Digital cameras forum: Appropriate Camera/Megapixels for Poster-Size Prints?

The Canon SD550 is ideal for that purpose. It has a 7.1 megapixel. and 3X optical zoom. However, priced around $400. To be honest, it is teh cheapest and best ultracompact camera so far. Has a nice screen and for posters (I am into doing those also) it is perfect. Check it out. You cannot go wrong.

Hi,

I was actually going to do my printing using one of the commercial photo websites (choosing between shutterfly or yahoo photos), and they can do 20x30 prints for $19.99 a pop.

Oh yeah, shutterfly also does prints on canvas...anybody have any experience with this?

He stated a price for the camera.

The largest mexapixel camera within that price limit is 7 megapixel.

7 megapixels will not give the results needed for an excellent photo, but it may be acceptable.

The most megapixels you can buy for under a thousand dollars is the new Sony R1 - at 10.8 megapixels.
It is supposed to sell of $999

38 megapixels would be the best choice, but it is not available.

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Since we can not achieve perfection here, there is one tricks worth trying:

Use Adobe Photoshop and use interpolation to increase the size of the photo. This will degrade the photo some. But it should eliminate some of the blocky appearance that the 7 megapixel photo could present when printed at such a large size.

You would have to do the increase in size in several steps with some Photoshop touchup between steps.

It is something that has been done before.

Anyone have the time and money to spend on such a test?

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image quality, and is only done when there is no other choice. By 'standard camera', I assume you mean some sort of low resolution digital camera. The best way to get a large image out of small cameras is to merge several shots into a single image.

I remember reading that, but forgot which one was for enlarging.

I'm going to give it a try.

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I work with 20 by 30 as my standard print and file size. A 7 megapixel camera is sufficient though not ideal...the ideal is a camera beyond any pixel count one can imagine. That is the key. Infinite res is what one wants but what one can afford is a different issue but let me say that the way one should determine what pixel count is necessary is decidedly NOT to simply divide pixels per side by the print res such as 150 or 240 or whatever. This simplistic and common method does not consider that modern software both available either in the printer itself or in computer software allows for essential re-sizing and thus, decreasing pixel sizes to make them invisible. I work with an 8 megapixel Canon and as well a Sony. Both are equally sharp but the former has a quieter image due to its larger sensor. I can print considerably LARGER than 20 by 30 with fantastic results after resizing and some modest sharpening. It is far superior to any 35mm camera film image. Remember, one does not stand two cm from a poster and analyze its micro structure. That is not the point of an image and surely, not that of a poster. There is very little visible difference between a 7 and and 8 megapixel sensor...Remember, its relationship is the square root of the sensor. If there is a good lens and a good steady image and if you judiciously use sharpening and resizing algorythmns such as bicubic ( sharper) than the results will be fine. I recommend whenever possible, that RAW files be the choice if that is possible but if not, the finest JPG file needs to be created to make less visible any artifacts of the compression ( jpeg) process.

Regarding poster prints (22X28'?)I've successfully printed these on a nearly daily basis for quite some time. Frequently, 75ppi is all the resolution you need. Who looks a a poster from 12-18" away? Usually, 3 feet or more is more likely. Trust me, at 75ppi at a distance of as little as three feet, try and find any pixilation. As a matter of fact, you can even knock it down to 50ppi if you absolutely HAVE to, and still get a pretty good damn print, if you have a good printer. (I do.)

This thread was created in the year 2005.

The information is dated, since camera cost and megapixel size has greatly changed in the past four years.

The thread is now locked.

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