Steve'sDigicams

bojangles · May 30, 2006, 12:48 PM

Just wondering if someone can shed some light on this issue, which I have managed to avoid up until now.

How do you work out/understand the size ratio of the resolution of the dslr in accordance to the size of printing [such as A3]??

I have a D1 and D2hs [which has just broken due to malfunction of the metering system, not happy]...but these are works cameras, and am thinking about buying a camera myself for exhibition work...but I can't seem to work out how large thesecameras will print without interpolation in photoshop...and with so many differing and new dslr pixel sizes...and various prices to match...how do you workout the mathematics for printing and image res?

Thanks

PeterP · May 30, 2006, 1:49 PM

Pick your printer (IE: what are you going to print on?)
Places using the
. Fuji noritsu/frontiers want the images in at 240dpi. (max output 12*18 inches)
. Cymbolic Science lightjets around 300dpi, (max output 48*96 inches)
. Linotronic imagesetter 2540 dpi
. Home printers like the epsons 240-300dpi.

Take the above dpi of your choice and divide it into your cameras output, gives you your basic image print size for the camera.

Nagasaki · May 30, 2006, 1:53 PM

It's very difficult to give a definitive answer as the resolution required with larger prints isn't as high due to the greater viewing distance.

It's generally considered that you need around 200-300 pixels per inch when printing which if you take a 6Mp camera like the D70 gives you 3000 x 2000 pixels which is 15" x 10" at 200 pixels per inch.

If you want to print bigger you can proabably get away with 150 pixels per inch and also interpolation works well with digital cameras. One thing to not is that if you are using RAW files and PhotoShop Adobe recommend increasing the file size during the RAW processing as this is supposed to give the best results. The downside is that there are a few preset sizes you can change to.

peripatetic · May 30, 2006, 3:29 PM

Funny you should mention it...in an idle moment a while back I was working it out.

Most people feel on the Epson printers a resolution of 240ppi is good enough to be indistinguishable from 300ppi without a loupe.

For A3 I can say that the 20D and I presume therefore other 8-10Mp cameras can produce very good output with minimal interpolation. I have been astonished at how good my A3 prints have been.

For A2 I think that sometimes 8-10Mp will be OK, but the 12-17Mp are better; a lot depends on viewing distance and of course the nature of the picture. Some pictures don't need fantastic detail to look great, and some kinds of pictures can be up-rezzed very well with the different software out there - genuine fractals, etc.

http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=2

If you are going to want fine detail and will be regularly printing bigger than A2 I think you should probably be looking at medium format digital.

And of course there is always Richardson-Lucy image restoration - which is a "software upgrade" for resolution and can apparently make an 8Mp image about as good as an unprocessed 32Mp image. Considering the difference in price between a 30D/D200 and a Phase One P25 it's very cheap at $200.

http://www.clarkvision.com/imagedeta...on1/index.html
http://www.mlunsold.com/

If you PM me I'll send you a spreadsheet with some calcs I did.

If I were in your shoes I'd go for the 5D or D2X.

Norm in Fujino · May 30, 2006, 11:24 PM

peripatetic wrote:

Quote:

Ａnd of course there is always Richardson-Lucy image restoration - which is a "software upgrade" for resolution and can apparently make an 8Mp image about as good as an unprocessed 32Mp image. Considering the difference in price between a 30D/D200 and a Phase One P25 it's very cheap at $200.

For the least hassle, Qimage is the way to go. Automatic (or not) interpolation up to very large sizes, with very high quality. There's an ARTICLE about this stuff right here on Steve's.

peripatetic · May 31, 2006, 6:20 AM

QImage looks good.

I will download a trial and have a go. It certainly seems a lot cheaper than the more fully-featured RIP processing software which can be thousands of dollars, but really gives superb results. My local print shop spent a fortune on a RIP setup, but their prints are spectacular.

