Expert: Abe - 12/22/2007

Question
I bought a sony DSC T100 camera. It is an 8 Mpixel camera.
I have taken many photogrpahs with it.
But the max. picture size 2500kB only.
Why is it so. A 8MP should give 8000 kB picture size, no?
My settings are wrong or what?

Answer
Hi, thanks for your question.

No need for concern; there is nothing wrong with your camera.

Go into your camera's image quality menu (see your manual) and make sure that image size and quality are both set to the maximum value. Be sure to save the settings, and take a picture. Compare this picture to your others.

Now, even if you have been shooting to maximum size and quality, you will not be seeing an 8000kb image size. The reason for this is that your camera shoots in a format known as jpeg. This is a compressed version of the original image size. If Sony didn't compress your 8MP image, your images would be so large that your computer's hard drive (not to mention your memory card) would fill up too quickly.
That being the case, all jpegs are compressed. "Best" (Kodak) or "Superfine" (Canon) are examples of best compression, or highest quality. For people who wish to save memory card/hard drive space, manufacturers allow for lower resolution settings with corresponding lower file sizes.

The only way to get the maximum file size with no compression (highest possible quality) is to shoot with a digital SLR in "RAW" mode. This capability is not available on any pocket cameras and probably never will be. Any camera that shoots jpeg format will always have reduced image quality, but still very high quality that most people will find more than acceptable.

If you have any more questions, please feel free to stop by again.

All the best!
Abe