Lower resolution than max (megapixels)

I just purchased Nikon P300 and have a question regarding the image resolution. The camera is capable of 12 megapixels but for my day-to-day shooting I have it currently set to 8 megapixels as I do not need more. Actually, even the 5MP setting would be good for me. The question is, besides the resolution, does the lower MP setting lowers the picture quality in any way? By lower quality I mean noise, low light ability, etc.

Thanks.

Lowering the MP might even improve your low-light capability, though I can't say for sure. My P7100 has a "low-light" shooting mode which reduces the resolution quite a bit, but also improves shooting in dark circumstances significantly as well.

The P7100 low-light shooting mode sets the ISO to 3200 to allow faster shutter speeds, thus with increase in noise. It's a trade-off.

I have a P300 and shoot mostly in 5MP, which is plenty for regular images. There is a setting for 12MP with an " ", which involves less compression to give the image a bit better IQ. Unfortunately, P300 does not allow user to set the JPEG compression ratios. If it did, I wouldn't hesitate to shoot all my images in 5MP...
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HLL7575

Fuji developed the EXR sensor to get around the colour problems that can occur by putting the same colour sensors adjacent to each other in the EXR sensor so binning just produces a half resolution sensor. I know from a 200EXR I owned that this does parodoxically markedly improve resolution in low light. This is a compex issue but I find lower mp does seem to reduce noticeably reduce noise in low light enough to offset any downside even in bayer cameras.

The attached gives a good description if a bit Fujicentric.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2008/9/22/fujifilmEXR

phred14 said:

Lowering the MP might even improve your low-light capability, though I can't say for sure. My P7100 has a "low-light" shooting mode which reduces the resolution quite a bit, but also improves shooting in dark circumstances significantly as well.

Click to expand...

Thanks for replies. I will run some tests to see if the 12MP* setting is a lot better than regular 12MP. On the 8MP photos the compression is visible and bothers me a bit.

Funny thing about the EXR. I was waiting for Fuji to release fix for the orb issue because X10 was the camera I wanted to buy. About two days before the firmware update, I pulled the trigger on P300. Long story short, Fuji did not deliver (orbs are still present) and I am very happy with my P300.