There are many different methods of interpolation, linear, bicubic, fractal, Lanczos, R-L, etc. I think that R-L is the best I've seen, but is very computationally intensive. Uprezzing an 8Mp image 4xusing R-L can take hours on a fast computer and is best done overnight, it's certainly not a quick and easy option. :blah:

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May 30, 2006, 12:48 PM	#1
bojangles Junior Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 3	Just wondering if someone can shed some light on this issue, which I have managed to avoid up until now. How do you work out/understand the size ratio of the resolution of the dslr in accordance to the size of printing [such as A3]?? I have a D1 and D2hs [which has just broken due to malfunction of the metering system, not happy]...but these are works cameras, and am thinking about buying a camera myself for exhibition work...but I can't seem to work out how large thesecameras will print without interpolation in photoshop...and with so many differing and new dslr pixel sizes...and various prices to match...how do you workout the mathematics for printing and image res? Thanks

May 30, 2006, 1:49 PM	#2
PeterP Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 3,397	Pick your printer (IE: what are you going to print on?) Places using the . Fuji noritsu/frontiers want the images in at 240dpi. (max output 1218 inches) . Cymbolic Science lightjets around 300dpi, (max output 4896 inches) . Linotronic imagesetter 2540 dpi . Home printers like the epsons 240-300dpi. Take the above dpi of your choice and divide it into your cameras output, gives you your basic image print size for the camera.

May 30, 2006, 1:53 PM	#3
Nagasaki Moderator Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 897	It's very difficult to give a definitive answer as the resolution required with larger prints isn't as high due to the greater viewing distance. It's generally considered that you need around 200-300 pixels per inch when printing which if you take a 6Mp camera like the D70 gives you 3000 x 2000 pixels which is 15" x 10" at 200 pixels per inch. If you want to print bigger you can proabably get away with 150 pixels per inch and also interpolation works well with digital cameras. One thing to not is that if you are using RAW files and PhotoShop Adobe recommend increasing the file size during the RAW processing as this is supposed to give the best results. The downside is that there are a few preset sizes you can change to.

May 30, 2006, 3:29 PM	#4
peripatetic Super Moderator Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 3,599	Funny you should mention it...in an idle moment a while back I was working it out. Most people feel on the Epson printers a resolution of 240ppi is good enough to be indistinguishable from 300ppi without a loupe. For A3 I can say that the 20D and I presume therefore other 8-10Mp cameras can produce very good output with minimal interpolation. I have been astonished at how good my A3 prints have been. For A2 I think that sometimes 8-10Mp will be OK, but the 12-17Mp are better; a lot depends on viewing distance and of course the nature of the picture. Some pictures don't need fantastic detail to look great, and some kinds of pictures can be up-rezzed very well with the different software out there - genuine fractals, etc. http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=2 If you are going to want fine detail and will be regularly printing bigger than A2 I think you should probably be looking at medium format digital. And of course there is always Richardson-Lucy image restoration - which is a "software upgrade" for resolution and can apparently make an 8Mp image about as good as an unprocessed 32Mp image. Considering the difference in price between a 30D/D200 and a Phase One P25 it's very cheap at $200. http://www.clarkvision.com/imagedeta...on1/index.html http://www.mlunsold.com/ If you PM me I'll send you a spreadsheet with some calcs I did. If I were in your shoes I'd go for the 5D or D2X.

May 31, 2006, 6:20 AM	#6
peripatetic Super Moderator Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 3,599	QImage looks good. I will download a trial and have a go. It certainly seems a lot cheaper than the more fully-featured RIP processing software which can be thousands of dollars, but really gives superb results. My local print shop spent a fortune on a RIP setup, but their prints are spectacular. There are many different methods of interpolation, linear, bicubic, fractal, Lanczos, R-L, etc. I think that R-L is the best I've seen, but is very computationally intensive. Uprezzing an 8Mp image 4xusing R-L can take hours on a fast computer and is best done overnight, it's certainly not a quick and easy option. :blah: