MPx220 jpeg compression

[jaminjack]

Is there any way to change the JPEG photo compression ratio in windows
mobile. I have installed a 256 meg miniSD. I would like to either be able to
save photos in raw tiff format with no compression. Or save in JPEG with
little or no compression. I have the camera setting set to 1280x960 and storage
to 256 miniSD card. Size of the photo after compression is 127 KB. This size of
picture in Adobe, Corel, or other photo software looks cheap and bad. I
need to be able to keep more original photo detail when saving pictures to
view on the PC.

[Hobbes]

With much respect, I don't think it matters.

Even if the settings could be changed, the camera itself is horrible and almost not worth using. Even if you have the updated ROM, the phone cannot take a picture unless a very specific setting and settings are just right.

If you are woried about image quality, you won't be using this phone at all.

[jaminjack]

At 1.2 mega pixels the camera is fine. It's the compression ratio that’s screwing up the picture. yes software settings need to be tweaked also. Since most indoor pictures are to dark. I have an old Kodak that’s 1.2 mega pixels and that too had the same picture problem as the MPx220 until I adjusted the setting white balance, contrast, color etc. and the picture compression. At 1.2 mega pixels you won't be able to have a decent print any larger than 3x5". With the JPEG compression set so low the detail needed to print 3x5" is gone. a lot of indoor pictures come out crappy because of the lights, fluorescent, halogen, soft white, etc. These are all software fixes. The CCD chip in the camera is fine. Outdoors the camera pictures are average with the old Kodak.

Jack

[Mike Temporale]

The CCD chip in the camera is fine.

How do you know the CCD is fine? CCD's vary immensely between camera manufacturers. It's can be hard to find a good CCD in a regular digital camera. Who's to say that Moto didn't choose to save a couple bucks and use a half baked CCD?

[Kris Kumar]

As far as I know the MPx220 does not provide any means to specify the compression ratio or the format (RAW/TIFF/JPG) for saving the photos. :-(

The quality "may" have been better if other formats are allowed. But I am sure that the current compression ratio is not affecting the photos. Instead the white balance, exposure time and other key camera settings are affecting it more.

I also feel that the CCD is fine. (It maybe a cheapoh one) It seems to do the job fine job when the setting are tweaked and also as you mentioned during day time photography. So the CCD and compression ratio are fine. Because the compression is not adversely affecting the quality when the photos are taken in broad day light (with no shake). But the problem occurs during night and low light.

I feel that Moto's camera software didnt do a great job with sensing the light conditions and setting the camera up automatically. That is why we have to tweak the white balance and specify Night mode manually to get good photos in low light.

[jaminjack]

To make large image files smaller and more manageable, digital cameras store images in a format called JPEG after its developer, the Joint Photographic Experts Group and pronounced "jay-peg." This file format not only compresses images, it also allows you to specify how much they are compressed. This is a useful feature because there is a trade-off between compression and image quality. Less compression, sometimes called Fine mode, gives you better images so you can make larger prints, but you can't store as many images. More compression, in modes such as Normal or Basic, lets you store more images and makes the images better for making smaller prints, posting on a Web page, or sending as e-mail attachments. The only problem is that your prints won't be quite as good. For the highest resolution, some cameras offer an uncompressed format.

[Kris Kumar]

It would have been great if Moto's camera app had included this (compression ratio: super fine, fine, normal) feature. But apparently they decided not to include this feature. :-(

I know that the HTC Typhoon phones - C500, SMT5600 etc. have this feature. Interestingly they offer the encoding option, but currently on JPEG is listed. :? Maybe future ROM revisions will introduce the TIFF format.

I have read elsewhere that TIFF is a bulky format. It makes the images big and handling them takes a lot of processing power. Hence the camera phones like to stay away from it. That is why none of the image viewers or file viewers offer TIFF viewers for Smartphones.