Digital picture question

[curlesw]

OK, digital camera guys, here’s a question for you. I have a Nikon D70 that provides 6 mega pixel pictures. The quality of the picture is great and I can print large prints. However, when I want 4x6 prints I don’t think I need 6 mega pixel worth of quality. The question, when printing 4x6 prints, what is the recommend pixel and dpi to get a good print. The reason I am asking is that when my wife and I order prints on-line it takes a while to up load a 2.5 meg file, if we can reduce the file size and while retaining picture quality that will reduce the upload time and complaining from the wife on how long it takes to upload the pictures.

Make sense or have I missed the boat?

V/r
Wayne C.

[arcsine]

Generally a 300ppi image resolution will print very nicely.

Things to concern yourself with are that from the pixel number itself (6 MP in this example) it is impossible to know the resolution with out knowing the image size. Additionally, a common misconception is the believed equivalence of dots-per-inch and pixels-per-inch which is not even close to being equivalent in reality.

So what to do: If you have some form of image manipulation software, it should have the capability of doing image resizing. Open an image and find the resizing tool. It should give you the ability to set image size and resolution. Set it to 4x6 and 300ppi and save it as a JPEG at a quality or "9" or above. Of course, all the different software packages have different ways of doing this so it is impossible to give an absolute methodology.

Hope this helps.

[RickM]

The user manual outlines ways to cut down on file size. You can adjust both the quality and size of the capture. I'd experiment with a few different type pics and settle on what's good for you.


Firmware upgrade for your model:
Firmware upgrade:http://www.nikonusa.com/template.php?goingto=dtc_home

User Manual: http://support.nikontech.com/cgi-bin/nikonusa.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php?p_prods=19%2C56&p_pv=2.56&p_cats=187&p_cv=1.187

[911pcars]

Try shooting at different camera resolutions.

I've found a 400-600K file size to be fine for 4x6s. For example:

In Photoshop, a 72 dpi image with the following dimensions:
Pixel width = 2288
Pixel height = 1712
Document w = 31.7 in.
Document h = 23.7 in.
File size - 356K

..... is equivalent to a 300 dpi image with:
Pixel width = 2280
Pixel height = 1712
Document w = 7.6 in.
Document h = 5.6 in.
File size - 356K

Same number of pixels; however, one file has them spread over a 31x23 in. document dimension, the other over a 7.6 x 5.6 in. dimension, but they're equivalent.

As a test, give your photo processor an image shot with different camera settings (use a cue card so you can ID them), make a 4x6 in. print of each, then see if you can find any quality differences between them. You might find very subtle differences, if any.

However, you don't want to shoot that once in a lifetime image at the lowest 4x6 resolution. It won't look as nice at larger sizes, and while there are software programs to replace missing pixels, you usually don't want to go this route. Shoot as high as you can, then use a photo program to reduce the resolution specs (above). Archive the original, dump the rejects, and print the reduced size version.

Hope this helps,
Sherwood

Edited: corrected some numbers in the text to match

[Oh Haha]

I have a cheap Kodak Easyshare camera. It will not turn on even though the dock charger tells me the batterie are fully charged.
How long should the batteries live? The camera is about three years old. Thanks

[curlesw]

Thanks for the input guy.

Sherwood, the Photoshop info is most helpful. I still plan to shoot images at max resolution but then export to a lower quality for printing on 4x6...these dimensions give me a good starting point...this is diffiently a trial-and-error thing, but I've got a good start, thanks!

v/r
Wayne C.

[masraum]

Originally posted by Oh Haha
I have a cheap Kodak Easyshare camera. It will not turn on even though the dock charger tells me the batterie are fully charged.
How long should the batteries live? The camera is about three years old. Thanks

I have/had an older Kodak easy share. I also had a problem with the batteries. What I found to work that was BTW a total pain in the butt was that you put the camera on watch the lights on the dock like a hawk, as soon as they indicate that the battery is charged take the thing off, let it sit for 5 minutes and put it back on. Keep doing that until the total battery charge time is about 2 hours.

I found that on the internet on a camera forum. It had been posted by a Kodak employee and worked for me other than being a pain. One Note: if you forget to check and the thing charges full and then sits for too long it'll run the charge down pretty quick so you have to really stay on it.

Also if you use the CR-3V battery (I think that's the name, it looks like two AA batteries that are joined together) then you can use two AA rechargeable batteries, but only use the lithium rechargeables, not regular cheapo alkaline.

[911pcars]

I understand the early Kodak P&Ss ate batteries at a fairly rapid rate (only two AA- equivalent batteries - not enough). Last I looked, the preferred rechargeable AAs are ones made by Powerex along with a MAHA charger.

Still, if the camera doesn't boot up with fresh batteries, even alkalines, there might be something wrong w/the camera. Do you have an AC adapter you can connect?

Sherwood