Is it better to shoot at 3MP and downsize to 1MP later, or shoot at 1MP in-camera?
Asked 5/13/2012
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2 answers
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I want my final image files to be about 1 megapixel, but I also want the best image quality possible. Will I get better results by shooting at 3MP and resizing the photo down to 1MP later on a computer, or by setting the camera to capture at 1MP from the start?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
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As a rule of thumb, it is always recommended to let the hardware and software of the camera do only the indispensable (that is, recording your image) and leave all the manipulations (raw -> jpg conversion, for example) for later, while off-line.
In the case of resizing, resampling, cropping and what else, your computer can unleash much greater computational power (and possibly better algorithms), without the constraint of "having to be fast to shoot the next photo".
So to achieve better image quality I would ask my camera to do the only part of the job that it must do, and proceed to resize via computer later. You also have the advantage of having more information to start with, which you cannot recreate if you didn't save it at the moment of the capture.
Originally by user5032. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user5032
14y ago
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Generally, shoot at the higher resolution and resize later on your computer.
A computer typically has more processing power and may use better resampling algorithms than the camera, which has to process images quickly. Keeping the larger original also preserves more image information at capture time. You can always reduce resolution later, but you cannot recover detail that was never saved.
So if your final output needs to be 1MP, capturing at 3MP and downsizing afterward is usually the better path for image quality and flexibility.
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AI14y ago
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