What "quality" do you use?

[treynolds]

I have a Rebel XTi. I am taking a 1GB and a 2GB memory card with me. I want to get as many pictures out of this as I can. What do you suggest I set my camera on. I know they have small, medium, and large. I also want to make sure I have good quality pics. Do I need to invest in another card before we leave?

 

[VVFF]

I have a Rebel XTi. I am taking a 1GB and a 2GB memory card with me. I want to get as many pictures out of this as I can. What do you suggest I set my camera on. I know they have small, medium, and large. I also want to make sure I have good quality pics. Do I need to invest in another card before we leave?

Buy a new memory card. They cost what....like $20 for 8GB?

 

[seashoreCM]

I always set quality to highest, finest (superfine), large'est, etc.

I would buy more memory cards as needed to be able to keep the highest quality.

Digital camera hints: http://www.cockam.com/digicam.htm

 

[Gianna'sPapa]

I use the best quality on my camera and I bring five 8gb cards. I also bring my computer with two external hard drives. I should have prefaced this with my DW and I both use a DSLR while at WDW. I back up the cards on both HD's each day and clear the cards. I made a mistake once by not doing this and lost some images. That will never happen again. Also, there is always the slight chance of a card going bad, so I ensure that I have enough memory for whatever I want to do, ie, raw, raw + jpeg and/or jpeg. This sounds like overkill, but it works for me!!

 

[spinetnglr]

No question here .. I would definately invest in some more memory. Suppose your 2GB card fails? You will be left with only a 1GB card. My last trip I had a total of about 40GB in cards with me and could have used more. I shoot RAW which are much larger files than JPEG but I am sure you will find that 3GB is not going to be enough memory unless you have an alternative such as a laptop with extra memory or can transfer to cd's or a portable external hard drive.

 

[CleoPahd]

Just my opinion, but unless you do a lot of photo work/retouching and/or plan to enlarge these pictures to poster size, if you shoot in medium you will have beautiful pictures and save a lot of space. You don't really need to shoot in the full 10 mp unless you feel like the pictures you are taking are something you want to seriously enlarge. I have a Nikon D60 which is similar and have always shot "medium" and my pictures are beautiful. I've enlarged them up to 8 x 10 size and the quality is fine. When I find a shot that I think I may want to enhance or might at some point consider doing something other than slideshow viewing, scrapbooking, etc, I just set the camera for higher quality for that particular shot.

As a matter of fact I took photos of my daughter last year because she hated her school pictures. I shot them in medium quality and photo enhanced what needed to be done, then made a complete photo package with 8 x 10's, 5 x 7's, etc and sent them out to family. Everyone thought they were professionally taken photos.

I have more pictures than I know what to do with from my last trip with my DSLR and I took the same size cards you are planning to take. I hope that helps.

 

[mom2rtk]

Your memory needs depend on whether you want to shoot in RAW or Jpeg too. I like to shoot at Disney on RAW + Jpeg, but on that camera (also on my Xti) you can only do that on the largest file setting.

My rule of thumb? Estimate how much you THINK you will need... then double it!

Fortunately it's much cheaper than it used to be!

 

[mom2rtk]

Hey! It just dawned on me. I upgraded from the Xti to my current Xsi which is a new format. If you want to make a deal on some CF cards, PM me!

 

[disneyboy2003]

I have a Rebel XTi. I am taking a 1GB and a 2GB memory card with me. I want to get as many pictures out of this as I can. What do you suggest I set my camera on. I know they have small, medium, and large. I also want to make sure I have good quality pics. Do I need to invest in another card before we leave?

I agree with the almost-consensus that you should buy more memory cards, especially since memory is very cheap. I'd probably look into getting two 8-GB memory cards.

I also agree that you should take pictures in large-fine JPEG. (even better would be to take pictures in RAW, but then you'd have to look into software to process & convert RAW photos into JPEG)

I figure, I bought my DSLR because I wanted the best-quality photos, especially compared to my old point-and-shoot cameras. So now that I have my DSLR for higher-quality photos, why compromise on quality by shooting smaller JPEG sizes?

Also, if you want smaller JPEGs, you can always make them smaller later-on at home. Unfortunately, the reverse isn't true.

Someone suggested taking photos in "medium JPEG" until you have a special moment, and only then would you switch to "large JPEG". The only thing I'd caution about this strategy is that sometimes, you never know when that "special photo" will be. Let's say your child gets a kiss from Cinderella, and you've captured that moment beautifully...but accidentally in "medium JPEG".

Actually, I've crunched out the numbers, and here's what I found. Warning! Nerdy math ahead...

Ideally, when you print a photo, you want a resolution of 300 dpi (dots-per-inch). Slightly less (like 200-300 dpi) is probably okay, but ideally you want 300 dpi.

If you shot in medium JPEG, the size is 2,816 x 1,880 pixels. If you divide each number by 300 dpi, you get an ideal photo that's 9.4 x 6.3 inches (somewhat less than an 8x10 photo). This probably explains CleoPahd's experience in getting good 8x10 photos while shooting medium JPEG.

