5 Megapixel VS. 4 Megapixel camera

Hello,

I own a Sony Cybershot 5.0 Megapixel camera (cybershot DSC-P10). My
buddy owns an Olympia 4.0 Megapixel camera.

We both set our cameras to the highest resolution.

When I take pictures, the size of the resulting jpeg file is
approximate 2 meg, give or take 100K (on average).

When my buddy takes pictures, the size of the resulting jpeg files is
larger - closer to 2.5 Meg.

Does anyone know why it is like this considering the different
megapixel specification for each camera? I would have thought that the
5 meg camera would have larger jpegs.

Thanks for your help.

Regards,

Mark

 

depends on the compression settings in the camera and/or the "default"
compression values set/used by the manufacturer ..

 

The answer is Compression.

Roy G

 

Different file compression settings.
Thats about it.

Comparing one brand to another is tough.

 

I own a Sony Cybershot 5.0 Megapixel camera (cybershot DSC-P10). My

But important. If the files are smaller, they contain less
information. (I'm still looking for a camera that offers lossless
TIFF compression.)

-Joel

 

Try one of the Canons that offers RAW file format. This is lossless and
even better than TIFF. Things like white balance, sharpening etc. are
applied on the PC rather than in-camera, so you can adjust things if you
got it wrong when taking the picture.

 

And possibly subject matter. If you take pictures with a lot of open
sky and your buddy takes pictures of dense intertwining forest
features the sky will be easier to compress out.

 

The difference is in the compression factor implemented by the
particular camera firmware. There is a 'happy medium' between a larger
file, and better quality. Some manufacturers go for the smaller files,
and others for the lower compression ratio.

 

There are a number of such cameras, but they demand a premium price, and
require several times more flash card space for each picture.

 

Unless you are into VERY long waiting times you dont want what you think you
want.

Of the several cameras I have that save .tif files, the wat can be as long as
a minute for a 5mp photo.

Even the wait for a raw file is shorter.

There MAY be some cameras around that save .tif as fast as lightning, but if
there is, I have yet to see it.

 

It sounds like your camera uses more compression. The compression throws
away a lot of the image detail. Yours throws away more than his.

If you both take similar photos of the same scene, and if you both make
8x10 prints, does one camera produce better looking prints than the other?

Bob

 

Cameras on the D70 level and fast CF cards can save in a few seconds,
but then you pay a premium price for both.

 

I assumed he meant a P&S but I often assume incorrectly

 

Different compression ratios is the biggest reason for the difference, but
noise contributes to compression variability among cameras, too. The more
contiguous pixel redundancy in a photo, the more it can be compressed;
cameras producing noisier pictures have decreased pixel redundancy and hence
compress to larger file sizes. To see this effect, use a noise-reduction
program such as NeatImage and save the same picture several times using
different noise redunction amounts; the more "noise" is reduced, the
smaller the resulting jpeg.