Digital Photography Question

[Hawkmoon]

Now that we have my wife's new monitor squared away ... she's leaving in a couple of days for a trip. She wants to take photos on the trip, with the idea of possibly doing a book about travel in the area where she'll be headed. The issue is how to maximize the number of digital photos she can store on the camera's memory card while maintaining sufficient resolution to produce acceptable prints when blown up to 8x10.

The camera offers four resolutions. That much I can figure out -- more resolution = finer "grain" ==> better enlargements. But, larger file size. The camera also offers, for each resolution, a choice of "standard," "fine," or "extra fine." For the moment, I have the camera set for the highest resolution, and "standard" mode. I'm certain the resulting picture quality would be even better if I were to go to "fine" or "extra fine," but we don't want to get into multiple cards, fo a variety of reasons. So the name of the game is to make the best use of the 1GB card that's in the camera.

Are we better off using the highest resolution and "standard" mode, or would the results be better (and number of photos stored greater) if we dropped the resolution one step and switch to "fine" mode?

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

You'll have to dig through the camera's manual to figure out just what the heck "standard" vs "fine" vs "extra fine" all means.  If I were to guess, I'd say that it has something to do with the degree of lossy compression used to store the pics on the memory card.  The camera stores its pics as jpegs, right, not as RAW files, right?

Switching to a lower resolution will almost certainly reduce file size more than switching from "fine" to "standard".  High quality prints require 200 to 300 dpi of resolution.  So for 8"x10" prints, figure you'll need a resolution of anywhere between 1600x2000 and 2400x3000.  Any more than that is wasted disk space.

Your best bet would be to take lots of test shots on each setting before she leaves, and decide for yourself what setting best satisfies your needs.

[Bogie]

An extra gig of memory is cheap. Splurge. It can ride in a wallet even. Not that big a hassle.

Take high resolution, extra fine pictures. Because you NEVER know when you're going to get the shot of a lifetime, and if you've got the thing set on "take a tiny picture and compress the bejeezus out of it," well, you're screwed. It's gonna forever be a tiny picture that you stomped on. You can not make it bigger.
 
Bogie
Who blows stuff up to wall size.

[Hawkmoon]

I KNEW this was going to happen. There was a time, in the dim recesses of time, when people would at least try to answer a question. To reiterate:

I'm certain the resulting picture quality would be even better if I were to go to "fine" or "extra fine," but we don't want to get into multiple cards, fo a variety of reasons. So the name of the game is to make the best use of the 1GB card that's in the camera.

Guys, more cards is not a helpful answer. Does anyone know what's the best way to optimize the use of the card we have? Maximum enlargement size will be 8x10 -- we want good quality, but we don't need wall poster size.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

I KNEW this was going to happen. There was a time, in the dim recesses of time, when people would at least try to answer a question. To reiterate:

You've been given two perfectly good, perfectly helpful answers.  Quit complaining.

Because I'm feeling snippy:
There was a time, in the dim recesses of time, when people would at least try to listen to and think about the answers provided by other helpful souls.

[Hawkmoon]

My apologies if I seem "snippy," but this question involves one of my wife's last-minute brainstorms, and (as usual) the best solution involves both time and money that we don't have. We also don't have an instruction book for the camera ... that's in Greece somewhere. The camera is a Minolta Dimage A1, 5 megapixel. Anybody have one?

Again, sorry if I seem pissy, but I'm under a bunch of pressure here at the moment and I (unfortunately) am in a rather frazzled condition. I tried to word my question as specifically as I could precisely to avoid the kind of answers that would not be useful. Apparently I didn't try hard enough.

[Bogie]

The hard you stomp on 'em, compression-wise, the more jpeg artifacts you'll have. Thassa bad thing. Is she taking a laptop with her? You can get a dealie that lets you copy the pix to the laptop. Or stop occasionally, and have someone make a CD for you.
 
Otherwise, shoot at the smallest image setting, and stomp on 'em. They'll probably look sort of okay. And you can fit a lot of 'em on the card. They'll show okay on computer, but don't count on a lot of printing.
 
And if she lucks into the "one shot in a lifetime" image, well...
 

[Harold Tuttle]

how will this book be printed?

the final output determines the input resolution

I kinda doubt a travel book with 8x10s shot on a 2003 point and shoot will be on many coffee tables

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/minoltadimagea1/

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_reviews/a1.html

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/minolta/dimage_a1-review/

heres the manual:
http://ca.konicaminolta.com/support/manuals/digital_cameras/dimage-a/dimage_a1/D_A1_E.pdf

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Read pages 82 to 85 in the manual Harold posted.  It tells you how big the files are for every possible combination of resolution and image quality.  Then do some math.  Decide how many pictures you think your wife will take.  Keep the camera set to the highest resolution, and choose the highest image quality that accommodates the number of pics you plan on taking.

[Brad Johnson]

Use the highest/best resolution and size settings.  This goes double if you intend to use the shots for publication.  It gives you the best quality and most post-shoot options.

I have a 6MP Canon Digital Rebel.  I can get 130-150 shots on a 512 MB card at full resolution.  With a 5MP camera, you should be able to get 300+ shots on a 1GB card.  It's hard to give you an exact number because chrominance and luminance values in each individual shot will affect file size.

Plus the beauty of digital ... if you don't like a pic, delete it.  She will want to review her pics often and delete the ones that aren't workable - too dark, people out of frame, etc.  Keep only the shots you want or need.

Though I know it's been said before and you weren't very hip on the idea, get another memory card.  Don't argue, just do it.  They are dirt cheap and you can keep three or four in a small pocket case.  Just be sure to get decent ones like Sandisk.  Cheapo off-brand cards are notorious for being problematic (like spontaneously de-formatting and wiping out all your hard-won pics). 

Oh, almost forgot.  What kind of batteries does it take?  If it uses a proprietary rechargeable, get a spare. 

Brad