card = more capacity in creative modes than basic modes?

why is this?

Wild guess: No Raw in the 'green box' settings?

Perhaps the default ISO is higher in the basic modes than what you've got it set to in the creative settings? Can you change the ISO in the basic settings? I don't use them but if so, that may explain it.

High ISO = larger files = less images per card.

No RAW for sure

AndreyD wrote in post #4024021
No RAW for sure

I just put my 20D into jpeg for the creative modes and switched between the basic and creative and I get the same thing as the OP - more shots with the creative.

The reading in basic modes is as though every shot is taken at ISO 400 (same figure as the creative modes at that ISO.. it's proportionately different as you change the ISO). I figure it's because with those modes every shot remaining could be taken at ISO 400 and it gives you the readout accordingly... a worst-case scenario.

The number of images that can be stored on a card depends on the type of files being saved. RAW files are biggest, so fewest will fit; highly compressed, small jpegs are smallest, and most will fit. I think that the type of images to be stored is defined separately for each mode, and it may be that the default settings for the creative modes specify smaller files than the defaults for the basic zones. I could be wrong though.
Also, I don't think ISO affects file size at all.

xarqi wrote in post #4024158
Also, I don't think ISO affects file size at all.

ISO does affect the number available. It's even documented in the manuals.

LotsToLearn wrote in post #4024735
ISO does affect the number available. It's even documented in the manuals.

Thats correct.

My 1D3 and 40D each create RAW files that are 10.1 to 10.4 MB at ISO 100. At ISO 200 the files goes to between 11.5 and 13 MB.

LotsToLearn wrote in post #4024735
ISO does affect the number available. It's even documented in the manuals.

Easiest way to prove that is to look at how many images you have left, change the ISO, look again. Bingo (unless you're at 999 at which point you won't notice)

LotsToLearn wrote in post #4024735
ISO does affect the number available. It's even documented in the manuals.

I stand corrected, and with thanks.

I'm very puzzled as to why this should be, however. I can see that maybe at higher ISOs, the additional noise would make images harder to compress with jpeg, but it seems to apply with RAW only captures too. Maybe a jpeg preview is also stored with the RAW, even if a separate jpeg version is not.

Anyone know why this is?

Raw is also compressed (losless), so more noise = more 'detail' = less compression.

But the OP is about the creative modes having more pictures than the basic ones. Therefore it can't be anything to do with RAW. I suggest it is more likely that the resolution and quality have been set lower in the creative modes. They are saved separately from those specified in the basic modes.

Oops. Good catch

René Damkot wrote in post #4031063
Raw is also compressed (losless), so more noise = more 'detail' = less compression.

Thanks René. I hadn't realised that RAW was also compressed.

keitht wrote in post #4031905
But the OP is about the creative modes having more pictures than the basic ones. Therefore it can't be anything to do with RAW. I suggest it is more likely that the resolution and quality have been set lower in the creative modes. They are saved separately from those specified in the basic modes.

No, you don't have to assume that.

We've already got all the pieces of the jigsaw here. Watch carefully: nothing up the left sleeve, nothing up the right sleeve.
- In Basic Modes, camera doesn't know what ISO will be set, so it assumes 400. (Jim G)
- ISO 400 generates more noise than lower ISO. (xarqi)
- Noisier images are harder to compress. (xarqi)
- Therefore JPEGs of noisy images are larger than JPEGs of clean images, even at the same resolution settings.
- JPEGs at ISO 400 are larger than JPEGs at lower ISOs. (LotsToLearn)
- When in a Creative Mode, OP probably sets his camera to a low ISO by default. (Jim G)
- So he'll get more images on the CF card in Creative Mode than in Basic Mode.
(Well, he might or might not get more images, but the camera will tell him he'll get more, because it's doing that worst-case thing by assuming ISO 400.)