How many megapixels is enough to....

[marcwang]

How many megapixels in a digicam would be needed to match the resolution and sharpness of an average COMPACT 35mm camera in the development of a 4R photo ?
I developed photos taken by my A40 Powershot at 1600x1200 resolution, and the quality is appaling. I compared it to the photos taken by my F80/Sigma combo.
I know an SLR would be superior, but the 4R photos by the digicam is barely acceptable, being totally soft at the edges and fuzzy colours. Is that a trait of digicams or issit because I dont have enough megapixels ? The Powershot has one of the best optics in its class already.

 

[yellow_kiwi]

thats strange... my 4R prints @ 2Mpix (1600X1200) are pleasant to look at. taken with F401z. was quite surprised to find them close to those from compact film cameras. i had always thot that 2Mpix would be sufficient for 4R. some who have tried 8R were also quite satisfied...

maybe others would like to throw some light on this issue. could it be to lab???!!! if it's your 1st digital printing experience, maybe you can try other labs as well and compare.

 

[ckiang]

Try another lab, e.g. Colour Lab, RGB, etc. If using the $0.35 labs, time to move on.

Regards
CK

 

[fruitybix]

Sorry to hear about you photos not turning out good. Have you looked at the pictures via your laptop or computer? If it looks bad there, then could be something to do with the photo-taking (maybe camera shake, poor AF etc). really, dont know enough of the image quality to make a call.

 

[mpenza]

upload one of your pics (full resolution) to a server somewhere and let us take a look. it's either the shop's problem or a problem with the source (the image).