SX200is and no superfine compression/image softness

[Goddessstar]

Hi everyone! I just got the Canon SX200is and I have two questions:

1) it doesn't have the superfine compression ~ only Fine and Normal. Is this a significant problem? I like my images sharp, clear and high quality ~ will the 12 mp make up for the greater compression? Am I over worrying?
And why would Canon take it away, anyway? Shouldn't it be up to the user to decide how much compression goes on and file size?

2) I find that when I take pictures of landscapes that when "blown up" on the software to look at the detail, they look very soft, nothing with sharply defined edges...I know it is focused, not blurry...and I know it focuses as when I take pictures of people or objects they usually come out with sharper edges when "blown up"...is this a function of the greater compression? The camera? Or do most digital cameras have this issue? (this is my first digital camera).

Would greatly appreciate your input ASAP as I am 2 weeks into my 30 day return window!

Thank you!
Blessings ~

[Jon]

Increased compression won't make an image less sharp - what image compression does is to represent similar colours as the same value. You may lose microtexturing on something, or delicate tonal variations, but if there's real, pronounced, detail you won't lose it. In fact, a greater degree of compression could help reduce the impact of noise on large areas of homogeneous colour (such as the sky), thus giving picture quality a boost. But if you've got dissimilar colours adjacent to each other, they won't be "merged" through compression.

When you look at an image "blown up" on your monitor (I'm assuming you're not going past 1:1), your 96 dpi monitor is giving you a window into a 30x40" print, which you're looking at from about 12-18"", when normal viewing distance for that size print would be about 4-5 ft. Did you often look at film that way? Also remember that "people or objects" usually have smooth edges; landscapes, by their very nature have rough ones; if you look at a rough edge it'll seem less crisp the further away from it you get until you finally reach the point at which you can't detect it. Another factor is atmospheric disturbances and haze, which are more pronounced over long distances than they are with close-in objects.

[Goddessstar]

Jon, thanks so much for the reply! I understand it more...do you think that is a liability to the camera? and...do you know why Canon would take away the option for less compression?

As to blowing things up on the monitor, I certainly never did that with my film camera images, so can't compare!!

New Question: I've just noticed that the camera only has the ability to go from f3.4 - f8...wondering if that seems pretty narrow? Is that normal on most p&s cameras? When shooting landscapes, perhaps going for the smallest f-stop will help with sharpness? I've noticed that the camera likes f4 a lot...if I went down to f8 would that help w/ sharpness since it will increase the depth of field? Again, does it suck to have such a limited DOF? My old film slr went all the way to f16!!

Thanks again!

[Jon]

Of my DSLRs, only the 1D3 has the capability of going to Superfine. Unless you do a good deal of editing and post-processing of your images (in which case, you should be converting to 16-bit TIF in the photo editor as your first step anyhow) you won't notice the difference.

That range of apertures is about normal with P&S cameras. The reason is that the actual focal lengths of the lenses are so short - stopping a 5 mm (SX200 at the wide end) lens to f/16 gives you an aperture of around 0.3 mm, or practically a pinhole. At that size you'll start losing quality due to diffraction around the edges of the aperture. Even at f/8 your lens aperture is only 0.625 mm. By contrast, a 28 mm (on your film slr, the same angle of view) at f/16 has an opening that's almost 2 mm across, thus will have much less trouble with diffraction. So no, I don't think stopping down will help, in fact opening up might be more help since you'll get shorter exposures and those will reduce any chances of either camera shake or wind in the trees causing additional blurring. And since the SX200 doesn't have an eye-level finder (either optical or electronic), you're pretty much forced to either hold the camera out from your body (less stable than being able to pull it in close and brace your elbows against your chest and the camera against your forehead) or mount it on a tripod. A tripod's cumbersome for everyday use and holding the camera out increases the likelihod of shake, which can make images look less sharp.

[JustShootin']

I'm not familiar with your camera, but does it not have a setting in "my colors" to change contrast, sharpness etc.?

[Goddessstar]

I checked out the setting u spoke of, Gary and yes! I do have that feature...I'm testing it out now and it seems from initial shots to be helpful to get the sharpness I like. So much to fiddle with...big learning curve :) Thanks for the help!

Jon, Interesting...I guess every camera has its shortcomings and pluses...probably why people have more than one...I did w/ my film cameras, anyway! When I get more $$ I'm sure to buy another...:) Are u serious about your DSLRs not having superfine? Hummmm...that seems so weird to me...but I am such a newbie to all this...
Totally curious about the Tiff...I read that it won't degrade on editing (I didn't know till recently that each time I edited a pic I degraded it! ACK! Now I'm making a copy and editing that one...so if I put it into a TIFF, will those be uploadable to the internet and email: say Facebook or such or an email to a friend?
That makes sense about holding out the camera vs. viewfinder...didn't think of that...I remember taking pictures in museums and doing a fancy pose to get it stable...LOL!!
Thanks again for all ur support! :D

[tkbslc]

If you are going to save them to TIFF, you will want to save a smaller JPEG version before uploading to the web. 800x600 is a good web size. The other option is to just leave it JPEG, and only save once. It only degrades when you hit save. So if you do all your editing at one time, then you lose very minimal quality.