The Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS/1000D Companion

Choosing an Image Size and Format

The Rebel XS's image sensor has roughly 10 million pixels on it. When shooting at maximum image size, it produces an image that's 4,272 pixels wide by 2,848 pixels high.

When shooting at maximum image size, you will be able to fit approximately 174 JPEG images on a 1 GB card. While this is a lot of images (equivalent to more than 4.5 rolls of 36-exposure film), there will be times when you need to save space, and so you might want to shoot images that don't take up as much space. The XS provides two options for controlling the size of the images it captures.

First, if you choose Quality from the first shooting menu, you'll be presented with a menu of size and format options. From this menu you can choose from three different image sizes: L, M, and S.

Figure 6-29. The XS gives you a choice of three different sizes—L, M, and S—each with a choice of two quality levels.

Second, for each size, you can choose from two different levels of compression. You can also choose to shoot raw. Raw format offers a number of advantages over JPEG modes, and we'll cover it in detail in Chapter 11. The last options on the menu are a combination of raw and JPEG.

For now, it's best to stick with one of the JPEG options because this will allow a speedier workflow when you take your images into your computer.

On the left side of the Quality screen you'll find a representation of ...