Resolution & compression to print to A4/A3

[rukh]

I will shortly be travelling for many months in remote locations and therefore need to better understand compression and resolution!

I'm fairly paranoid, and the idea of getting a fantastic picture and not being able to enlarge it and frame it upon my return gives me the willies!

1) What resolution/compression would you recommend 1a) to print to A4, 1b) to print to A3? I will be using a Canon D20/D300.

2) What files sizes will I be looking at? (I've been guessing 2mb) I was doing some math earlier, and at 22 shots/day for 274 days, I will be very conscious of space! (I'm about to post another message asking about portable hdd storage...)

Thanks for your help,
Rukh

[Trevor Ash]

I can answer the first question pretty easily...use the maximum (best) resolution of your camera and least compression for all your photos. It sounds like you prefer not to shoot using RAW mode so that's probably the best file size saving thing you can do.

I think you should expect file sizes of this size and compression to average somewhere around 2.9 to 3.2 meg for each image. That should get you way over 300 images on your cards before you run out of room. At 22 shots a day that means you'll only need to worry about space every 2 weeks or so. I'm sure you can find a way to get your images off loaded from the cards within a 2 week period.

Good luck and have fun!!!