4 Megapix Cam for 4R prints?


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bleu

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Oct 8, 2003
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Newbie needs advice:

I am considering the Canon Ixus 400 but wondering if a 3 megapixel camera will be sufficient for my usage. I'll be using the digi cam mostly for travel snapshots and sending them to photo labs to print on 4R papers.

1. Read somewhere that 1800 x 1200 res is ideal for 4R prints. So is it worth paying the extra $ to get a 4 megapix cam? The max CCD/effective pixels of a camera has no effect on the quality of the picture printed?

2. Also since many cameras have image ratio of 4:3, do i have to manually crop each picture before sending them to be printed? Is the Canon software able to convert to 3:2 ratio during the transfer from camera to PC? Can I avoid using other software and spending extra time on the cropping?

3. Is this why there are so many more models of 3 megapix cameras in the market than 4?

4. Any good reason why one should get a 4 megapixel over the 3? (would rather spend the $ on something else)

Thank you!
 

2MP is enough for 4R prints.

1. no if you don't print big.
2. probably you have to crop if you want control over how the output looks. however, you could avoid capturing things at the edges (during the recording time) and save on post-processing time.
3. it's probably due to the wider availability and low cost of the 3MP CCDs. the year before, 2MP is the norm.
4. for someone who don't print larger than 4R: getting 4MP or higher MP camera is useful if that person is an extremely poor photographer and need to crop to get the correct framing/composition.
 

The advantage of higher MP is that you have more room to cut away any unwanted parts without losing the print out resolution. Ideally, at 300 dpi, for 4R picture, picture should be sized at 1800x1200. So, the more MP, say 2272x1704 (4 MP DCs) or 2560x1920 (5 MP DCs) you have more room to cut away unwanted parts. It's like a form of zoom.
 

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