Creating really good 16x20 or 20x24 prints from the D1

[peter forgham]

I,m looking to buy the D1 very soon and was needing to know the best way
to create a large, high quality file to produce a really good looking
16x20 or 20x24. I am a professional photographer just wanting to get into
the digitel area and that is my main concern is what camera would be the
best for making enlargements if needed or the best software I could use
for this purpose. My main use for this system would be 8x10s or
smaller,but from what I've seen they will all do that! What direction
should I go?
--
Thanks Mr. Peeck,

 

[Steve Barlow]

Wait just one minute. I am using a Dicomed scanning back and a Megavision T32 camera and am going up to 20x24 with fantastic results so please don't say digital can't do it. It just can't be done with the likes of a D1 for 4 or 5 grand. Both of my units cost over 20 grand, indeed the T32 goes for 28,900. So if anyone says it can't be done, I say if you can justify spending the bucks in that range for your business, then you can definately do it. And you can do it with so much detail in the image that most of your clients will pay extra to retouch out the imperfections in their products. I paid back my T32 in a matter of 6 months. Go for it!!!!

A picture say 2000 pixels wide with a 12mm ccd could be enlarged to
around 6" wide to give a print with 7 line pairs mm and this would
appear unconditionally sharp to the human eye. For a pictorial print the
same file could be enlarged to around 20" wide and still look very good.

I have tried genuine fractals and for pictorial work it seems to be
superb. For technical subjects it does not work because it can not
recreate fine detail that the original camera did not capture.

I recently had to photograph a subject for a technical presentation.
Thiis subject had fine detail that was 20 microns wide. I used an Olympus
C2000 with a reversed tamron 90mm macro lens, this gave me an image on
the ccd that was twice life size. On a small print it looked OK but when
projected directly from the laptop through a digital projector the image
was hopeless. I tried every type of interpolation available but in the
end I shot on 35mm 100 iso transparency and scanned at 2700 d.p.i and the
results were excellent . This image was 10.9 M pixels i.e. 4 times
bigger than the D1.

I know that the DI is a lot better than the C2000 but I'd want to see
some pretty convincing proof before parting with that much money and as
my main imterest is pictorial I certainly wont buy another digicam untill
somebody produces a body that will give me the equivalent to a true
rectilinear 17mm (i.e. > 90 degree horizontal angle). As far as I can see
the best the D1 would do is 21mm with a 14mm prime lens

So its horses for courses. Digital is great for many subjects but it
ain't there yet if you want serious resolution.

If you know that your customers will never want bigger than say 12x10 I
would say go digital. If they might want bigger ,shoot on digital but
take back up shots on 35mm or medium format and just pass the cost of
processing and film on to the customer, thats what I do. bearing in mind
that there are still some doubts as to the durability of inkjet prints
you will porobably have to have laser scanned prints on conventional
paper done and unless the negs/trannies are scanned at the time of
processing you will probably find that digital prints from your own CD's
will cost you more than the same prints straight from negs. They
certainly do here in the UK.

Freya

I,m looking to buy the D1 very soon and was needing to know the best way
to create a large, high quality file to produce a really good looking
16x20 or 20x24. I am a professional photographer just wanting to get into
the digitel area and that is my main concern is what camera would be the
best for making enlargements if needed or the best software I could use
for this purpose. My main use for this system would be 8x10s or
smaller,but from what I've seen they will all do that! What direction
should I go?
--
Thanks Mr. Peeck,

 

[Steve Barlow]

Now if you want a digital camera that will give you catalog photogs, a great looking maximum 5x7 and a live B&W preview too, then i'll sell you my CMOS Pro for under $900 for the Mac. It is a great camera but limited for that size output. I have paid for it many times over with catalog jobs. Just plopped down close to 30 grand for my main unit that will take me to 20x24 with excellent results. If anyone is interested in the CMOS you can email me at [email protected]

I also am selling the Dicomed scanning back for $6900. Produces a 128mb file. Tell me that can't be blown up to 20X24!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I,m looking to buy the D1 very soon and was needing to know the best way
to create a large, high quality file to produce a really good looking
16x20 or 20x24. I am a professional photographer just wanting to get into
the digitel area and that is my main concern is what camera would be the
best for making enlargements if needed or the best software I could use
for this purpose. My main use for this system would be 8x10s or
smaller,but from what I've seen they will all do that! What direction
should I go?
--
Thanks Mr. Peeck,

 

[Jeff17784]

Mr. Peeck,
I have had great success using Altimira Group's Genuine Fractals software.
Jeff

I,m looking to buy the D1 very soon and was needing to know the best way
to create a large, high quality file to produce a really good looking
16x20 or 20x24. I am a professional photographer just wanting to get into
the digitel area and that is my main concern is what camera would be the
best for making enlargements if needed or the best software I could use
for this purpose. My main use for this system would be 8x10s or
smaller,but from what I've seen they will all do that! What direction
should I go?
--
Thanks Mr. Peeck,