Largest megapixel digital cameras available for home market

I noticed that Canon, Sony and others start to produce 10 MP cameras.
How many MP is a digital medium format camera in the market now? I
read about Mamiya ZD and it indicated about 22 MP. Will higher MP
cameras soon come into the home markets? Is there any advantage of
getting higher and higher MP in a camera? For home use, would a 8x10
prints be the largest that is practical and commonly used? Would an 8
MP camera be good enough to produce good quality 8 x10 prints? Why the
home user then be in needs of larger MP cameras? What MP cameras would
make good quality 11x17 prints?

wrote:
I noticed that Canon, Sony and others start to produce 10 MP cameras.
How many MP is a digital medium format camera in the market now? I
read about Mamiya ZD and it indicated about 22 MP. Will higher MP
cameras soon come into the home markets? Is there any advantage of
getting higher and higher MP in a camera? For home use, would a 8x10
prints be the largest that is practical and commonly used? Would an 8
MP camera be good enough to produce good quality 8 x10 prints? Why the
home user then be in needs of larger MP cameras? What MP cameras would
make good quality 11x17 prints?
An 8 MP DSLR will make great looking 8 x 10 prints, a point and shoot 8
MP can make very good looking 8 x 10 prints.

An 8 MP DLSR will make an pretty good looking 11 x 17 prints, a 16 to
17MP DSLR will make great looking 11 x 17 inch prints.

Scott

MP camera be good enough to produce good quality 8 x10 prints? Why the
home user then be in needs of larger MP cameras? What MP cameras would
make good quality 11x17 prints?
An 8 MP DSLR will make great looking 8 x 10 prints, a point and shoot 8
MP can make very good looking 8 x 10 prints.

An 8 MP DLSR will make an pretty good looking 11 x 17 prints, a 16 to
17MP DSLR will make great looking 11 x 17 inch prints.

I have made, what i think is, good looking 50*75 cm prints (ca. 20*30 inch)
from my 8Mpixel EOS 350D! (XT)
Of course if you take a close look you can see the lack of detail, but a
print that large is not meant for close-up study IMO!


Brian

wrote:

I noticed that Canon, Sony and others start to produce 10 MP cameras.

Yes.

How many MP is a digital medium format camera in the market now? I
read about Mamiya ZD and it indicated about 22 MP.

And hasselblad and a few others can go all the way up to 30MP and
beyond.

Will higher MP
cameras soon come into the home markets?

I think that's a given. "soon" is relative, though.

Is there any advantage of
getting higher and higher MP in a camera?

depends what you want them for. Also: not all
pixels are created the same. A good dslr of
8MP will definitely give you better results than
a P&S 10 or 12MP camera.

For home use, would a 8x10
prints be the largest that is practical and commonly used?

I'd say yes. I print up to A3 size, but I'm not a
typical "home user". Although I'm an amateur.

Would an 8
MP camera be good enough to produce good quality 8 x10 prints?

yes, absolutely!

Why the
home user then be in needs of larger MP cameras?

because some folks want more than "good enough"?
Also, the home user might also need to crop images.

What MP cameras would
make good quality 11x17 prints?

you can print 11X17 from 4MP cameras or even less:
it all depends on how near the print do you want to
be when looking at it.

If you want to be at reasonable, "home viewing"
distances and still get lots of detail at that size, you might
want to consider 12-16MP: gives you a margin for crops
as well.

If you also plan to extensively crop images, then you
definitely need that sort of resolution for top quality results.
It's all very contingent on how you intend to present
the prints or arrive at them in the first place.

wrote in message
oups.com...
I noticed that Canon, Sony and others start to produce 10 MP cameras.
How many MP is a digital medium format camera in the market now? I
read about Mamiya ZD and it indicated about 22 MP. Will higher MP
cameras soon come into the home markets? Is there any advantage of
getting higher and higher MP in a camera? For home use, would a 8x10
prints be the largest that is practical and commonly used? Would an 8
MP camera be good enough to produce good quality 8 x10 prints? Why the
home user then be in needs of larger MP cameras? What MP cameras would
make good quality 11x17 prints?

Hasselblad has the H3 with 22MP or 39MP back
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/ph...concerns.shtml

A 4 to 6 megapixel camera should be able make good 8x10s. I've made 8x10s
from a 2mp camera and increased the resolution to remove the pixelation.
They looked good, but some softness is noticed. 8x10 is certainly not
largest practical or commonly used. Many people do 16x20 or larger. 11x14 is
probably the largest I would go with my 10mp Rebel XTi for something I was
going to frame.
The problem with high megapixel point and shoot cameras is that the sensor
has many tiny sensing cells crammed on a tiny sensor which requires a lot
from the lens and it takes much more photons of light to stimulate the
sensor beyond the background noise inherent in the device than a larger
sensor, so you are left with more noise in the image. The cameras have noise
removal algorithms, but they tend to impact the captured detail in the
image. I've been "auditioning" cameras to upgrade my 5mp A610, but many
"erase" some of the low contrast detail that the A610 retains. In other
cases, the lens was a letdown or shadow noise was too high. I gave up. I'm
keeping the A610.

Many folks are getting their first digital and others are upgrading.
Manufactures must perpetuate camera sales by introducing new models with
higher resolution and other bells and whistles like bigger LCD screens. Many
10mp models have drawn much criticism due to detail robbing noise reduction.
It will be interesting to see where the digital camera industry directs
itself over the nest few years as they seemed to have used up their
megapixels.

John

wrote:
I noticed that Canon, Sony and others start to produce 10 MP cameras.
How many MP is a digital medium format camera in the market now? I
read about Mamiya ZD and it indicated about 22 MP. Will higher MP
cameras soon come into the home markets? Is there any advantage of
getting higher and higher MP in a camera? For home use, would a 8x10
prints be the largest that is practical and commonly used? Would an 8
MP camera be good enough to produce good quality 8 x10 prints? Why the
home user then be in needs of larger MP cameras? What MP cameras would
make good quality 11x17 prints?

