Is 2048 x 1360 a sufficient resolution?

[tilleylisa]

I just bought a 6.3 Megapixel Digital Rebel. It comes with a 1G card and I have another 512MB card.

according to the specs, if I use the highest resolution (3072 x 2048) I can only take 480 pics total. But its the week of my wedding and my honeymoon, and so I would like to take more pictures than that.

But if I use the resolution down from that, I can take 768 pictures.

What size prints will look good at the middle resolution of 2048 x 1360? Will they still look sharp?

THANKS SO MUCH for any advice you might have.

[DownByFive]

First off, congratulations on your marriage...

I've made great 8x10 prints with my 3.2mp (2048x1536) camera...The only problem with 2048x1360 is that it will take a bit of cropping to fit the 8x10 proportions. I mean, you can always upsize your pics, but probably not a lot in the lower quality modes. But I'm sure 4x6 and 5x7 would look great. I had a similar dilemma when I went to Egypt last year. I basically ended up switching resolutions a lot...you know, taking snaps in the lower resolution, but taking ones more likely to be printed in higher resolutions. An imperfect system, yes, but it actually worked out pretty well. You might also try lowering the quality setting instead of the resolution setting...That may give you more latitude for cropping and such. Maybe do a little experimenting before you leave, and see what kind of results you get from each...

[SmartWombat]

Congratulations on your wedding !

I guess more memory isn't an option, then. Shame. I'd be veeeeery tempted for a once-in-a-lifetime event like this just to go get another couple of GB of memory.
I gave in to temptation for the F1 testing this year (we've been married 11 years) and got 3GB of memory and a Phototainer with 80GB disk to offload the cards without needing a laptop.

But if totally stuck with only 1.5GB, then I'd be doing a few things:
look for a local photo shop on honeymoon that can write my pictures to CD
- I use CostCo (yes they've arrived in the UK) or Kodak photo booth
change resolution for snapshots and back to high resolution for keepers
- my problem is I treat them all as keepers, I shoot RAW
change quality first instead of resolution
- but once that's done, then you can't get it back

[tilleylisa]

Thanks for the feedback and for the congrats!

You know Paul, you are NOT helping I was trying to talk myself out of buying more memory. I could always bring my laptop and upload everything... Ugh! Fine I'll buy another gig

THANKS AGAIN! I'll have to post pics from the honeymoon when I get back.

[another view]

Another vote for more memory cards... They've come down so much in price that it's not worth trying to get by with less than you need. If you end up not getting more cards though - you would probably be best to use the lower resolution and staying at the highest quality setting instead of the opposite of that.

The old rule of 300dpi for a good print is a good starting point, but it's not an absolute necessity. This only works out to about a 4.5 x 7 print but I'm sure an 8x10 would look fine. There's a lot of factors behind what will and will not make a good print though.

[92135011]

Get another card and shoot smart
Dont just waste space and time deleting just because you can always erase it later.
If you shoot smart, it should probably be fine with just one more card. In one week, to shoot 20 rolls of film for me would probably mean wasting a lot of frames on nothing. Especially how it takes me time to compose, focus, do exposure (100% manual, no camera meter) and so on, it takes me at least 10-20 seconds. This equates to possibly 4 hours of time spent on taking pictures

Remember you dont want to be so involved in taking pictures that you are not actively participating in the activities.

[SmartWombat]

Thanks for the feedback and for the congrats!
You know Paul, you are NOT helping

How about a subtle hint for wedding presents?
I'm looking forward to the photos !

[mikishots]

An idea to try would be to use Large/Normal. This still gives the resolution, but slightly more compressed, and allows more shots. I would be hard pressed to see the difference from full resolution unless the prints are very large.

Aside from compromising on quality, I agree with buying more memory, as it's cheap and reusable. A worthwhile investment anytime.