Record Mode; Still Picture Record Modes - Olympus SP-500 Advanced Manual

Record mode

You can select a record mode in which to take pictures or shoot movies.
Select the best record mode for your purpose (printing, editing on a
computer, website editing, etc.). For information on the image sizes for
each record mode and the number of storable still pictures/movie
recording time, see the tables on P. 27 and 28.

Still picture record modes

Still pictures (other than those in raw data format) are recorded in JPEG format.
Record mode depicts the image size and compression rate of your pictures.
Pictures are made from thousands of dots (pixels). If a picture with relatively few
pixels is enlarged, it looks like a mosaic. Pictures with more pixels are denser and
clearer but require more space (larger file size), thus decreasing the number of
pictures that can be saved. Though a high compression rate results in a small file
size, this also produces a grainy look.
(Normal image modes
Application
Select according
to print size
For small-sized
prints and
websites
Image size
2816 × 2112
2592 × 1944
2288 × 1712
2048 × 1536
1600 × 1200
1280 × 960
1024 × 768
640 × 480
Picture with high number of pixels
Picture with low number of pixels
Image becomes clearer
Compression
Low com-
pression
SHQ
SQ1
HIGH
SQ2
HIGH
2
High com-
pression
HQ
SQ1
NORMAL
SQ2
NORMAL
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