QC-5000SX Resolution Facts

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Imaging Resource Discussion : One Thread

I have a Casio QV-5000SX. My question is what is the real difference in the four resolution settings? After downloading images into Photoshop, I notice that the resolution is 72ppi on ALL settings of Super Fine, Fine, Normal or Economy. Super Fine, Fine and Normal ALL have pixel dimensions (or computer output image) of 1280 X 960, while the Economy setting is 640 X 480. The file sizes (dimensions in inches) are different on all four. What in the different resolution settings makes the Super Fine better than Fine and Fine better than Normal since they have the same image resolution of 72ppi? I am trying to understand the different concepts/aspects of "resolution."

Thank you,

Charlotte Hickman

-- Charlotte Hickman (chickman@harris.com), February 01, 1999

Answers

This is a REALLY frequent cause for confusion! Essentially all digicams "compress" images, to squeeze more of them into the limited on-board storage available. They do this by essentially throwing away part of the information in the image, hopefully in ways not noticeable to humans. As they throw away more and more though (same number of pixels, but smaller files, lower "resolution") at some point the missing information starts to become noticeable. On the Casio, this is the difference between the Super Fine, Fine, and Normal images. Navigate to the "Tips & FAQs" page on our site, and thence to the article on "choosing a digital camera". There's a sample image in there showing the kind of thing to look for to see these so-called "compression artifacts." Cameras also change the number of pixels in the image, typically offering a high- and low-resolution mode, as in the Casio. These are the images that differ in the number of pixels they contain, as opposed to just the size of the file on disk. (The difference between Economy and the other three resolutions

-- Dave Etchells (web@imaging-resource.com), February 01, 1999.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