Digital photo question

[Nilsen]

Will the quality of the photo be worse if I set the resolution down to say 1600x1200, or does it just get smaller?

One of my pals claim that the quality can be better if I reduce the size to the second highest the cam can maximum make if I dont plan to print or view it at maximum anyway.

What do you guys say? Should i always use max resolution to get max quality, or does he have a point?

[Mini D]

You will get maximum quality at the highest resolution.  But for most applications, the max resolution is not needed.  Most people would be hard pressed to notice differences in resolution while casually looking at photos unless they want to take the time to really zoom in and compare.

[Dinger]

Shoot at max resolution, and for most (mosaic-style pixel fields), max JPEG quality: the 2x2 compression corresponds to the maximum color information, so you don't get much loss in image quality vis-a-vis RAW format.

You can then edit the picture and mix down the resolution.
If you do some serious photo adjustments (getting the levels right), you'll end up with a better picture at the lower resoltuion than if you started that way.

[Nilsen]

Thx.

Im a newb when it comes to these things but im learing. For now I use mostly auto when taking the pics but I bet they can get better if I experiment with manual settings. My gf got me Canon Powershot G6 a few days ago, but I returned it to the store cause that camera was overkill for my needs.
I bought a powersohot A510 instead and i plan to use the rest of the money to get a Sony DV videocamera next week. If I decide to get serious with this photo business ill upgrade to a much better camera later.

Never really been interested in photography before, but my gf insists that I must take pics of our daughter all the time so this is really her idea and she is paying for it.