Anyone can do rectangles.
I love Rothko’s work, but it’s more decoration than art.
It’s the enlargement ratio.
A friend has set himself the goal of making good 13″ x 19″ prints from a 1/8″ sensor-equipped digital point-and-shoot. Look here and you can see the various sensor sizes. A so-called 1/8″ sensor is 7.2mm x 5.3mm. The more common cropped APS-C DSLR sensor is 22mm x 15mm (most DSLRs), whereas a full frame one is 36mm x 24mm.
So, to get to a 13″ x 19″ print, here are the enlargement ratios for the three sensor sizes:
1/8″ P and S: 65x (yes, 65x!)
APS-C: 21x
Full frame: 13x
Thus, that old 35mm film rule of thumb that you should use a shutter speed no longer than the reciprocal of the focal length (e.g. no longer than 1/500th with a 500mm lens) is nonsense. What’s good for a blur-free 8″ x 10″ print from a 24mm x 36mm negative is not the same as what is called for from the miniscule sensor in modern point-and-shoot digitals. Film just starts to lose it with a 35mm original at 13x enlargement. Full frame digital (based on my 5D) begins to struggle over 24x. Read on how to make the small sensor in a P&S work for you.
My rule of thumb is that the things that most contribute to – or detract from – a good big print are, in decreasing order of importance:
You can do an awful lot to improve things with the small sensor. First, you need to record images in RAW, not JPG, thus bypassing the excessive smoothing small sensor cameras apply when generating JPGs. The only snag is that the camera concerned is Canon’s A720IS (8 megapixels – some $190 at B&H) and Canon does not include a RAW mode. They prefer to make that available in the far costlier G9 ($450) which has the same lens, the same sensor and replaces the plastic body with an alloy one.
Bad choice.
Metal provides far inferior shock absorption when dropped and will dent. Further, the added weight will simply increase contact force when dropped (force is mass x acceleration, so it’s directly proportional to weight in this example). A G9 is 11.3 ozs, the A720IS is 7.1 ozs, so when you drop the G9 it will suffer 60% more force on impact compared with the A720IS). Plastic is superior in every way in this application except that its light weight connotes poor quality. Wrong! More about serial dropping here.
No RAW in the cheaper camera? Just Google for Canon RAW hacks and you will find an installable hack that opens up the crippled firmware and gives you full RAW capability for a fraction of the price of the G9. The cheap camera has IS to reduce camera shake which, as the data at the start of this piece disclose, you really need to minimize to make big prints. The hack is free and allows all sorts of G9 features to be added to the A720IS.
So now we had RAW installed on the A720IS and could do JPG to RAW image comparisons.
Here they are – the print size equates to about 24″ on the long dimension:
In the two examples below, the RAW/DNG file is on the left (“Select”):
Are the big prints as detailed as those on the 5D + Canon 100mm macro + ring flash, as discussed here? No. But absent an A-B comparison, you would be quite happy at 13″ x 19″, provided you refrain from really sticking your nose in them.
I have processed both to be as similar as possible. The detail differences are that the RAW original has superior dynamic range (better shadow and highlight details) and is far sharper given the absence of in-camera compression. With good originals, preferably underexposed by one stop, and bright lighting, a small sensor can produce decent 13″ x 19″ prints; turn down the light, make shutter speeds slower and add the need for a large aperture and, well, you are out of luck. A larger sensor is dictated.
Interested in screen display only? Any camera costing more than $150 is a waste of money, unless you must have a fast motor drive and need exotic lenses. Small computer screens will not show any difference otherwise. Save your money.
And if you need a very capable, small, inexpensive digital which will yield exhibition size prints, consider the Canon A720IS or cheaper variants (but do look for IS, as discussed above) and install the free RAW hack to really make your originals sing. I have no axe to grind for Canon and I’ll bet like results/hacks are to be had from most of the big names out there.
The lens displays a fair bit of color fringing but a quick tweak in PS or Lightroom puts paid to that in short order. Plus you get a real optical viewfinder, not the abomination that is the LCD screen, though you get one of those too.
Not pretty.
Money quote “I can’t think of any camera – or for that matter any electronic device I have recently used – that so thoroughly fails to live up to its potential and its heritage.”
If the name was not disclosed, you would be hard pressed to tell whether the author – who strikes me as experienced and credible – was talking about Apple’s wireless technology or …. well, read it and see.
Click the picture to read the article.
My vote is for Apple’s rushed-to-market, shoddy and undebugged wireless technology, but this photojournalist might differ.
With a dash of color.
It’s always fun to be around old warbirds.
A voice from above.
It never does to discuss politics, religion or sport in a journal of this nature as doing so simply invites insults. In a nation seemingly half of whose residents are born again something-or-other you can bet that religion, especially, will attract the worst in language.
So rather than dwell on it, let me just say that when it comes to religion I am a death bed conversion type. When I’m checking out I propose to welcome God to my soul with open arms. After all, the odds make no sense to deny His existence. If you are right and there is no God, fine, but if you are wrong, watch out. The believer, on the other hand, has the same chance of being right – 50/50 – but if he is wrong it matters not one whit. Dust to dust. If, on the other hand, he is right, it places him in a far better spot than the fellow who dies denying God’s existence. Blaise Pascal got there before me.
Now during these summer months you will find me wandering across the upper driveway, vicious guard dog by my side, en route to the pump room. There I manually switch over a couple of water valves and push a button or two with the happy result that the zinfandel vines get their two gallons of goodness for the day. It’s an unyielding routine, based in the profit motive, and none too onerous at that.
But this morning was different. As Bert the Border Terrier and his master approached the pump room there was a massive rushing noise from the skies and a loud voice intoned ‘Good Morning’. Oh! Boy, I thought, I have finally bought it and a thousand thoughts of good Catholic guilt pulsed through my brain as I checked just how badly I had behaved before entering eternal life. The Border and I glanced skyward in supplication only to see:
The balloon had descended to no more than twenty feet and the roar was from its flame as it sought to avoid an emergency landing on the old estate. Lucky they had fuel as the terrier was drooling at the mouth and generally displaying his normal killer guard dog style behavior. (Actually his tail nearly came off from excess wagging, but I live a fantasy life anyway). The pilot was so close we exchanged greetings – given that I was still in my jammies even a casual observer could not but comment approvingly on my general air of insouciance – and he reassured me how gorgeous the view was from above.
I breathed a sigh of relief and concluded my time here was not yet up on this best of worlds and that, hopefully, I would be enjoying the grape harvest in three months or so. And when you gaze on the beauty that is California, maybe there is a God after all?