JPEG/RAW Image Size & Quality

The Optio 430 offers three different output resolutions (2240 x 1680, 1120 x 840, 640 x 480) in combination with three JPEG compression settings ( 6:1, 8:1, 16:1). The Optio 430 does not have an uncompressed TIFF or RAW mode.

Standard Test Scene

To give an impression of what some of the combinations of image size and quality produce the table below is a cross reference of some of them:

• 2240 x 1680
• 2240 x 1680
• 2240 x 1680
• 1120 x 840
• 640 x 480

Images below are cropped 240 x 100 area of the image magnified 200% (nearest neighbour).

	2240 x 1680
	1,760 KB
	1,254 KB
	827 KB
	1120 x 840
	639 KB
	640 x 480
	245 KB

Although the 2240 x 1680 image looks as though it has JPEG artifacts around the '55' label what it actually appears to be is some noise artifact which hasn't been removed by the cameras internal processing algorithms.

Image Processing Adjustments

The Optio 430 allows you to control three different image processing parameters: Sharpness, Saturation and Contrast. Each of these can be set independently and in any combination. The camera automatically memorizes these settings after power off.

Sharpness: Soft	Sharpness: Normal	Sharpness: Hard
Saturation: Low	Saturation: Normal	Saturation: High
Contrast: Low	Contrast: Normal	Contrast: High

My personal preference was for default Sharpness and Saturation but to set Contrast to the Low setting, this produced a better 'balanced' image with less of chance of blown-out highlights.