M43 prints

Yandrosxx · Mar 19, 2019

I'm interested in seeing the largest prints folks have produced from M43 systems and your impressions of print quality. Not theory regarding the systems potential. Im interested in actual prints that have been made.

Attached is a 30x40 canvas print of a barn in Shaker Village, Kentucky. Shot on the Em1 Mark II. Admittedly it was shot at ISO 200, but I can't discern any noise in the shot at all. Despite the color cast of the ambient light, the colors are also vibrant in person. I'm was very impressed when it came back and I'm quite sure a standard print would look equally good.

I'm also sure it can be printed even larger with no discernible impact in quality.

LightCameraAction · Mar 19, 2019

I have a 30x60 panorama printed on fine art paper. It looks awesome, but you can tell it wasn't shot with the sharpest lens if you get within 10 inches (i.e., pixel peeping). No one cares, though. People complement it all the time (including the pizza delivery man).

I always laugh when people talk about 16x20 prints being large. I have printed 16x20 images on fine art paper and there is no appreciable loss of sharpness (maybe even no perceptible loss of sharpness). And that is with a 16 megapixel camera.

I guess the point I am trying to make is that everyone who has a micro 4/3 camera should print large...very large. After all, we spend hundreds/thousands on these top quality cameras.

Yandrosxx · Mar 19, 2019

LightCameraAction said:
I have a 30x60 panorama printed on fine art paper. It looks awesome, but you can tell it wasn't shot with the sharpest lens if you get within 10 inches (i.e., pixel peeping). No one cares, though. People complement it all the time (including the pizza delivery man).

I always laugh when people talk about 16x20 prints being large. I have printed 16x20 images on fine art paper and there is no appreciable loss of sharpness (maybe even no perceptible loss of sharpness). And that is with a 16 megapixel camera.

I guess the point I am trying to make is that everyone who has a micro 4/3 camera should print large...very large. After all, we spend hundreds/thousands on these top quality cameras.

Care to post a Pic of it? I Would appreciate seeing it. Personally I think folks would benefit from seeing the actual prints the system produces instead of the constant theoretical debates ( gibberish) posted about its alleged limitations.

Danielvr · Mar 20, 2019

There have been MANY topics about large prints from M43 cameras, but the largest prints shown so far must have been these from a Swedish office....:

You can't print big with M43 they say...

I finished a "one year in the nature, one picture per day" project on 2016-11-16. Some weeks after I was contacted by WSPGroup in Stockholm and asked if they could buy some of my images from this project to have as photo walls for two offices next to each other they were renovating in Stockholm...

www.dpreview.com

Jonas Palm · Mar 20, 2019

Print media (I have made an equally large canvas print from an iPhone 6s+.), canvas in particular is very ”forgiving”.

Viewing distance assumptions.

Subject.

The can of worms that is sharpening.

Another that is cropping.

For most of us, prints aren’t the reference standard any more, for the simple reason that the overwhelming majority of images are never appreciated as prints but on-screen, which doesn’t have the same limitations as prints.

Yandrosxx · Mar 20, 2019

Jonas Palm said:
Print media (I have made an equally large canvas print from an iPhone 6s+.), canvas in particular is very ”forgiving”.

Viewing distance assumptions.

Subject.

The can of worms that is sharpening.

Another that is cropping.

For most of us, prints aren’t the reference standard any more, for the simple reason that the overwhelming majority of images are never appreciated as prints but on-screen, which doesn’t have the same limitations as prints.

That's why I posted a thread seeking pictures of actual prints. Folks would benefit from seeing the tangible production out of M43 cameras.

petreluk · Mar 20, 2019

The largest I’ve done is about 26” wide on Fuji C type with no issues at all, using the standard upres in Photoshop off a 10x8 crop at base ISO from a 16mpx raw. I’ve done this three years running for an exhibition.

I am about to print in portrait shape to 40” deep on the same basis. However this time I am using Topaz Gigapixel to do the upres. I’ll report back if there’s a problem - I haven’t used Gigapixel before - but I don’t see why there should be. Providing one has a quality file to start with - a good lens helps - one can print big from M43 files, much bigger than people think.

