05-12-10 – Happy Farktography Anniversary 5

I have never printed out anything of mine on anything larger than A4 photopaper, and I am not sure if my 10 Megapixel 4/3 mount camera can go much larger without seeing a significant drop in picture quality.

if you’re still reading this thread go to sam’s (or cosco possibly or any place that has one of those roll printers) and try it out. i had a 3008×2000 pixel 3.78MB photo blown up to 16×20 and it turned out great. was using a 5 megapixel DSLR camera.

the folks at sam’s told me the size was too small to do that. ha, fooled them. and it was <$20.

Thanks. I will check at my local camera stores to see what type of printer they are using.
The websites I looked at seem to suggest that the limit with 10 megapixels is 12.91″ x 8.64″ at 300ppi (about A4 size), but that seems a little conservative to me.

I’m quite curious about print sizes. I currently scan a lot of 35mm film negatives at 4800 ppi (or is that dpi?), which creates a bigger file with more pxiels than images taken on my digital camera, so I am wondering how big I can go with prints.

If I may throw this out…

I currently work for Dodd Camera, a chain of camera stores here in Ohio (Cleveland and Dayton). I run the lab here at our Pepper Pike store. I’ve got a 44″ Hewlett Packard Z3200 inkjet printer that I run on a daily basis. As I type, I’m looking at a 44″x66″ print that I shot with my 6mp Nikon D70s, and it is stunning. We use the print as an example of what you can do with a DSLR image.

The original file was 3000×2000 pixels, 2.83Mb, run through Photoshop CS4. I didnt massage the file at all, just cropped it for 44×66 and ran a test. We were so amazed at how sharp it was that we ran a full-size print and mounted it on the wall.

The printer uses 12 different inks, including a gloss enhancer that gives a matte or glossy print a very even appearance (some inkjet prints look kinda brassy or uneven because the white paper base shows through in very light areas…the gloss enhancer makes the white areas the same reflectivity as areas with ink.)

I’m not attempting to execute a threadjack here, but if you’re interested in good high-quality prints (glossy, pearl, watercolor, cotton rag, glossy canvas, etc ), email me at pepperpike@doddcamera.com. I can talk to the store manager about shipping options. Prices for various print sizes can be found on our website at doddcamera.com.

I hope this helps…I can pretty much guarantee that I’ll do a better job printing your files than some vest-wearing trixie at Costco (we don’t sell pallets of toilet paper, Costco shouldnt do photofinishing.)

You have cotton rag? *drool*

hey Hey HEY!! NO drooling on the cotton rag! It makes the surface swell.

Anyhoo, yeah, we gots cotton rag, plus a few others:

Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Bright White 100% cotton rag, 310 g/m, 24″ roll.
Hahnemuhle 308 g/m cotton rag, 44″ wide.
Hahnemuhle Bamboo, 24″ roll. Eco-friendly off-white paper made from bamboo.

Most of my production is on a regular pearl surface paper. We also have glossy, but not many people order that anymore. Gallery-wrapped canvas prints are big – I do a couple of those a week. They look great hanging on a wall and don’t require a frame.

(I’m currently experimenting on a new roll we just got on Friday…metallic paper. It has a silvery opalescent glow to it.)

Let me know if you’re interested in anything. I can probably talk to the store manager and offer a 20% discount for fellow Farktographers.

I’ll keep Cameraflage in mine, should I ever take a picture that must be framed…