Choosing Image Format And Quality - Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200 User Manual

Choosing Image Format and Quality

One of the most important set up choices is to make a choice of the
image quality for the intended use of the image file. Until recently users
routinely chose lower image resolution to get smaller image file sizes in
order that they could fit more images on the SD/SDHC card.
As media sizes have now increased, and costs have significantly
reduced this is no longer a valid reason to restrict yourself on image
resolution.
With a 4GB SDHC card in the Panasonic Lumix FZ200 you can fit over
700 full resolution images on that card – more than enough for a day's
shooting for most users.
With these large resolution images it does give you the scope to print
larger size photographs, or crop into the area to improve composition
etc.
Another choice is the actual format that the image will be stored in. As a
new user to the camera it may not be important at this stage to consider
this option.
However as your skill level increases and you want to improve on the
image quality you may reconsider this at a later stage.
We are talking about the usual file type of JPEG (Joint Photographic
Experts group) and the more advanced RAW format.
JPEG Format
JPEG is the most common file used for storing digital picture images.
This method of saving the image information into a small file on the
SDHC card uses a compression system to reduce the file size.
In the case of the Panasonic Lumix FZ200 it can use one of two levels of
compression, one described as Fine JPEG and the other Standard
JPEG.
Standard JPEG uses a higher compression, discarding more image
information, in order to produce the smaller file sizes.
For this reason JPEG is often referred to as a "lossy" file format. Whilst
any level of image quality loss isn't ideal data loss at a lower
compression isn't that noticeable in prints.
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