If you shot in large JPEG, the size is 3,888 x 2,592 pixels. If you divide each number by 300 dpi, you get an ideal photo that's 13 x 8.6 inches. This is a perfect resolution for an 8x10 photo, and it even gives you room to crop about 3 inches from the longer side.​

Anyway, ultimately, I'd recommend large-fine JPEG, more memory cards, and larger-sized memory cards. Hope that helps.

 

[treynolds]

Ok. So I know I am going to shoot in large and I am going to shoot in jpeg+raw! Now, I need to get more cf cards. The ones I have are sandisk extreme. Is there a certain brand I should use or do you find all about the same. I'm thinking of pricing reasons of course.

 

[ukcatfan]

I have had great luck with Kingston cards. I have never had one go bad. (knock on wood)

 

[Evad]

+1 for Kingston. I use them all the time with no problems.

 

[Zoesmama03]

Yep I agree find a 8G card. I use fine and large size plus I shoot RAW which takes even more space and when I put one 8G in I borrowed from my brother the other day when I needed more space just in case it showed over 600 so I can imagine JPG is even more at highest quality/size. His is an off brand too and he has never had any problems with it and uses fine/large on his coolpix, or did until the camera broke from sand in it.

 

[dmccarty]

I have both Kingston and Sandisk cards and no problems. Knock on wood.

At the moment I prefer 8 GB cards since they will hold about 400 images with my camera shooting RAW. Quite a few images but not everything we would take during a trip.

Learn how to process RAW files. You can make what looks like a bad image into a good one if you know some basic steps.

Shoot at the best quality you can. You cannot capture the image/data after the fact. You might need to crop a photo and really need all of the data you can get for that one special photo. Memory cards are cheaper than once in a life time photos that were missed or not captured because of trying to save a few dollars.

Later,
Dan

 

[Zoesmama03]

Just wanted to mention that if you watch online sometimes you can find the 3 packs on sale with rebates that often get you a full refund of purchase price. I've seen it happens several times. So it may pay to watch and keep pricing online.

 

[klmall]

Hey! It just dawned on me. I upgraded from the Xti to my current Xsi which is a new format. If you want to make a deal on some CF cards, PM me!

What is the format change involved here?

 

[JimbobJimbo]

What is the format change involved here?

The XTi uses CF cards while the XSi uses SD cards.

 

[treynolds]

All the replies have been wonderful. I have never considered shooting raw until some of you pointed out the advantages!! I am a newbie at this, so I appreciate all information I can get. I am going to try shooting jpeg+raw. Now I have another question....someone mentioned having the right software to work with the raw images. I have Adobe photoshop 6.0......Is this going to work? If not, any suggestions? This will be a whole new learning experience for me and I welcome any tips!

 

[Golf4food]

All the replies have been wonderful. I have never considered shooting raw until some of you pointed out the advantages!! I am a newbie at this, so I appreciate all information I can get. I am going to try shooting jpeg+raw. Now I have another question....someone mentioned having the right software to work with the raw images. I have Adobe photoshop 6.0......Is this going to work? If not, any suggestions? This will be a whole new learning experience for me and I welcome any tips!

Photoshop should be fine, or you have software that should have come with the camera from Cannon, too.

If you are going to shoot in JPEG+RAW you definitely want more storage space. I take at least 15GB or more for a 4-6 day trip and run low on space. That's around 1,200 photos, I guess.

And while you are at it, learn how to use your camera in modes other than "Auto" if you really want good photos. You aren't using a point and shoot any more - take off the training wheels.

 

[disneyboy2003]

Now I have another question....someone mentioned having the right software to work with the raw images. I have Adobe photoshop 6.0......Is this going to work? If not, any suggestions? This will be a whole new learning experience for me and I welcome any tips!

Just want to clarify: Do you have Adobe Photoshop 6.0 (released in 2000) or do you have Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 (released in 2007/2008)? Photoshop Elements is a "lighter" version, or a "consumer" version, of Photoshop, and typically costs about $100. Photoshop itself usually costs around $700.

The reason I ask is that Photoshop 6.0 didn't have Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), which is the program you'd need to work on RAW files. ACR didn't first appear until Photoshop CS (which is version 8.0, back in 2003). ACR is automatically included in current versions of Photoshop AND Photoshop Elements.

ACR is also automatically included in Photoshop Elements 6.0. If you've got Photoshop Elements 6.0, you can update your ACR to the most current version (link to Adobe).

The current versions of these programs are Photoshop CS4 (version 11) and Photoshop Elements 8. The current version of ACR is v5.6.

Another very popular RAW program is Adobe Lightroom (technically, it's called "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom", but I didn't want to confuse you with yet another "Photoshop" program). Its RAW processing program is exactly the same as ACR, but Lightroom allows you organize & catalog all your photos very effectively, in addition to a bunch of other features.

If you're on a Mac, another popular choice is Aperture from Apple. There are other RAW programs out there, but I'm not as familiar with them. And, as Golf4food mentioned, your camera already came with a CD that has Digital Photo Professional, the free RAW program that's specific for Canon's RAW files. Many folks find its user interface a little difficult to use.

Hope it's not too confusing. Adobe has a bunch of products with the "Photoshop" name, so I just wanted to make sure you had the right one.

BTW, for more information about RAW files, you can do a search on this forum for "RAW vs JPEG". We usually end up talking about this about once a month. You can also do a Google search for this, too.

Hope that helps!