 Tom Reese |
megapixels and photo size I am moving from film into digital photography and am curious to know how megapixels translate into image size. I have heard that a 3 mp camera will make 8x10 images with good sharpness and detail and am wondering if this is true. Also, how large an image can a 6mp camera make while still retaining acceptable sharpness and detail? An 8 mp camera? I appreciate any help you can give me. -Tom Reese
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Diane Dupuis |
Hi Tom, I'm not expert, and I've also read that you can't get anything better than an 8x10 from a 3 megapixel. I just wanted you to know that personally I've blown up to 11 x 17 with absolutely no problems!
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Dave Cross |
Hi Tom. There are as many answers to this question as there are photographers :-) This is my 2c as a keen amateur. I have a 6Mpixel DSLR (EOS D-60), the files that it produces are 3072x2048 pixels. Most people are happy that a 300ppi (pixels per inch) print at 6x4 is pretty well indistinguishable from a 'real' photograph. A 6Mp camera (like the D-60) will produce a 10x8 at 300ppi that will look superb (assuming of course that the image is correctly focused etc.). If you are prepared to accept 150ppi your maximum print size becomes 20x16 or at 100ppi 30x24. Now at 100ppi you WILL see the dots if you are stood a foot from it, but you don't look at big prints from that close (do you??), stand 4 feet away and the image will look sharp and most impressive. Things are actually better than this because the print software used by the labs (or you with PhotoShop or similar) will interpolate (guess) extra pixels to enable the printer to run at its native resolution (usually 300 ish ppi), this has the effect of smoothing off the sharp edges of the larger dots. Like I said, my 2c YMMV :-) DC
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