Can I get a good quality 16 x 20 print from a 6.2 megapixel digital camera?
I am trying to decide whether or not to switch from 35mm to digital. The cameral I am looking at is a Nikon D50 with 6.2 megapixels. I have also looked at the D80, which has 10.2 mp. I’m not sure which will be better if I want to get prints larger than an 8 x 10. Naturally the salesman is pushing the more expensive camera, but I just wanted input from someone other than a salesman.
There’s two big reasons to get the D80. One is the extra resolution, and the other is the much larger viewfinder. (There’s also a bunch of smaller reasons.)
Regarding the resolution, with 16×20 you’ll see a difference. You’ll start to see a difference with anything larger than 8×10.
Here’s why. A high quality printer will be set for 300dpi. That’s about as fine as the human eye can resolve. So when you print, ideally you’d have 300×300= 90,000 pixels to work with for every square inch. That works out to a whopping 34.5 mega-pixels for 16×24 inches (from which you’d crop a 16×20 print.)
You only NEED 300dpi if you’re going to press your nose to the print, however. If you view an image from a foot or two away, your eye won’t resolve anywhere near 300dpi and there’s less need to print at that resolution. Even so, there’s going to be an appreciable difference between 6 and 10 mega-pixels.
As somebody already stated, 35mm color film only resolves about 8 mega-pixels worth of information. (professional black & white film goes up to 25 mega-pixels). The sensor of the D80 is so good, that it not only out-resolves 35mm color film, it out-resolves most consumer grade lenses!
The Nikon 18-70mm lens ($310) would be a nice starter lens for either the D50 or the D80.
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