5 MP w/medium compression or 3 MP w/low

[farscape105]

Hi, I have a HP Photosmart R707 with 512 mb I think. Giving to mom for 2 week trip and want to know best setting so she can take 300 pics. Compression is rated low, medium, high, and highest. Both 5 MP with medium compression and 3 MP with low gives over 300 pics. So which is best setting or is it a horse a piece. Thanks

[cyberlord]

It all depends on what you want to do with the final images. If you want decent prints or decent print sizes then you will want the better quality and size image capture. If all you will be doing is email then low quality 640x480 resolution is fine.

5MP w/ med comp will probably be best if you want prints 5x7 or bigger size and you can always use a graphics program to reduce for email. If you are just emailing, then 3MP will even be too big for email and will get you decent prints at 4x6.

[Erik Stiegler]

Experiment and see. I leave my cameras on the highest resolution and quality settings all the time because I'm neurotic about it. However, at least with Canon cameras, I see no practical difference between "superfine" (best) and "fine" (next best) compression.

Personally, I'd leave it at the best quality setting & highest resolution and buy a second 512MB card.