4:3 or 3:2 Ratio which do you prefer?

[genece]

I am not disagreeing with fred he must have posted while I was typing the post below.

[genece]

I still disagree.. there are parts of most photos you can crop and still have the section you keep at maximum resolution and that can work for any size photo you wish to print......If you print entirely art 4 X 6 then 3/2 ratio is fine but what if you want a 5 X 7 or 9 X 12.

I'll do it my way

[Puddock]

There are a few instances whre I would consider shooting other than 4:3, e.g. panorama type landscapes, but I will use 4:3 format 99.9% of the time.

Other formats are just in-camera crops which I can more effectively control later on the PC. Memory is cheap. Why buy say an 8mp camera to shoot your best efforts at anything less?

As for paper sizes, I do not even consider them until I have cropped the shot for the best result, irrespective of length and width. Why be constrained by predetermined sizes? Just trim the print!

just my 2c.

Max

[meanstreak]

bmccoy wrote:

Both the FZ7 and FZ30 have this option, I think some of the more P/S types may also have it as wellwith the extended zoom feature. I was thinking about it today and realized that if I ultimately want to print my best images out then why not just use 3:2 from the get go?? If I shoot @ 6mp on my FZ7 and then print the image I just end up cropping it back at least to the 5mp size of the 3:2 ratio any way.

Conventional wisdom seems to be shoot at the highest quality and largest size you can. But now I'm thinking that just using 5mp 3:2 would save me one step in pp, if I frame the picture right the fist time. Some times I have wanted all the detail on the four edges, and didn't want to crop for a print.

Does anyone else see any additionalpros or cons to using the highest resolution 3:2 setting as your "standard" images size?

-Brett

I haven't decided yet, but have been shooting 4:3. I've only had it a week and haven't decided on all the available options that the FZ30 has for doing things.

Too many choices! LOL.... but it's a good thing.

[Peter_with_digicam]

All my photography with the FZ30 so far has been in 4:3 ratio for one simple reason. All my pictures are currently viewed either on the computer monitor screen, or on the TV. As my TV is still 4:3 (not a widescreen set) this works out OK.

I've only printed a handful of files so far, and that was purely experimentally to see how my digital files came out on 6" x 4" paper.

If I go back to printing out my photos on to paper, I might as well revert to film photography which I've just virtually abandoned.

[bmccoy]

Peter_with_digicam wrote:

.....If I go back to printing out my photos on to paper, I might as well revert to film photography which I've just virtually abandoned.

Interesting comment. I don't really make that kind of connection personally but I can see what you are saying. For me to get away from prints will require inexpensive high quality "digital frames" and "digital albums" that can hang on the wall or be pulled off the bookshelf. Maybe I'm still just a little old fashioned.

-Brett

[Peter_with_digicam]

Consequently, having decided that I'll default to 4:3 format, I've also defaulted to 5MP EZ rather than 8MP - just to get the extra zoom.

In fact I haven't shot anything at 8MP yet, but I guess I'll do a test at some stage to see if the extra resolution I achieve will be noticeable in the ways I currently view my images. I doubt it, as I believe that the extra resolution at 8MP is significant only when printing to large sizes. Or at least that's what I am led to believe.