WVBill -
Yup! I use the normal flash for just about everything where available light isn't enough. When I remember, I use the red-eye feature for pictures of people (or pets), and I sometimes I inadvertently shoot pictures of my tractor in the same mode. Haven't seen a red headlight yet. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif
When I bought my camera (for my business, of course /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif), I also shelled out some significant bucks for the super-fancy FL-40 electronic flash. It's a
way cool and powerful flash attachment that was made just for the camera, so they "talk" to each other and work out the best exposure, and even works properly in combination with the internal flash. It was a pretty penny to pay, but the fact is, I seldom use it. The internal flash is far better than I was expecting and
lots more convenient. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif
As for picture resolution modes, I seem to have settled on two basic modes. FWIW - I have two 32MB SmartMedia cards. If the subject is something I
might want to make a print of, I use the hi-res SHQ (super high quality - 1712 x 1368) mode, which only gives me 16 pictures per card, but each image would yield an excellent print up to 8 x 10 if need be. Even 16 exposures (or 32, if you count both cards) is generally enough even for my daughter's soccer games 'cuz I can preview and start throwing away the not-so-good shots if I have to. I use this high-quality mode mostly for pictures of the kids, since you never know when that "perfect" shot is going to happen. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
When I'm shooting stuff for the web (TBN or even the work-related stuff I bought the camera for in the first place), I've been using the HQ (high quality) mode -- same number of pixels, but higher compression (lower quality). This gives me 55 shots per card and enough resolution to crop and even "zoom in" on the best part of the picture. Computer screens are amazingly low resolution, so by the time you shrink your image down to an appropriate size (maybe 640 x 480), any of the finer quality issues are moot.
Like Bird, I generally "tweak" my images before posting on the net or making a print. I use Adobe Photoshop just 'cuz it's an old friend, but the software that comes with your camera let's you do most everything you need, too. Don't be afraid of that software -- you'll eventually embrace it and wonder how we ever took pictures the "old" way. I always save my original files just as they came out of the camera, and do my tweaking on copies. That way I never have anything to lose if my tweaking goes awry.
Now that you've got me thinking about all this, I might just run some experiments later today and do some "scientific" quality comparisons. I've been meaning to do that for a long time now.
Dang it, I always get wordy when these topics come up. Sorry 'bout that. /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif
