It depends on what you want to do with your photo. Do you want to e-mail it to friends, post it on a Web site, make it your computer's wallpaper, print it as a 4x6 photograph, or create a poster-sized print? For images that will be viewed on a computer monitor (such as those you send by e-mail or post to the Web), a low pixel-count setting is perfectly adequate. Since most people view images on monitors that display only 800 x 600 pixels, a low pixel-count image, such as a 600 x 400 photograph, will fill up most of their screen without running off the edges. A low pixel-count setting will also reduce the file size of the image and reduce time it takes others to download or display your image.
For E-mailing and posting to the Web you don't need to have your camera set to the highest resolution. By choosing a smaller resolution you can reduce file size and download times for others.
Printers, on the other hand, can print at much higher resolution than a typical computer screen. Images that you intend to print should be captured at a higher pixel-count setting. :
· For a 2" x 3" print, the image dimensions should be 400 x 600 pixels minimum
· For a 4" x 6" print, the image dimensions should be 800 x 600 pixels minimum
· For a 5" x 7" print, the image dimensions should be 1000 x 1400 pixels minimum
· For an 8" x 10" print, the image dimensions should be 1600 x 2000 pixels minimum
Print quality is a subjective issue, so you should experiment to find a picture size that provides satisfactory results.
If you don't know what you want to do with your image the moment you take a picture, a safe course is to set your camera to the highest resolution setting. You can always resize your image later in FotoFinish to prepare it for E-mailing or Web publishing.