file size question with S5

[sturgeman]

Why do my picture file sizes vary so much? They can be anywhere fron 1.94 MB up to 4.81MB. What determines whether pictures turn out with smaller or larger files? FYI, I am shooting everything at the fullest size/least compression settings. Thanks for any help!

[griptape]

Contrast mostly. If you have a picture with not much constrast, all the camera has to record is a bunch of similarly (or identically) colored pixels. Add a lot of contrast and color, and the camera has much more to record. It's digital, so it's just 1's and 0's, and it takes more of them to record more color/contrast. And the more 1's and 0's it takes, the larger your file will be. When you're talking about 7 million pixels, it's normal to have that sort of variation in file size.

[David Metsky]

The subject matter determines how much compression will get you. If you've got a shot with a lot of a monocolor sky, JPG compression can really save you a lot of file size since there are large areas of the same color. If your shot is very complex and textured, you don't save nearly as much with compression.