Question about camera & picture size

[MBM7881]

Whats the best size to leave my pictures so they are so big in file size but not sacrificing quality when I'm taking pics? Right now its still on the default 16M (16:9). What about video size? This is on the default FHD 1920x1080. Thanks

 

[Rukbat]

It's not the size as much as the format. If you can save them as RAW, that's best. (Any compression, like mp3, degrades quality.) Otherwise, take the pictures at the size you're going to use them - changing the picture's size, up or down, degrades the quality. If you're going to view them on the phone, you won't notice the difference between 16MP and 8MP. (I barely notice the difference between the 13MP pictures I take with the phone and the 3MP pictures I take with an old Fuji and transfer to the phone. And I have excellent vision. Blowing them up to 8X10 to print them is an entirely different story.)

 

[Pikapichu]

It's not the size as much as the format. If you can save them as RAW, that's best. (Any compression, like mp3, degrades quality.) Otherwise, take the pictures at the size you're going to use them - changing the picture's size, up or down, degrades the quality. If you're going to view them on the phone, you won't notice the difference between 16MP and 8MP. (I barely notice the difference between the 13MP pictures I take with the phone and the 3MP pictures I take with an old Fuji and transfer to the phone. And I have excellent vision. Blowing them up to 8X10 to print them is an entirely different story.)

I wear glasses and notice a bit of difference between pictures taken from the iPhone 6+ (8mp) and the Galaxy S6 (16mp). 16mp allows for more detail from things like the threads of a carpet, the fur on a cat, to the intricate patterns on clothes. While distinct when taken with 16mp, such details become blurred and are sometimes lost when taken at 8mp. And, yes, I notice when viewing them on my phone.

Will such details be noticeable on a 4x6 print? I'm not sure. Will it be noticeable if used as the background image on your phone or computer? Probably.

 

[rheylew]

Good question, I was wondering this also and doing some tests. I think I may leave my S6 on 8mp instead of 16mp, each 16mp pic is 5mb while the 8mp pic is between 1 and 2mb in size. That adds up quickly. And when you think about it, 95% of your pictures you text or post to social media anyway, that compresses them tremendously, so that 16mp pic is only like 100kb on facebook at the end of the day. Maybe if I was going on a trip and planned to offload the pics/vids to my computer I would keep it at the highest resolution..just my 2 cents