Need Camera Help (Resolution ???'s)

[Krystina'sMommy]

Hi! Thanks, in advance, to anyone who can offer any advice on this one ( I know there are some photography experts out there!). Here goes:

We have a Sony Cybershot (not the best digital camera, I know, but certainly not the worst, either). We have been pretty happy with it so far, but I want to get really, really good, clear pictures on our cruise in Sept. I just bought more memory last night so that I can take lots of pictures, but my question has to do with resolution, which I know nothing about. My camera has 4 different settings:

640 X 480 (which is what I use for every day pictures)
1024 X 768
1600 (3:2)
1600 X 1200

Just this morning I took the same picture in all 4 different modes, but couldn't see any real difference in any of them. Can someone please tell me what the advantages of the higher resolutions are (or what they mean)? Obviously, the higher the resolution, the less pictures my memory stick can hold, which is why I usually use the lower resolution.

Sorry if I've rambled on, but I wanted to be as specific as possible with my question. Thanks for putting up with me.

 

[Memaw2Wm]

Not a professional, but the higher the resolution the crisper your printed photos will be and the higher resolution lets you print a larger photo. Also with a higher resolution you can crop a photo w/o losing crispness.

I usually use my second highest resolution which also me to print up to 20x22 or do a bit of cropping.

HTH

 

[jrydberg]

Resolution is expressed in pixels... 640x480 or 800x600 is what most people use as their desktop screen resolution. So basically, if your desktop is set at 800x600, one of your pictures at 800x600 would fill up the screen.

Printing out is a different matter though. An 800x600 picture will print out at about 2.66 inches by 2 inches (at 300 dots per inch). A 1600x1200 picture will print out at 5.33 inches by 4 inches, for comparison.

Does this make sense? The 1600x1200 picture captures more detail so it can print out larger.