Digital cam hardcopy photo question

[Texass]

Ok, Winter's here so I'm now starting my annual withdrawal syndrome. Funny how I seem to buy more gear when I can't dive. This year I'm thinking of taking the Digital Plunge.

What I'm curious about is the quality of "normal" prints from a digital camera. My only experience to date was a misguided decision to get a roll of film developed onto a CD. It was a disaster - all grainy and gray.

My wife and I love pictures. We have frames all over the house, very artistically placed of course, of family memories etc. It makes it much easier when that bi-monthly feminine urge to re-arrange everything hits.

So before I refinance the house I'd like to tap into y'alls experience. Can you get the photoshop to develop 4x6 prints from a digital? If so, how do they compare to prints from an anolog(?) camera? I'm currently using an S&S MMIIex setup.

I've printed out a number of pics & graphics on the glossy photo paper using the photo cartridges which look pretty good - until you get too close. I want to be able to put my pics into frames, not just look at them on my monitor.

Thanx

 

[boydski]

Texass once bubbled...
What I'm curious about is the quality of "normal" prints from a digital camera. My only experience to date was a misguided decision to get a roll of film developed onto a CD. It was a disaster - all grainy and gray.

My wife and I love pictures. We have frames all over the house, very artistically placed of course, of family memories etc. It makes it much easier when that bi-monthly feminine urge to re-arrange everything hits.

So before I refinance the house I'd like to tap into y'alls experience. Can you get the photoshop to develop 4x6 prints from a digital? If so, how do they compare to prints from an anolog(?) camera? I'm currently using an S&S MMIIex setup.

I've printed out a number of pics & graphics on the glossy photo paper using the photo cartridges which look pretty good - until you get too close. I want to be able to put my pics into frames, not just look at them on my monitor.

Thanx

Hey Texass,

You can get great printed pictures from a digital camera. I Print larger prints using my Epson 1280 ( up to about 11 x 14 ) and they are stunning. I have a few pictures that are framed and hung in the local dive shops that get frequent unsolicited feedback about how crisp and clear the pictures look.

For everyday 4 x 6 prints, I find it easier and cheaper just have have them printed. I either drop them off at the local Ritz Camera outfit ( Kits Camera in my neck of the woods ), or simply upload them to Ofoto and I get a package of gorgeous prints in the mail about 3 days later.

If you are using Photoshop, just be sure to to uncheck the "Resample Image" check box when you resize the image. Try to keep your images at 300 dpi when you print them ( or have them printed ), and you won't be able to tell the difference between those that started with a digital image, and those that started with a negative.

I hope that answers your question.

Have a great weekend!

Boydski

 

[Big-t-2538]

Those produce some really sharp 4 X 6 prints. I just had some printed out of my little girl, and they look great. In photo shop, make sure you keep the image quality the same....if it starts to think on its own, you can see the difference in the printed images. I had about 10 different pics developed, the ones that were cropped and zoomed were a littel grainy, the 1 pic I had with a 2MP camera was also a littel grainy. The other pics I had printed were beautiful...you couldn't see any difference between the digital and a film camera.

 

[Spectre]

You'll want to have a big storage card, so that you don't ever get the urge to turn the picture quality on the camera down to anything lower than best resolution finest granularity.

make sure you take all pictures with the highest quality of the camera, and you have the most options for printing.

I have a 2.0 megapixel camera, and I love the quality of the 5x7 prints. I've not tried to print an 8x10, but I suspect it might be a little grainy. If I had a 3 or a 4 megapixel camera, 8x10s would be as clear as my 5x7s.

There are a couple printing options... you can get yourself a printer and do it yourself [depending on how much you print]. The other option is to get them printed from disk/CD. Whenever I reduce pictures for posting on the web or e-mailing, I always save an original copy. I can take that original copy, throw it on a disk, and take it down to Walmart to their photo booth to get printed.

