6MP... biggest you would print?

[Papa Deuce]

8 x 10

11 x 14

What do you think?

 

[wdwmom2]

When I upload my pics to get developed, they always let you know the maximum enlargement for every pic. With my S3 which is a 6mp, I believe the largest print they suggest printing is an 11 x 14. One of these days I will do a 16 x 20 just to see what happens.

 

[Papa Deuce]

When I upload my pics to get developed, they always let you know the maximum enlargement for every pic. With my S3 which is a 6mp, I believe the largest print they suggest printing is an 11 x 14. One of these days I will do a 16 x 20 just to see what happens.

Thanks! That is the camera I think I am buying today.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

It all depends on how close you'll view the print. You could make a billboard from a 6mp photo; you just wouldn't want to see it up close.

 

[Furgus]

Mark is right. I have a 20X30 print of Niagara Falls on my wall in my living room, that I took with my Kodak Easy share 4mp camera. It looks pretty bad when you are about and inch from it, but stand back 2 feet and it looks great.

 

[photo_chick]

It depends on the original quality of the file, the viewing distance, how it is printed....

I get great 11x14 prints with my Epson R1800 from images taken with my old 4mp Fuji p&s. No blockies, jaggies, or anything. I tried 13x19 at home and it started looking a little digital. I tried having a 10x13 printed at the lab before I got my big printer of one of the images, and it did not come out well at all. I don't know if it was how they handled the file, the printing process, or what. So I do think how big you can go also depends on the printing process.

 

[Papa Deuce]

It all depends on how close you'll view the print. You could make a billboard from a 6mp photo; you just wouldn't want to see it up close.

Well yes, but how about if I want to hang a photo on my living room wall?

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Well yes, but how about if I want to hang a photo on my living room wall?

I'm not trying to be a nuisance, but it still depends. A picture hanging up over your mantel may not be viewed by anyone closer than 6 feet away. A picture hung on a wall in a high foot traffic area may be viewed from 6 inches away.

It also depends on how sharp the picture was. I find that I'm more often limited by my technique than by my camera's resolution. I've printed 11x14's from a 6mp camera (Canon D60) that look great. I've taken shots with an 8mp camera (1DM2) that are barely acceptable at 4x6.

 

[Papa Deuce]

I'm not trying to be a nuisance, but it still depends. A picture hanging up over your mantel may not be viewed by anyone closer than 6 feet away. A picture hung on a wall in a high foot traffic area may be viewed from 6 inches away.

It also depends on how sharp the picture was. I find that I'm more often limited by my technique than by my camera's resolution. I've printed 11x14's from a 6mp camera (Canon D60) that look great. I've taken shots with an 8mp camera (1DM2) that are barely acceptable at 4x6.

No, I understand your point. I guess that I should say, that from a viewing distance of a few feet away, and a 6MP camera give you a nice looking photo that it is at least 11 x14... and it seems that you have answered that. Thank you.

 

[handicap18]

I had an enlargement made of a pic I took with my Nikon D50 6MP camera. The enlargement is actually croped down to about 75% of the original size and the 11x14 we have on the wall looks stunning. Even from a few inches it looks great. Granted I took it with a sharp lens, but so long as the file you want enlarged is good and sharp then you shouldn't have much issues with 11x14. Though like Mark said, if it has some slight misfocus or other issues, it might not look as good.

 

[photo_chick]

Sharpness from the focus is not really the only factor in the image quality. A really noisy image will not enlarge well either. The image could be perfectly in focus but if there is a lot of noise it might not give the qualtiy enlargement you want.

 

[manning]

IMHO what is more important than pixel is resolution. How good is the lens.

I have a Canon G1, old tech in today's standard. It has one heck of a great lens and is 3.2 MP.

I have made 8x10s with no sweat.

 

[Groucho]

The printer makes a difference, too. I had a couple pictures from my old 5mp Minolta PnS printed at about 17x22 or so. One was a straight-from-the-camera jpg, one was a mere 1280x1024 resize - and both look, imho, very, very nice. Certainly, the same pictures made from my current DSLR would be sharper, but even the 1280x1024 one looks quite good even upclose, just a little soft. The other looks fairly sharp. Both were bright daytime photos, so they were ideal conditions for the camera, which didn't hurt, either.

The printer was a very nice (it pains me to say this!) Canon one... of course, it should be, it was a $100,000 printer used at a Canon tech demo!

I would say that a good 6mp print from a quality source should be able to go at least that big without you being unhappy with it. If they're coming a DSLR, that will help even more. A "mere" 11x14 should be not much of a challenge at all for 6mp.

 

[jann1033]

8 x 10

11 x 14

What do you think?

i didn't notice this in the posts so hope i'm not repeating but if you crop the photo it'll make a difference as well...so a straight "a 6mp can print a 11x14 " might be deceiving cause it could depend on what you did with the photo after you took it. i have 8 mp, had printed a really nice 11x14, but a 16x20 didn't turn out nearly as well, i think partially cause i had cropped it a good bit, it was noisier, etc. i loved the photo on the monitor, not so much once the print was printed( had them done at the same place so thinking it had to be the photo)

 

[MarkBarbieri]

It also depends on the subject. On many subjects, we aren't looking to see fine detail.

 

[fitzperry]

It also depends on the subject. On many subjects, we aren't looking to see fine detail.

That's true. The largest print I've made is a 16x20 of one of my dd's in front of BTMRR (had a discount code and I wanted to see what kind of quality I could get at that size). It was taken with my 6mp D70 and it was good enough to hang in her room but I probably wouldn't hang it in the living room . It looks decent up close, but the fine detail just isn't there. I'm not sure it would be acceptable had it been a macro shot of a flower or something.