I’m not fussed by noise anyway. The myriad mobile phone shots used in advertising on posters, hoardings and the like have made people generally accepting of noise, imho - and in monochrome it can be refabbed as grain if necessary.

--
==================
https://www.flickr.com/photos/petreluk/

Yandrosxx · Mar 20, 2019

petreluk said:
The largest I’ve done is about 26” wide on Fuji C type with no issues at all, using the standard upres in Photoshop off a 10x8 crop at base ISO from a 16mpx raw. I’ve done this three years running for an exhibition.

I am about to print in portrait shape to 40” deep on the same basis. However this time I am using Topaz Gigapixel to do the upres. I’ll report back if there’s a problem - I haven’t used Gigapixel before - but I don’t see why there should be. Providing one has a quality file to start with - a good lens helps - one can print big from M43 files, much bigger than people think.

I’m not fussed by noise anyway. The myriad mobile phone shots used in advertising on posters, hoardings and the like have made people generally accepting of noise, imho - and in monochrome it can be refabbed as grain if necessary.

Would love to see a pic of one of the prints.

Yandrosxx · Mar 20, 2019

Danielvr said:
There have been MANY topics about large prints from M43 cameras, but the largest prints shown so far must have been these from a Swedish office....:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/59564551

Thanks for posting the link. Its what I was looking for. It's very helpful to see actual prints from m43 systems at that scale, i.e., HUGE PRINTS.

What's ever more impressive is the close up screen grabs pulled form some of those wall-sized prints.

petreluk · Mar 20, 2019

Yandrosxx said:
petreluk said:

The largest I’ve done is about 26” wide on Fuji C type with no issues at all, using the standard upres in Photoshop off a 10x8 crop at base ISO from a 16mpx raw. I’ve done this three years running for an exhibition.

I am about to print in portrait shape to 40” deep on the same basis. However this time I am using Topaz Gigapixel to do the upres. I’ll report back if there’s a problem - I haven’t used Gigapixel before - but I don’t see why there should be. Providing one has a quality file to start with - a good lens helps - one can print big from M43 files, much bigger than people think.

I’m not fussed by noise anyway. The myriad mobile phone shots used in advertising on posters, hoardings and the like have made people generally accepting of noise, imho - and in monochrome it can be refabbed as grain if necessary.

Click to expand...

Would love to see a pic of one of the prints.

Ok, but not for a few days ... it’s a b/w of a wolf giving the camera the eye ...

EarthQuake · Mar 20, 2019

As long as you've got a reasonably good quality 8 megapixel image, you can print as large as you want. The thing with printing is: the bigger you go, the further you stand back. If you want to print 3, 5, 10 feet wide, there is nothing stopping you.

The biggest I've gone from 16mp files was 3 feet wide, and that looked great, even from 12" or so.

There's a hysteria in the camera industry for 36mp, 42mp, etc cameras, but this resolution is completely pointless for 99.9% of people / uses.

Mark Ransom · Mar 20, 2019

Yandrosxx said:
LightCameraAction said:

I have a 30x60 panorama printed on fine art paper. It looks awesome, but you can tell it wasn't shot with the sharpest lens if you get within 10 inches (i.e., pixel peeping). No one cares, though. People complement it all the time (including the pizza delivery man).

I always laugh when people talk about 16x20 prints being large. I have printed 16x20 images on fine art paper and there is no appreciable loss of sharpness (maybe even no perceptible loss of sharpness). And that is with a 16 megapixel camera.

I guess the point I am trying to make is that everyone who has a micro 4/3 camera should print large...very large. After all, we spend hundreds/thousands on these top quality cameras.

Click to expand...

Care to post a Pic of it? I Would appreciate seeing it. Personally I think folks would benefit from seeing the actual prints the system produces instead of the constant theoretical debates ( gibberish) posted about its alleged limitations.

Limitations? My theoretical calculations show that 8MP is all the eye can take in at once. If you want to see more detail than that, you have to be close enough to the print that you can't see the whole thing.

By the way, I think this is a great idea for a thread. Show off your walls! Unfortunately I haven't been confident enough in the worthiness of my pictures to print anything large, and certainly not since getting my m4/3 last summer.

