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Megapixel question from a 'noob'.
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Sorry but I'm not clued up at all when it comes to megapixels and camera settings but I'm hoping to learn 
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I've just bought a new Casio Z1080 10MP camera and this is only the second digital camera I've had. My first was a basic Kodak point and shoot fixed at 3.5MP. The factory default setting for my new one is 10MP. I know more pixels means better quality but I have several options where I can change the image resolution to either 2MP, 3MP, 5MP, 16:9, 3:2 and 10MP.
I usually only take photos to print off 6"x4" pictures and according to my manual 3:2 matches the 'standard aspect ratio of print paper' so is it best set to this option or factory default of 10MP?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated and apologies for sounding so green.
.I've just bought a new Casio Z1080 10MP camera and this is only the second digital camera I've had. My first was a basic Kodak point and shoot fixed at 3.5MP. The factory default setting for my new one is 10MP. I know more pixels means better quality but I have several options where I can change the image resolution to either 2MP, 3MP, 5MP, 16:9, 3:2 and 10MP.
I usually only take photos to print off 6"x4" pictures and according to my manual 3:2 matches the 'standard aspect ratio of print paper' so is it best set to this option or factory default of 10MP?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated and apologies for sounding so green.
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I use Kodak Easyshare to store, sort and modify my pictures. The Casio comes with Photo Loader/Hot Album but I haven't installed it yet since I don't know whether I might as well continue with Easyshare.
Take a picture at 10MP resolution and see if it is 3:2 ratio. If it is, then continue to use your camera set at 10MP. But if it is not, then I think if you set it to 3:2 like you said, your 10MP images will come out in the 3:2 ratio. Not too sure on that though.
I have no experience of Casio cameras by the way!
Edit: In response to your above post, yes they will be automatically scaled when you give it in for printing.
blackmagic - I think you're getting slightly mixed up with TV ratios - 4:3 is not the same ratio as 6:4, and I'm not aware of 16:9 being a common ratio for cameras.
You're right. I'm too obsessed with video aspect ratios! I just replaced all the '4:3's in my post with '3:2's.
It's a very nice little camera and comes with a 250 page adobe manual which is going to take some reading. Even though it's quite clear explaining the cameras operation it doesn't really explain in idiot-proof terms what I'm looking for.
You could have 3:2 at 6 pixels or 6 trillion pixels all it means is that for every 3 pixels wide the picture is there are 2 pixels high.
It sounds like your first test shot was set to 16:9 which again is just a ratio of width to height and is independent of how many pixels are in the shot (well apart from there has to be a multiple of 16 wide and 9 high obviously). That certainly would lead to cropping at the edges if you viewed it in 3:2
Ok I think I'm getting the hang of this. Going back to the two pictures I took earlier at 3:2 and 10MP I think I've discovered just how many MP the 3:2 setting uses, because there is no obvious way of knowing (to me anyway
(3648x2432 when divided up is a perfect 3:2 ration just like you explained, so is it safe to assume the 3:2 shot is 8.9MP?)
I doubt a Casio compact is likey to have the optics to take a true wide angled shot to achieve these ratios. Most compacts just crop to give you 'widescreen' pictures and suchlike.