Why are my images 5mp and under all of the sudden?!

[meganb]

I am very new to canon and somewhat to photography but I just had a shoot and now as Im editing I noticed the quality is off and then that ALL of my images are 5mp and under! =( I reset everything and they are still shooting super small. I usually have 9-14mp after editing, these people are not going to be able to print these large at all now. Very bummed =( Thank you for your help!

[ScottyP]

Page 210 of the manual, which you can get right here on the Canon website in just a few clicks.  It is called CLEAR SETTINGS, and it is mid-way down the page on the last yellow (wrench) tab in your MENU, which you access by pressing the MENU button on the back of the camera.

[ScottyP]

If this CLEAR SETTINGS does not fix it in the camera, I am going to guess that this is something happening upon export into DPP or Elements, or whatever program you are using.  Unfortunately, I know nothing about either of those programs.

Hope you get it figured out.  If not, shoot RAW + JPG, and save it all somewhere before you export it into Elements or whatever program.  At least then you know you have the data, and it is not being discarded!

Good luck!

[meganb]

Ya I have reset all of those but for some reason I thought there was something that actually says 'default' and I dont see it. I will be calling canon in the morning. Im going to have to shoot raw but dont have extra cash to buy a new software for converting is the only thing =( ughhhhhh always something! thank you so much for trying to help me out!

[TCampbell]

"Ya I have reset all of those but for some reason I thought there was something that actually says 'default' and I dont see it."

The camera doesn't use the term "default" -- it uses the phrase "Clear all camera settings".

This is all spelled out for you on page 210 of your instruction manual (which was linked in the post above).  The page on the manual says "Reverting the camera to the Default Settings" (so the word "default" only appears in the manual) and then proceeds to tell you to access that menu function labeled "Clear all camera settings."

[meganb]

Yes, totally get that but I dont know why I thought it actually said default, maybe Im thinking my old Sony DSLR?

[TCampbell]

Even when using the same level of JPEG compression on images, the image sizes can vary considerably based on the data in the original image.  Some images compress better than others based on the way the compression algorithm works.

If I need to express that there are 10 pixels in a row which all have the same color value, I could record each pixel... ten times over.  OR... I could simply note the value of one pixel and indicate that it repeats 9 more times.  It saves a lot of space.  The actual algorithm is more complicated than this, but you get the idea.  Images with lots of large flat spaces where the colors are either the same or very close to the same compress very well, but images with strong complex patterns don't compress nearly as well.  This would be true even though the image resolution an quality are the same.

If you want to preserve data, shoot in RAW.

You mentioned earlier that your editing software doesn't know how to open your Canon RAW files (.crw), but you CAN use Canon's DPP to open the RAW files and save them as TIFF files (which are another non-lossy format) and your image editing program might know how to open TIFFs.

There's a DPP "Batch" which can perform conversions en-masse so you don't have to open and save them one at a time.

Ideally you'd either get Lightroom (if you have a PC) or Aperture (if you have a Mac).

[TCampbell]

Based on what I can read here... your camera is likely working perfectly.

The JPEG option to use the smooth curve with the "L" size (Large low-compression) saves images at a SPECIFIC size which on your T4i is 5184x3456 pixels.  These JPEG images will be, on average, about 6.4 MB according to the camera specs.  While you can choose which JPEG size to use (L, M, or S) and can choose high or low compression (based on the smooth vs. jagged curve), and you can also choose RAW images as well... there are no other menus nor custom functions which alter the size of, for example, a JPEG in "L" size.  That will ALWAYS be saved at 5184x3456 pixels (for your model camera).

If you shoot in RAW instead, those files will be, on average, about 23.5 MB per image.  RAW files actually _do_ get compressed... they just don't compress much because the compression algorithm wont use any compression resulting in a loss of original data (unlike JPEG compression.)  Incidentally, the resolution of a RAW is the same size as a JPEG "L" size -- the difference is that there's minimal in-camera processing of RAW images (nothing that could result in a loss of original data).

Your camera manual is here:  http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/5/0300007695/01/eosrt4i-eos650d-im-c-en.pdf

As Scotty says, see pages 86 & 87 of the manual for information on file sizes.

See page 210 for instructions on how to revert to factory settings.

The specific image resolution sizes (not to be confused with file sizes -- not the same thing) are listed on page 332.

Your photo editor may be altering the file sizes and there's nothing the camera can do about that.  Just make sure you save the ORIGINAL data files that unload from the camera (before you photo editor has a chance to alter them.)

[meganb]

Thank you TCampbell, I will look through everything again to see if I missed something. Usually when I put the photos onto the computer they go over at about 8 or 9 (even larger) in jpeg format but for some reason they are still staying under 6 =( After editing they are going to about 9 but still ideally I like larger for kids photos in case they want to print larger then your standard 8X10 of course!

[TCampbell]

I'll suggest a test to put your fears to rest.

Take an exposure using either RAW or JPEG "L" with the smooth curve.  

Copy the image to the hard drive of your computer either by inserting the memory card (if your computer has an SD slot) or by using the EOS Utility to import them.  DO NOT USE ANY OTHER METHOD (meaning... do not use whatever software you usually use unless what you usually use is the EOS Utility.)

Once the image is on your computer, select it and open it with Canon "Digital Photo Professional" (this came with your camera -- if you have not previously installed it, it's on the disk that was included in the box with your camera.)

Once the image opens, right-click your mouse on the image to expose the pop-up menu.  One of the choices (likely the bottom choice on the menu) is "Info" - selct that option.

This exposes a pop-up window which will contain two sections.  One section is "Shooting Information" and the other is "Metadata".  You want to view the "Shooting Information" section.

Somewhere around a dozen or so rows from the top is a row labeled "Image Size".  That row will state the ACTUAL resolution of the image (not the file size, but the image resolution).  

Please verify that it is showing 5184 x 3456.

Please do NOT use any other program to test this because if you aren't getting this specific size and your camera is indeed set as you say, I believe it's that "other program" responsible for changing the size.  

We can use Canon DPP because (a) everyone who owns a Canon EOS camera received a copy of it with the camera and (b) we _know_ it's not going to adjust the image size on import.