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03/21/2005 10:26:07 PM · #1 |
Hi. I have had this camera for about a year, and because I only had a small media card it was impossible to take all my photos in the 6mp mode. I recently got a few media cards (thanks deapee) and am wondering, Is this camera really 6mp?? What does Effective Pixels mean? Is there a difference? If it was you, what mode would you shoot in?
Camera Specs:
Number of Effective Pixels: 3.1 million pixels
Number of Recorded Pixels: 2,816 x 2,120 (6.0 million), 2048 x 1536 (3.0 million), 1600 x 1200 (2.0 million), 1280 x 960 (1.0 million) pixels
 - 6mp setting
 - 3mp setting
 - 6mp setting
 - 3mp setting
These aren't the greatest photos, just grabbed something to shoot really quick. Simply resized to 640 for dpc and uploaded.
Thanks for any help.
ugh... I meant S5000 in the post title ...
Message edited by author 2005-03-21 22:27:00.
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03/21/2005 10:30:16 PM · #2 |
| I had the same camera until recently. The only real difference I've noticed is that with the larger setting you can blow the picture up bigger before it starts to distort the picture. I take almost all of my pictures at the highest setting. Then of course I've got a 128 mb and a 512 mb cards to play with. |
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03/22/2005 07:49:41 AM · #3 |
I used to have this camera, very nice thing. The 6mp thing is a bit of funny business though, so here's the technical stuff:
It has six million actual pixels, but they're NOT arranged in a square grid - they're in a hexagonal arrangement, which lets them pack more into the same space. At 3 megapixels, the software in the camera is downmixing the 6 megapixel input to 3 megapixels, usually with very nice results. At 6 megapixels in jpeg, it's interpolating (guessing) what six million pixels in a square grid would look like based on its actual input. Not really ideal.
However, if you shoot in raw mode (you can enable it in the menu) and download some fuji software to convert to TIF, you can preserve all the full original image data (something about TIF being able to store the pixel positions) and print at true six megapixels and resample to any size you want later without losing any information (although you'll never be able to view the images in their "true" form unless you get a monitor with a hexagonal pixel arrangement!)
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03/22/2005 09:01:32 AM · #4 |
If you know you want a big print then go for the 6MP. If not stay with the 3MP. I had an 11 X 17 printed up from a 3MP picture and it looks great. If you resized them to 640 for DPC they will both look the same.
Message edited by author 2005-03-22 11:51:24.
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03/22/2005 12:39:50 PM · #5 |
Originally posted by riot:
I used to have this camera, very nice thing. The 6mp thing is a bit of funny business though, so here's the technical stuff:
It has six million actual pixels, but they're NOT arranged in a square grid - they're in a hexagonal arrangement, which lets them pack more into the same space. At 3 megapixels, the software in the camera is downmixing the 6 megapixel input to 3 megapixels, usually with very nice results. At 6 megapixels in jpeg, it's interpolating (guessing) what six million pixels in a square grid would look like based on its actual input. Not really ideal.
However, if you shoot in raw mode (you can enable it in the menu) and download some fuji software to convert to TIF, you can preserve all the full original image data (something about TIF being able to store the pixel positions) and print at true six megapixels and resample to any size you want later without losing any information (although you'll never be able to view the images in their "true" form unless you get a monitor with a hexagonal pixel arrangement!) |
So you are saying that the 3mp is really the same thing as the 6mp? If you owned this camera still, would you be shooting in 3 or 6 mode? I think I might stick with 3. I get more pics before I have to dump them and I just can't tell any difference in quality.
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03/22/2005 12:46:49 PM · #6 |
Shoot at teh higest resolution and at the highest quality. You cannot go back later and add in the info that was not captured the first time.
perhaps this is not an issue noe, but next year or 3 years from now when your PS skills have progressed or you want an 8x12 print, you'll be glad the pic was taken at max resolution.
I had a S602 for a year+. Read all there is out there, several forums, etc. EVERYONE says shoot at 6mp. It is 'effectively' like a 4mp camera some reviews say. The bigger the image, the mroe you can crop later and still have a decent pic.
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03/23/2005 05:39:50 AM · #7 |
Originally posted by aerogurl:
Originally posted by riot:
I used to have this camera, very nice thing. The 6mp thing is a bit of funny business though, so here's the technical stuff:
It has six million actual pixels, but they're NOT arranged in a square grid - they're in a hexagonal arrangement, which lets them pack more into the same space. At 3 megapixels, the software in the camera is downmixing the 6 megapixel input to 3 megapixels, usually with very nice results. At 6 megapixels in jpeg, it's interpolating (guessing) what six million pixels in a square grid would look like based on its actual input. Not really ideal.
However, if you shoot in raw mode (you can enable it in the menu) and download some fuji software to convert to TIF, you can preserve all the full original image data (something about TIF being able to store the pixel positions) and print at true six megapixels and resample to any size you want later without losing any information (although you'll never be able to view the images in their "true" form unless you get a monitor with a hexagonal pixel arrangement!) |
So you are saying that the 3mp is really the same thing as the 6mp? If you owned this camera still, would you be shooting in 3 or 6 mode? I think I might stick with 3. I get more pics before I have to dump them and I just can't tell any difference in quality. |
What? No, i never said anything of the sort. The 6mp has twice as much data encoded in the image, full stop. However, you cannot appreciate the FULL 6 megapixels on your screen without interpolation, only in print. When i owned this camera i actually shot most of the time in 2Mp, not even 3... but that's because i never had a view to printing the results, and had major space constraints. Now i own a 20D i'm used to shooting all my shots as 8 megapixel and i'm regretting not always shooting in 6 on my old fuji.
It's this simple: if you have the space for it, always use the highest setting you can. If possible, always shoot in raw and convert to tif on your computer rather than using jpeg. Having said that, this camera is by no means top of the line anymore, and the optical quality you get from the lens imho doesn't really merit anything above 2 megapixels except for printing.
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03/23/2005 09:45:29 AM · #8 |
Originally posted by riot:
Having said that, this camera is by no means top of the line anymore, and the optical quality you get from the lens imho doesn't really merit anything above 2 megapixels except for printing. |
Spoken like a true DLSR snob!
Why did i go DSLR? What finally pushed me to spare no expense, so to speak? - I tried to duplicate a shot for the Deja Vu challenge...
 
Guess which is a Fuji S602 and which is a Nikon D70...I don't blame the optics, i blame the small noisy sensor.
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03/23/2005 09:52:04 PM · #9 |
| I have a Fuji S7000 and I have the same thing. It is suppose to be a 6 megapixels but it will shoot or store in a 12 megapixel.. I have a big card so I always take it in 12 million res..It is the only smart thing to do, I think..You always want the BEST pic available.. |
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