Your question is "how many pixels per inch" are needed, and of
course that depends on who and why.

300 ppi Best quality, for the most critical work
200 ppi Good quality, usually sufficient
150 ppi Mediocre quality, might be acceptable
100 ppi Poor quality, not likely to be acceptable
75 ppi Crude

And those numbers translate to minimum total pixels per image
values like these (noting that these are pixels *after* the
image is cropped to match the print form factor, and may be less
than what the camera produces),

print size: 4x6" 5x7" 8x10" 8.5x11" 11x14" 13x19"
square inches: 24 35 80 93.5 154 247

300 ppi 2.2MP 3.2MP 7.2MP 8.4MP 13.9MP 22.2MP
200 ppi 1.0 1.4 3.2 3.7 6.2 9.8
150 ppi 0.5 0.8 1.8 2.1 3.5 5.6
100 ppi .24 .35 .80 .94 1.5 2.5
72 ppi .12 .18 .41 .48 .80 1.3

A few example cameras to see what that means:

Mamiya ZD 5328x4000 (21.313MP)
maximum 300 ppi print size: 17.8" x 13.3"
maximum 200 ppi print size: 26.6" x 20.0"

Canon EOS 1DS MK2 4992x3328 (16.6MP)
maximum 300 ppi print size: 16.6" x 11.1"
maximum 200 ppi print size: 25.0" x 16.6"

Nikon D2x 4312x2868 (12.367MP)
maximum 300 ppi print size: 14.4" x 9.6"
maximum 200 ppi print size: 21.6" x 14.3"

Sony Alph DSLR-A100 3872x2592 (10.0MP)
maximum 300 ppi print size: 12.9" x 8.6"
maximum 200 ppi print size: 19.4" x 13.0"

Pentax *ist DS2 3008x2008 (6.0MP)
maximum 300 ppi print size: 10.0" x 6.7"
maximum 200 ppi print size: 15.0" x 10.0"

Obvously a 6MP camerea will barely squeek by for quality prints
at 11"x14" (less than $1k.), while a 10MP camera will produce
quality prints at 13"x19" ($1-$2K.)

A 12MP D2x will allow some cropping before making a decent
13"x19", but for absolute top quality a 14"x11" is pushing it.
(At $4000+.)

Even the 16.6MP Canon is not able to make top of the heap
13"x19" prints, but it will allow some cropping for a top
quality 14"x11"! (At $6000+.)

For absolute top quality 13"x19" prints, only the MF format is
going to do. (At $12000+.)

(Prices noted are very rough estimates, but the point is clearly
that you will pay to get better large prints.)

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)

What I want to know is .............

if I get one of these HUGE mp cameras, can I take pictures as good as film?

And will one of them stifle or nurture my creativity?

Steve .................. ;-)

ducking
and
running ......................

"Steve B" wrote in message
...
What I want to know is .............

if I get one of these HUGE mp cameras, can I take pictures as good as
film?

And will one of them stifle or nurture my creativity?

Steve .................. ;-)

ducking
and
running ......................

Only if the sensor is bacon-flavoured.

--
Jeff R.

Floyd L. Davidson wrote:
wrote:
I noticed that Canon, Sony and others start to produce 10 MP cameras.
How many MP is a digital medium format camera in the market now? I
read about Mamiya ZD and it indicated about 22 MP. Will higher MP
cameras soon come into the home markets? Is there any advantage of
getting higher and higher MP in a camera? For home use, would a 8x10
prints be the largest that is practical and commonly used? Would an 8
MP camera be good enough to produce good quality 8 x10 prints? Why the
home user then be in needs of larger MP cameras? What MP cameras would
make good quality 11x17 prints?

Your question is "how many pixels per inch" are needed, and of
course that depends on who and why.

300 ppi Best quality, for the most critical work
200 ppi Good quality, usually sufficient
150 ppi Mediocre quality, might be acceptable
100 ppi Poor quality, not likely to be acceptable
75 ppi Crude

That list is, at best, a highly subjective opinion. 100ppi is likely
to be perfectly acceptable to most people for most purposes. The
notion that 150ppi is needed to be acceptable is just megapixel
snobbery.

--
Ray Fischer

"Ray Fischer" wrote in message
...
Floyd L. Davidson wrote:
wrote:
I noticed that Canon, Sony and others start to produce 10 MP cameras.
How many MP is a digital medium format camera in the market now? I
read about Mamiya ZD and it indicated about 22 MP. Will higher MP
cameras soon come into the home markets? Is there any advantage of
getting higher and higher MP in a camera? For home use, would a 8x10
prints be the largest that is practical and commonly used? Would an 8
MP camera be good enough to produce good quality 8 x10 prints? Why the
home user then be in needs of larger MP cameras? What MP cameras would
make good quality 11x17 prints?

Your question is "how many pixels per inch" are needed, and of
course that depends on who and why.

300 ppi Best quality, for the most critical work
200 ppi Good quality, usually sufficient
150 ppi Mediocre quality, might be acceptable
100 ppi Poor quality, not likely to be acceptable
75 ppi Crude

That list is, at best, a highly subjective opinion. 100ppi is likely
to be perfectly acceptable to most people for most purposes. The
notion that 150ppi is needed to be acceptable is just megapixel
snobbery.

--
Ray Fischer



And I remember when I bought a 1.3 mp camera several years ago and thought I
was big kid on the block. I took tons of good pictures with that camera,
and had lots of fun with it. Too bad I didn't know what I know now, and
that I wasn't really taking good pictures and having fun.

Steve