D90 shooting at 6 MP

[yonatan]

Hi,
I just bought D90 upgrading from D40. And one of the first things I notice is how big the file size is. 1 4GB SD card can fit in 300 plus RAW+JPG Basic in D40 but only 100+ in D90. Since I'm just a casual shooter, I want to change the picture size to medium (shoot at 6MP) in D90.
Will this affect the picture quality?

[Ansel]

Originally Posted by yonatan Hi, I just bought D90 upgrading from D40. And one of the first things I notice is how big the file size is. 1 4GB SD card can fit in 300 plus RAW+JPG Basic in D40 but only 100+ in D90. Since I'm just a casual shooter, I want to change the picture size to medium (shoot at 6MP) in D90. Will this affect the picture quality?

Well, changing the size to medium should only affect the size and not picture quality.

You should decide what size you really need. Or do you really need to shoot RAW+JPG? For most situations JPG fine should be sufficient. But that's just me.

CF cards are quite cheap nowadays, why not go for the 16GB ones if you really must shoot RAW.

[romeo tango]

Originally Posted by Ansel CF cards are quite cheap nowadays, why not go for the 16GB ones if you really must shoot RAW.

Bro, in case you forgotten, D90 uses SD card, not CF card

[yonatan]

Originally Posted by Ansel Well, changing the size to medium should only affect the size and not picture quality. You should decide what size you really need. Or do you really need to shoot RAW+JPG? For most situations JPG fine should be sufficient. But that's just me. CF cards are quite cheap nowadays, why not go for the 16GB ones if you really must shoot RAW.

Thanks for the thoughts... I used to shoot JPEG fine with the D40. Then I tried D70s and found that the AWB was not accurate. That's where the advise of going RAW+JPG starts to make sense, since you can always play around with the WB afterwards.
By going medium I'd also like to save my harddisk space... Is this a stupid thing to do?
My plan was:
- shoot RAW+JPG at medium size
- transfer to PC
- Delete non-keeper (so-so) RAW files
- Keep good picture's RAW and process it

Any more thoughts?

[wildness]

Originally Posted by Ansel Well, changing the size to medium should only affect the size and not picture quality. You should decide what size you really need. Or do you really need to shoot RAW+JPG? For most situations JPG fine should be sufficient. But that's just me. CF cards are quite cheap nowadays, why not go for the 16GB ones if you really must shoot RAW.

If cut the file size down do not affect quality, just change the pics to smallest size. But really get same quality ?

[yonatan]

Originally Posted by wildness If cut the file size down do not affect quality, just change the pics to smallest size. But really get same quality ?

Lost of resolution is of course expected... How about noise, dynamic range, sharpness?

[NeTHaCk]

why not raw + jpeg but in basic. you have the option to choose the jpeg quality, use it.

btw, whenever im out, ive never shot more than 60 pics..unless you shoot burst.. haha

bro, alternatively just get an 8gb card. doesnt cost that much

[narofx]

I used to take in RAW+JPEG.

But i usually adjust AWB and do some tone curve adjustment to RAW file before i export them as JPG files. So, I would recommend taking only in RAW and get a bigger SDHC card.

[wildness]

Originally Posted by yonatan Lost of resolution is of course expected... How about noise, dynamic range, sharpness?

Hi bro, nothing offensive just curious, small size pics can have better dynamic range, sharpness, better noise performance ?

[Ansel]

Originally Posted by romeo tango Bro, in case you forgotten, D90 uses SD card, not CF card

My bad....you are right

Is a 16GB SD card that much more expensive than CF?

[yonatan]

Originally Posted by wildness Hi bro, nothing offensive just curious, small size pics can have better dynamic range, sharpness, better noise performance ?

I don't expect dynamic range or sharpness to be better, just worry about the loss of it... As for noise, my naive thought would be like if I looks at a picture in 100% and 50% magnification. The noise will be more pronounced/noticeable in the 100% mag, right?

[catchlights]

smaller jpg file are have bigger compression during writing to the card, if you intend to use it at it is, that won't be much problem. you won't tell much defferent if no post production needed. the best way to test is shoot a same scene with two jpg compression, print unedit images to it maximum size and see it yourself.

a NEF file is NEF file, there is no big or small, and it so much larger than a JPG, since you want to shoot NEF+JPG, it does not make any sense to shoot NEF+ basic JPG just for the memony space saving. Unless you intend to use the basic JPG at it is and delete NEF after that.

[mnmohamed]

D90 is a good piece of equipment and hence you have made this considerable investment, why don't you get the full use of it? How about only shooting in RAW and converting to Jpeg only the pics that you would like to keep? This way, you'll save space with the flexibility of post-processing and only trade off is the time required for p-p.

Disk capacity limitation is something inevitable and for all Digital shooters, I think it's a matter of when and not if. HTH. Good luck!

[diediealsomustdive]

Size selection only affects jpg files. RAW will always be shot at the camera's native resolution. So you can only get a small change in file size when you select the output for the +jpg option, not the RAW part.

Part of the price to pay for moving to D90. More SD cards, more hard drive space.

[yonatan]

Originally Posted by diediealsomustdive Size selection only affects jpg files. RAW will always be shot at the camera's native resolution. So you can only get a small change in file size when you select the output for the +jpg option, not the RAW part. Part of the price to pay for moving to D90. More SD cards, more hard drive space.

Yup, just realized that. Hence not much space saving if still going for RAW+JPG with Medium size. I'll try shooting with JPG mode first, then. Thank you so much for all your thoughts...

[Simon_84]

Originally Posted by yonatan I don't expect dynamic range or sharpness to be better, just worry about the loss of it... As for noise, my naive thought would be like if I looks at a picture in 100% and 50% magnification. The noise will be more pronounced/noticeable in the 100% mag, right?

noise will be lesser.
less mp = lesser details of noise performance.

[asdfg]

Isn't this interpolation and it doesn't apply to Nikon DSLRS. I'm not sure but fujifilm uses this and i'm not sure how effective it is.

[romeo tango]

Originally Posted by Ansel My bad....you are right Is a 16GB SD card that much more expensive than CF?

So far 16GB SD card cost about $79. Not sure about CF card though cos not using so not bother to check the price

[BassBoySlim]

I just bought a Toshiba SD HC (High Speed) 16GB Card for $59. Not many left.

[Ansel]

Originally Posted by romeo tango So far 16GB SD card cost about $79. Not sure about CF card though cos not using so not bother to check the price

Originally Posted by BassBoySlim I just bought a Toshiba SD HC (High Speed) 16GB Card for $59. Not many left.

There you go. Looks like 16GB SD is cheaper than CF.

I bought 16GB Extreme III CF at last IT show for more around $100+

So, TS, bottom line is you can still shoot RAW+JPG if you want to, just go buy bigger capacity SD cards.