Wednesday, July 21, 2010

MegaPixels and Print Resolution

Image reproduction seems like tricky math, so here is the breakdown.

A high-quality print is made at 300ppi, a medium 200ppi, and a low quality at 150ppi.

So here is a breakdown of image sizes for my Nikon D90 12.3 mega pixel camera

  • Large Image 12.2MP: 4288px X 2848px
    • High Quality (300ppi): 14.3" x 9.5"
    • Medium Quality (200ppi): 21.44" x 14.2"
    • Low Quality (150ppi): 28.6" x 19"
  • Medium Image 6.9MP: 3216px X 2136px
    • HQ: 10.7" x 7.12"
    • MQ: 16" x 10.7"
    • LQ: 21.4" x 14.2"
  • Small Image 3.1MP: 2144px X 1424px
    • HQ: 7.14" x 4.7"
    • MQ: 10.7" x 7.1"
    • LQ:14.3" x 9.5"
It is important to note that you might want to crop after you take the photo. It is interesting to think though, that you can get away with shooting at small if you just plan on printing 4x6s at Ritz.

Another interesting representation of the data is how many pictures you can take at that setting. Here are my stats for my 4Gig SD card:
  • Raw (Large + WB Data): 260 images
  • Large: 534 images
  • Medium: 943 images
  • Small: 2,000+ images
In the end I suppose it is dependent on how many back up SD cards you have and how much space you have left on your card. If you need those shots you can always lower the resolution.

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