Posted by HOST on 1/21/2009, 2:27 pm, in reply to "Shooting photos at a lower resolution"
DSLRs take better photos because their sensor and therefore the individual pixels or "dots" on the sensor are larger, so they capture more light, more detail, etc., than the tinier pixels that are on the smaller sensors inside the point-and-shoot camera models.
Therefore, DSLR images will generally contain more detail (if you use a decent lens with the camera), and contain much less "noise" (grain) in lower-light photos. Some DSLRs are capable of taking photos in a room with a couple of lamps and no flash, that look TONS better than anything a point-and-shoot can hope to do. DSLRs are also much faster when taking photos so there is no pause or "shutter lag" between the time you press the shutter button, and it actually takes the shot.
With point-and-shoot models, you can lower the resolution, and generally what will happen is that distortions such as noise (grain) will appear to be less severe to your eyes when you view the shots, than when you take the photos at full resolution. It doesn't really mean the shots are higher quality, it just means the imperfections are hidden in it because you're viewing a smaller captured size.
It's also important to note that what you wind up seeing in prints will be better than when you view your photos on a computer screen at full size. You may look at photos from your SX100 camera on screen at full size and go "Ugh", but when they're printed at 4x6 or 5x7 sizes (maybe even 8x10 under good conditions) they may look perfectly fine.
General rule of thumb: Keep your camera at the highest quality, and highest resolution size. You never know when a photo opportunity will come up suddenly where you may want to do a larger print from it, and the smaller the resolution, the worse larger prints look. Memory cards are cheap now, especially at places like Sam's Club and Costco, so you can get larger cards to store pics at larger res. sizes.
HOST
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