Digital BW, The Print

> From: David Sinai [mailto:dsinai@...]
>
> As you know, I am considering the Canon Digital Rebel. But, I am not
> convinced that this is the best tool for my objectives. Recently,
> I've strongly considered purchasing a Medium Format range finder
> such as the Mamiya 7II or the Bronica RF645.
>
> What is my objective?
>
> To create fine art quality 13x19 prints. My subject matter is my
> family and travel.
>
> If I go with the Rebel, the largest image I can print at 300 DPI is
> 10.24 x 6.8 (3072/300 x 2048/300).  Is there any reason not to use
> Interpolation to increase the file size to 13 x 19 while maintaining
> 300 dpi?

If anything, explicit upsampling will give better results than relying upon
the printer driver to do the upsampling. That's certainly true of the Epson
1280. The Epson 2200 has a new option for smoothing the jaggies, which I
haven't tried. But if you use something like Genuine Fractals you can
artificially preserve sharp edges when you upsample. I've also heard that
QImage has an interpolator that's superior to the Bicubic algorithm in PS.

However, the only reason to consider 300ppi a minimum standard is if your
style relies upon absolute razor sharpness, and extreme detail even in large
images. I've made 12x18 prints (on 13x19 paper) from my 10D, which is only
170ppi, and have gotten beautiful results. They're not razor sharp, but no
one would call them blurry. They're certainly better than butter knife
sharp. ;-)

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Ciao,               Paul D. DeRocco
Paul                mailto:pderocco@...