Jpeg or BMP??

[Rudyard]

Sorry if this is the wrong section, I am not sure if this is meant to be somewhere else but what is the better format JPEG or BMP???

I always thought BMP as JPEG compresses things to a smaller size and I guess losses info to make the compression. I figured it was like WAV (BMP) and MP3 (JPEG).

If so how come all the digital cameras I have seen save their images in JPEG?

Or am I mistaken and JPEG is a great way to save photos to your computer.
My Digital camera gives me no option when saving to my computer and they are all JPEG.

Can I get the same print out quality from that JPEG or is it best to take the memory card straight to a shop and get them to develop it off that?

Sorry this may be simple but I am new to the digital camera scene.

[MOVIEGEEK]

You are correct in that BMP is like WAV,it's uncompressed with all the data intact.When you compress a file you lose some data but if it isn't compressed too much it isn't visible unless you zoom.
Cameras use JPEG(Joint Photographic Export Group) because you can fit more photos on a disc,select the highest resolution for best results.

www.faqs.org/faqs/jpeg-faq/part1/

[junkmalle]

Yes, JPEG is a lossy compression format, but a high quality JPEG can be nearly indistinguishable from an uncompressed original. It's used in digital cameras so you can fit more pictures on a flash card. Your photos are already in JPEG format on your flash card so it doesn't matter whether you transfer from the camera or from a standalone reader. Many cameras have an option to save uncompressed -- usually TIFF or a native format.

[Rudyard]

Thankyou, I appreciate your help.

[vitualis]

BMP is not a particularly good format. Unless I'm mistaken, it can't hold some useful meta-data like colourspace, and resolution.

As junkmalle has implied the "WAV" of imaging (i.e., uncompressed) is the TIFF format.

Regards.

[SCDVD]

BMP is not a particularly good format. Unless I'm mistaken, it can't hold some useful meta-data like colourspace, and resolution.

As junkmalle has implied the "WAV" of imaging (i.e., uncompressed) is the TIFF format.

Regards.

That's true. A good way to deal with images is to save them in the native file format of your favorite image software such as Photoshop etc. The software's native format preserves all of the available image attributes as well as those that are only supported in the software's native file format. Do all of the editing in the native file format. Once this is finished, save it as a .BMP or other desired file format. One of the primary reasons for converting the format is that the application where the image is needed will not support the native file format of your image editing software.

If, for whatever reason, you need to save it as a JPEG file, NEVER reopen the JPEG file and do further editing on it. Each time a JPEG file is saved, it is recompressed. This causes the image quality to degrade each time it is saved. If there is something that needs to be changed in the image, do so in the native file format of your image software and then resave it as a JPEG file. For this reason, it is a good idea to save the original image in the software's native format until you are sure that you are finished with it and no further editing may be required.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Here is a reference on graphic file formats:
www.wfu.edu/~matthews/misc/graphics/formats/formats.html

I liked this qoute:"BMP is an uncompressed proprietary format invented by Microsoft. There is really no reason to ever use this format"