jpeg quality

[johnnopc]

hi everyone,
After years of bemoaning digital photography i have just bought myself a cheap digital compact, a Fuji A860 ( 8 mega pixies ) and i have to say for £50 it is pretty good.
However i am confused about the quality setting on the camera, i can save pictures as 8m/fine, 8m/normal, and then 4m and 2m etc smaller. there is no raw setting. I get twice as many on my memory card with the 8m/normal setting as i do with the 8m/fine setting.
I plan to print direct from the camera mainly on my canon 4x6 printer but also upto 6x9 or 8x12 inches should i be lucky enough to produce a masterpiece. As my pictures will never touch the insides of a computer is there any point using the fine setting when i can get twice as many pictures on my memory card with the normal settings?
thanks ian.

[Nod]

Try an experiment. Take a similar picture at every setting then get prints made at each potential size. You may well find that a lower resolution and higher compression (more pics on the card) give you results that you're happy with at the print sizes you're after. Having said that, you can never add quality, so I would stick to the highest possible quality settings (from the sound of it, 8MP, Fine) then you'll have as much information as possible so your pictures have the chance to shine. Memory is relatively cheap these days so splash out on another card!

[benji]

I'd second nod,
shoot at the maximum quality settings, you never know, if one day you want to print an image bigger than usual, then at least you will have the option.

Better safe than sorry!

Memory cards are cheap and keep going down in price, so... Think how much you would spend on 2 film rolls + dev.
Well, you'll get an additional memory card for the same money, and it will be re-usable.

Benji