A tough decision for a new BirdCammer is where to set the photo resolution: high? medium? or low? It's not a decision taken lightly: the difference among a high resolution photo (0.8 MB), medium (.4 MB) and a low (.08 MB) has a direct impact on disk storage and ability to work with images. Wingscapes recommends medium resolution for most people as a happy medium between quality of photo and storage requirements. In my own case, the high (2048 x 1536 - 3.1 megapixels) is the winner: I crop ruthlessly and often need those critical pixels. Losing low resolution is an easy choice: I don't like the quality and don't need to economize on storage that badly. But medium is an acceptable choice. Here's why: The photo montage above illustrates the difference between high, medium and low resolution by comparing cropped images taken of a hummingbird feeder perch at a uniform distance of 32 inches on one afternoon. There's a lot of difference between the medium and low (on the bottom) in terms of image quality, but not nearly as much between medium and high (on top). Provided one doesn't need to zoom in too tightly the 1.6 MP will work well enough. But it is your choice. Test the BirdCam at different resolutions and see what meets your needs.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Comparing Photo Resolutions
A tough decision for a new BirdCammer is where to set the photo resolution: high? medium? or low? It's not a decision taken lightly: the difference among a high resolution photo (0.8 MB), medium (.4 MB) and a low (.08 MB) has a direct impact on disk storage and ability to work with images. Wingscapes recommends medium resolution for most people as a happy medium between quality of photo and storage requirements. In my own case, the high (2048 x 1536 - 3.1 megapixels) is the winner: I crop ruthlessly and often need those critical pixels. Losing low resolution is an easy choice: I don't like the quality and don't need to economize on storage that badly. But medium is an acceptable choice. Here's why: The photo montage above illustrates the difference between high, medium and low resolution by comparing cropped images taken of a hummingbird feeder perch at a uniform distance of 32 inches on one afternoon. There's a lot of difference between the medium and low (on the bottom) in terms of image quality, but not nearly as much between medium and high (on top). Provided one doesn't need to zoom in too tightly the 1.6 MP will work well enough. But it is your choice. Test the BirdCam at different resolutions and see what meets your needs.
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