Originally posted by MidwestMax I just got my K20d and I was wondering if anyone notices a real difference between images taken with the 'best' three-star JPEG format and the 'premium' four-star one? Thanks.
Hi Max,
I shoot jpegs almost exclusively for my birds. I've found no significant difference between *** and ****, so I shoot *** with both the K20 and now with the K7. I'd say the real difference in file size, write speed, and overall camera performance outweighs the mostly theoretical advantage of the lower compression of the **** between these two choices.
Pentax uses *** as the default. I think that if it the engineers felt that there was a noticeable difference in actual IQ, they would have defaulted to ****.
I think that you should test this for yourself and believe what your eyes tell you. If your perception is that **** looks better, then use it. The same goes for RAW vs Jpg, and DNG vs PEF.
Scott