Picture Quality / Size Options (6.5)
The FE-300 is equipped with a 1/1.72-inch CCD image sensor that can capture the following resolutions: 4000 x 3000 (SHQ/HQ), 2048 x 1536 (SQ1), 640 x 480 (SQ2), and a wide 1920 x 1080 in 16:9 aspect ratio. At full resolution, the camera can capture up to 8 SHQ pictures on the 48 MB of internal memory.
At 12 megapixels, the camera is certainly geared toward printing large format images for display. Users should beware, though; as discussed in the Testing section, large format images taken with the FE-300 are sharp, but noise can be a problem at high ISO settings. The lower resolution size option (including the Auction scene mode) is suitable for Web posting and e-mailing.
For novice shooters who are not familiar with the appropriate size resolution files for printing versus e-mailing, the Shooting Guide provides text-based explanations under “Shoot w/ effects preview” and then “Adjusting image quality.” It is a round-about way to change image size, but the Shooting Guide literally spells it out for the user.
Picture Effects Mode (0.0)
This entry-level camera doesn’t offer many picture effects. While the Olympus Stylus cameras offer Color modes to record in, the FE-300 does not. Playback adjustments are limited to rotating and cropping images. All other edits, such as saturation, contract, and sharpness, have to be made after the user uploads the photos to the computer and opens up editing software.