All in all, I've taken about 1200 pictures with my camera so far; and I've printed a dozen or so, most were to give away.

How you approach the printing issue [photo paper & picture quality printer vs. taking to the photo place] all depends on the frequency you feel you'll be printing stuff.

Remember you can always start with the latter method, and then go out and buy the stuff for your own printing; if you find you're building a pile of stuff you want to get printed...

 

[notabob]

As others have said, get at least a 3mp camera, preferrably a 4mp. Their prices have gotten pretty low these days (although that is, of course, subjective), and you can find some really nice deals this time of year. Be sure you get a camera that you can find (and afford) a housing for. Olympus makes nice cameras and housings for them (the entire #0#0 series). Canon also makes housings for most of its digital cameras, except the high end ones (G1/G2/G3 and the D-SLRs). Canon S30 and S40 are a great pair of cameras, and you can get a housing for less than $200 for them. As far as printing, that depends. If you envision yourself printing A LOT of the photos that you take then you might be better off paying to have someone else (Ritz, o-foto, etc.) print them - it'll end up being cheaper when you consider the cost of nice photopaper and ink. If you will only print a few photos here and there to share with others or frame, you might want to invest in a nice photo printer. There are some really nice ones in <=$200 range, Canons & Epsons tend to make some really nice prints from what I've seen. Don't know about HP - haven't seen them print, so I can't say. BTW, stay away from Kodak photo paper, I've been unhappy with even their top of the line stuff. Canon, OTOH, makes very nice paper. Remember, that unlike film, not every shot you take with a digital camera will end up being printed, only the ones that you want.

As others have said, you can get amazingly film-like prints from 3-4mp digital up to about 8x10, even larger from a 4mp camera. Hope this helps.

-Roman.

 

[Dee]

I don't really have alot more to offer. Everyone has pretty well covered things. My Olympus C-4040 is a 4mp and the 8x10 prints I've made have been amazing on a plain old HP 712 printer.

 

[Texass]

Thanks y'all for the great info.

 

[MCL00]

As a digital u/w photographer, I use an Olympus 4040 in a Light and Motion Tetra Housing, and let me tell you the pictures come out great. I have taken over 1,000 pictures with this set up and have printed at least 300 4x6's and 30 8x10's, some of which are hanging in the dive shop I teach out of. The 8x10's come out sharp and clear. The only thing is if you do any major editing in Photoshop, the changes may be identifiable in the larger pics. I dont usually print 810's if I had to do a lot of editing due to backscatter or color. Otherwise, digital I feel is the way to go. If I were you, I would take a look at the Nikon Coolpix 5000 (5MP camera) and go with either the Light and Motion Tetra 5000 housing, or Sea and Sea has a nice new housing coming out for this camera. Check both of them out, and if you have any questions, feel free to send me an email regarding same. Also, if you would like to see some of my digital pics, feel free to check out www.dive-aloha.com and click on "View Photo Galleries". This gallery is still being created and updated constantly, but there are plenty of examples.


Sincerely,

Mike
SSI Instructor, U/W Photo Instructor

 

[Finesse]

What camera (Aren’t you using an Olympus 3040???) are you using???

I have been looking at the printer you have , but I don’t know if it is worth it to get the 11x14 prints.....with a 3.3 mp camera.

I will say that I can reproduce 8x10's on a HP 970 that are amazing with that camera...color, clarity, sharpness are incredible....better than some 35mm shots we have had blown up ...but I'm not sure if it could stretch the digitals to the larger size ... 11x14

Texass....We have also had some pictures uploaded to a photo site and printed with good results......just send then the most
UN-compressed version of the photo you have to get the best result.

 

[O-ring]

...never tried it. But, I have been shooting digital on land with a few different cameras over the past few years and have always gotten really good prints from www.photoworks.com . You can upload them to the site and just order prints from there. I have them in a photo album next to prints I took in the Bahamas with my standard 35mm and people can't tell the difference (that is with a 2.1 MP camera).