Camera Help

I had a Sony DSC-P51 Digital camera. I could resize the pictures to 640x480 dimensions on the camera itself. Well, my DSC-P51 broke, and now i have a DSC-P32. Everytime i resize the picture, it gives me the options of 3.1M, 2.0M, 1.2M, and VGA (Where it would normally say 640x480, 1280x960, and 1600x1200) I want my pictures to be 640x480 resolution, but come out do be 1600x1200 once uploaded on computer (Dont know what 3.1M, 2.0M, 1.2M and VGA Stand fore. Any help would be good.

I cant really help you but i do use a sony. Dsc-p10. Still learning about it.

VGA would be 640 by 480. Some cameras store images as 24-bit bitmaps which means you can calculate file size from the resolution using H res * V res * 3. The three is because each pixel takes up 3 bytes, one each of red blue and green. A byte is 8 bits so 3*8 = 24bit.

I think modern cameras store jpgs which are compressed so this formula won't work. Your camera probably takes pictures at 1600x1200 and then compresses the images moer or less depending on your settings. More compression = more detail lost. Normally for fine detail you would take the largest resolution and lowest compression (largest file size) and then crop and resize on your computer. VGA normally means 640*480 so if you can't resize later choose that setting.

Your Sony camera will do :
1600 x 1200
1600 x 1072 (3:2)
1280 x 960
640 x 480
320 x 240
so I would say 1.2M is 640 X 480
for info check out this website :
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2002_reviews/p51.html

After looking up your camera spec I see that the 3.2M mean 3.2 million pixels (megapixel). So the 4 resolutions your new camera supports are 2048x1536 (3.2M), 1632x1224 (2.0M), 1280x960 (1.2M) and 640x480 (VGA).

He replaced his p51 with a p32.
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_reviews/p32.html

whoa....
i say take pics using the highest quality setting you can allow, using the highest resoultion and biggest file that you can afford to use on your memory.

then re-size them afterwards using something like acdsee (no real need to open photoshop for just re-sizing, altering levels and file format....)

Yeah definitely use the largest resolution possible. Then you can crop out the part you are interested in. Or reduce it down as DM said, that will result in a sharper, clearer picture.

As for what each setting on your camera means, have you tried each one to see what resolution they are? Would be the logical thing to do.

take your pics on high quality with macro on. depending on the size of your memory stick you can get a few nice high res pcitures. my cam can hold 50-70 images on high res. but use the macro feature. works wonders

i would agree on taking them at the largest size ... i would disagree on taking them with the macro setting on ... just stand back a little and zoom in till the car almost fills the screen ... but is still in focus ...

there are several programs available on the net that you can use to resize the photos....

taking them at the largest size means you can crop the photo later to include just what you want to have in there and still have a fair sized phtoograph .. not one that is little bitty to begin with .. and gets even smaller .... its easier to shrink a photo to make it fit ... then it is to enlarge one to see what it is...

the VGA should be the size you were inquiring about though ...