don't know if this is the resolution or not.. Why does it jump from "M3" to "S".. I am confused. I want sharp pictures..

Also, how do I tell how many pictures I have left? I read the manual but I am still stuck. Since, I think it depends on the setttings.

Thank you

Answer 1

With the cost of memory cards so low now (2GB cards for under $11) shooting at the cameras highest resolution makes the most sense ... after all you spent the extra money to buy a 8MP camera, why shoot it as a 4MP camera?  If that is what you really wanted, you could have saved some money ...

My suggestion?

Buy two 2GB cards and carry the spare in your pocket or camera case and shoot at the "M1" mode ... always.

If you need to email a few photos to your friends, just resize those few photos (remembering to rename the smaller files so you don't overwrite you original files) to 600 x 400 @ 72 DPI

Answer 2

2592x1944 sounds like pixels per photo so the bigger numbers give you higher resolution but are larger in terms of memory storage ... set it to M1 for sharpest pics with most detail when blown up

This site seems to have a table of image sizes

http://justcamera.blogspot.com/2007/10/c...

under "number of recordable images"

It also seems like your camera should be able to be set to Large 3624x2448 as well as mediums 1,2 and 3, and small.

Large (L) should give even sharper pics

Maybe (S) is it's default setting???

4x6 inches is just the scale of the photo when it's printed ...you can have 3624x2448 pixels within that space down to 640x480 which gives less resolution and more visible pixels. If you get a blow up of the picture printed  at 8x12 inches it means you have less pixels per square inch and lower resolution but the photo's file size remains the same in terms of memory.