I was wondering what setting the majority of Nikon CP 990 users place their cameras on when taking photos. I will be taking a variety of shots, mostly outdoors, and a mixture of action and stills. The actions will be taken from fencing tourney's and the stills will be the photo journal of a new home I am building. I believe that the fine setting will be ok for all but the most detailed shots. How much sucess have any of you had using the normal setting? I will be pritting out 3x4 & 4x5's on the HP1000. I will probably only use the Hi setting when I want a really great 8x10.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Clint

-- Clinton A. Darby (clint.darby@nucorsteelsc.com), August 10, 2000

Answers

I always use the large fine setting. I figure I can always compress later and you never know what shot might be the one that you will want to print at highest quality. I burn CD's with the originals and can always compress and/or reduce size depending on how I want to use the pictures (web,email,print,etc.). I did invest in a larger CF card (64MB)and have a laptop to allow downloading on extended trips. I've used normal with good results but would rather have the high quality original file. You can't add quality later on. Hey, we spent $1000 on the camera, we might as well create images that take advantage of all that technology.

-- Dennis Pereira (dpereira@ultranet.com), August 11, 2000.

Dennis is absolutely right! I use the FINE mode 95% of the time, the uncompressed mode only 5% of the time. I've invested in two 128MB cards and can get a total of 162 images in the FINE mode, then download via PCMCIA slot into my notebook PC (I'm waiting to hear testimonials on the 6GB "digital wallet" from Mindsgear). So, to buttress what Dennis said, enjoy the 990 by using the features it was created for!

-- Ted (Ted.Krohn@FRA.DOT.Gov), August 11, 2000.

Clinton -

While I agree with the two previous answers about the TIFF file setting being the highest quality I'll be quite honest with you - that high end JPEG works pretty darn good - I've got 3 photos in competition right now taken at that setting. A lot depends on the quality of the software that's going to produce the final image.

I did some comparison tests between the TIFF and high JPEG images and the JPEG's did just fine. My only precaution is: Once you've opened the JPEG file and changed ANYTHING, you must save it in another format that does NOT use compression...since every time you re-save a JPEG that's been changed it compresses the image further and the quality degenerates.

On those "special" photo trips where your images are the PRIMARY reason for going by all means use the TIFF file...I have two 128mb chips for that purpose. But, if you're shooting for fun and plan nothing larger than 8x10, you're fine with the high-end JPEG file.

Regards,

Frank H.

-- Frank Herzog (Fherzog@mindspring.com), August 13, 2000.

I've settled on XGA Fine and am very happy with the 8x10's I've printed on my 870.

-- bill (this_old_house@pobox.com), August 14, 2000.