Sony DSC W80 7.2 megapixel????

[johnsonjunk]

I tried the manual, I tried google searches and I am prepared to be flamed but I have perhaps a stupid question that I hope I can get an answer for:

I have the Sony DSC W80 7.2 megapixel and I have it set for 7MB photos in the menu but I've take thousands of pictures and none are larger than 3.4MB

Can someone tell me why...in a helpful "tone of voice" please?:confused:

[Sintares]

Megapixels refers to the number of pixels in the picture.

Mb- megabytes refers to the size of the file on a disk.

They are not the same thing.

The files are compressed as a jpeg, a picture with lots of small detail, foilage, grass, etc will take up more space that a picture containing large areas of similar appearance, a wall for example.

Both types of pictures will still be 7.2 megapixels, but will be different sizes on the disk.

You can look up file compression on the web, eg wikipedia, but an easy way to think of it (though technically very inaccurate) would be..

Imagine an image containing 10 pixels, 5 white, 5 black.

You could have a file describing that picture as containing this information
whitewhitewhitewhitewhiteblackblackblackblackblack

Or,

white5black5

The second file is compressed and takes up less room on the disk.

Some cameras can vary the compression, the larger the compression the more information is lost but the smaller the files are (more you can store on the memory stick) , eg that fine foiliage may be rendered as one large "clump", where fine details are lost.

[johnsonjunk]

That was exactly the information I was looking for!!! Very informative, very helpful and I thank you for teaching me something new!

You are GREAT!!!:)