What quality setting do you shoot at?

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If it makes you happy, it's the perfect setting. The larger the print the more information you need to have - at 8x10 I would think you'd need the highest setting possible for the best results. But again, if you are looking at them and they look good to you, stuff what anyone else says unless you are actively seeking advice ;)

I shoot the highest quality possible on all of my shots because 1) if the shot comes out perfect it also prints better at a variety of sizes & 2) if the shot doesn't come out perfect there is more information stored to work with and the end product comes out better.

I think Gilligan shoots the same (or maybe its the 4040) camera so you might want to search on his web site for information.
 
Abril:
I shoot at HQ 2288x1712 It's fast, it holds enough for a dive and I think it looks good, But a friend (nikon loyalist) said it didn't look sharp enough. What's your thought? I have the oly C-4000z & generally like to print them at 8x10.
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I have the same camera as you.
HQ = about 150 photos to a 128MB card.
SHQ = about 50 photos to a 128MB card.

They are both 2288 X 1712 but the SHQ has less compression than the HQ. It is therefore a larger file and should also be a better quality photo. That may come into play when you get a print made but I can't tell the difference between the two on my computer monitor.

I'll sometimes use SHQ when I do a 1 tank kayak dive here at home on Maui. I know I won't want more than 50 or so pics.

However, if on a trip where I am making a two tank boat dive I use the HQ setting so as to get the most photos out of a 128MB card. Even the 150 pics were not enough for 2 dives on my last trip. I took both my housings and both my cameras and changed housings between dives. You can always change out cards between dives.

The rule of using the highest quality setting on your camera doesn't necessarily apply in all instances due to its effect on how many pictures you can take. The TIFF setting on the C4000 will yield the best quality photo for a print. However, it is slow for the camera to process and you can only take about 11 photos on a 128MB card. That's fine on land for that "special" shot you want to print but not for underwater unless you are on a mission for only a few shots.

On the rare occasion that I got a few prints made from HQ or SHQ photos I adjusted the photo in Photoshop and cropped it to the size of the print I wanted and saved it as a TIFF. I then burned it onto a CD and took it to Costco for prints. The results were very good. You could do the same process with a home printer minus the CD burn but I am not a believer in home printers matching the quality of the professional equipment that Costco or other stores use. Besides, the 4X6 prints at Costco are under $.20 each.

The sharpness, or lack of, is the nature of the beast on that camera and probably a lot of other prosumer digital cameras. I adjust every photo with the "Unsharp Mask" in Photoshop. I found that the + and - sharpness control on the camera itself made no difference.
 
Shoot SHQ so you will have the capability to do whatever you want with the picture after the fact. If you need the extra pixels for larger prints you will have them. Storage media is getting cheaper by the day, so a small flash card is no longer an excuse.
 
jcclink:
Shoot SHQ so you will have the capability to do whatever you want with the picture after the fact. If you need the extra pixels for larger prints you will have them. Storage media is getting cheaper by the day, so a small flash card is no longer an excuse.
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The C4000 only takes a Smart Media Card. I haven't found any that are larger than 128MB.
 
Gilligan:
I have the same camera as you.
HQ = about 50 photos to a 128MB card.
SHQ = about 150 photos to a 128MB card.
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I presume that this is a typo and it's the other way around?
 
The best way to answer your question is to do what I did. I set up a shot with as many varibles as I could - color, texture, fine detail and the like. I put the camera on a tripod and took the exact same pictue on every setting my camera had (C5050). I looked at them on the computer, deleted the lowest res ones, mainly due to not needing to save that much memory so why not use a higher res and finally I took the remaining ones to the local Walmart to have them printed in 8x10. I examined them closely and determined what I liked best. It cost a few dollars but it gave me the information I needed. I could almost not tell the difference between HQ and SHQ so for the time being I am using HQ but as memory comes down farther, I may well switch to SHQ.
 
herman:
The best way to answer your question is to do what I did. I set up a shot with as many varibles as I could - color, texture, fine detail and the like. I put the camera on a tripod and took the exact same pictue on every setting my camera had (C5050). I looked at them on the computer, deleted the lowest res ones, mainly due to not needing to save that much memory so why not use a higher res and finally I took the remaining ones to the local Walmart to have them printed in 8x10. I examined them closely and determined what I liked best. It cost a few dollars but it gave me the information I needed. I could almost not tell the difference between HQ and SHQ so for the time being I am using HQ but as memory comes down farther, I may well switch to SHQ.
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Good simple test. Thanks for that.
 
It really comes down to what Gilligan mentioned, we are limited to 128 mg card until we break down and upgrade the camera. I know for myself I can take 50 pictures in a dive and have 5 I like but im thankful for the 50 tries I got.
TIFF mode is rediciously slow on land Im afraid I would just leave my camera at the bottom if I was forced to shoot at that mode!
Gil, Epson makes a Large format photo printer that prints pictures that will blow you away. My dad ownes one and You would never know he printed it at home.
As for me Thanks for letting me know my eye is not all that untrained. Im going to stick to the HQ setting for most of my photo's.
 
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