Yandrosxx · Mar 20, 2019

Mark Ransom said:
Yandrosxx said:

LightCameraAction said:

I have a 30x60 panorama printed on fine art paper. It looks awesome, but you can tell it wasn't shot with the sharpest lens if you get within 10 inches (i.e., pixel peeping). No one cares, though. People complement it all the time (including the pizza delivery man).

I always laugh when people talk about 16x20 prints being large. I have printed 16x20 images on fine art paper and there is no appreciable loss of sharpness (maybe even no perceptible loss of sharpness). And that is with a 16 megapixel camera.

I guess the point I am trying to make is that everyone who has a micro 4/3 camera should print large...very large. After all, we spend hundreds/thousands on these top quality cameras.

Click to expand...

Care to post a Pic of it? I Would appreciate seeing it. Personally I think folks would benefit from seeing the actual prints the system produces instead of the constant theoretical debates ( gibberish) posted about its alleged limitations.

Click to expand...

Limitations? My theoretical calculations show that 8MP is all the eye can take in at once. If you want to see more detail than that, you have to be close enough to the print that you can't see the whole thing.

By the way, I think this is a great idea for a thread. Show off your walls! Unfortunately I haven't been confident enough in the worthiness of my pictures to print anything large, and certainly not since getting my m4/3 last summer.

Thanks that's what I'm hoping for. I'd like a thread populated by pics of actual printed work from m43 systems.

Brocher · Mar 20, 2019

This arrived just today - 60by40 inches from Loxley.

Taken with my EM5 mk2 and 12-40pro

A bit bigger than I expected in the flesh!

--
Fat Man, Skinny Camera

Fat Man, Skinny Camera

Photographic blog and record of the northeast of Scotland, with some wider journeys, using Olympus compact camera system. Pocketable for when dogs and kids are with you!

fatmanskinnycamera.smugmug.com

EricVan · Mar 20, 2019

I was just looking into this myself as I have just had a request for a print of a recent photograph.

It's encouraging to see other m4/3 users printing large, it's always been a perceived downfall and one that I haven't had much experience with yet.

Here's an example of image size to print size from a printing company that does excellent work. According to this I can print my slightly cropped photo from an EM1.2 very large without issue.

If this topic is still relevant in a week or two I'll post a picture of it ;-)

Snipped from Bayphoto support documents....

--
I share my photos here...

https://www.instagram.com/ericvanhaitsma/

Henry Falkner · Mar 20, 2019

Done prints like that from my SH-series pocket zoom before. They have the same resolution. But this is my first from the new E-M10 Mark II.

This picture: Morning daylight, shading and burning, PSE15 Levels 5 1.00 250.

Constraints are:

Exposure is a compromise between ISO, Exposure Variation and shutter speed (handheld).

Price NZ$ 36.-, about US$ 25,-, including matte lamination (I am single on paper only).

Glossy lamination picks up too many reflections in that room.

33x23 inch is the largest that Warehouse Stationary can laminate.

Here is the camera image (highlights burning) -

For the print at Warehouse Stationary, I did PSE Levels 0 1.2 255. I may also try 0 1.4 255 to bring up more detail in the shadows.

Henry

--
Henry Falkner - E-M10 Mark II, SH-1, SH-50, SP-570UZ
http://www.pbase.com/hfalkner

Mitrajoon · Mar 20, 2019

A video is worth a 1000 words.

Yandrosxx · Mar 20, 2019

Great Print! How's the quality? Noise, pixilation, DR?

Brocher said:
This arrived just today - 60by40 inches from Loxley.

Taken with my EM5 mk2 and 12-40pro

A bit bigger than I expected in the flesh!

Brocher · Mar 20, 2019

Standing next to it you notice lack of sharpness compared to viewing on smaller screens but when you step back to a comfortable distance it looks grand. It’s going above a sofa so no one will get too close to it. It’s quite an old photo and I used a resin filter, more recent pictures I think would be sharper. DR seems fine.

Yandrosxx · Mar 20, 2019

Mitrajoon said:
A video is worth a 1000 words.

That video is actually the one that prompted this thread. Time to see more real world examples of 43 prints.

M43 prints

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