Hi James,
The behavior you are seeing is incorrect. In map space, the image (X, Y) coordinates displayed in the Image Information Pane should absolutely correlate to the pixel location of the underlying image. In fact, the coordinates next to the image (x, y), should display the accurate pixel location of the cursor, or point of interest, regardless of working in map space or image space.
However, you are running into a bug which is interfering with correctly reporting image (X, Y) coordinates in the Image Information Pane when working in map space (i.e. Projected or Geographic). We are working on enhancements and bug fixes to the underlying image coordinate system (ICS) that will address this issue so that the coordinates are correctly displayed in the Image Information Pane.
Also of note is the status bar at the bottom of a map view. When working in image space, the image coordinates are displayed in parentheses next to the ground coordinates.
If you don't mind, can you verify that the image (X, Y) coordinates are correlating correctly to the underlying image when working in image space? Also, would mind sharing any details on the type of image you are working with? Is the image a satellite image or an airborne image? What image format are you working with?
Thank you,
Dan