“Pixel Peeping” or “Why am I so Anal about How Many Pixels I Have?”

You know, I’ve been observing my images and thinking about the stuff I have shot with my Canon 10D, Canon 20D, Canon 1Ds Mkll and my Pentax K10D’s and K20D’s.  I have also shot with pretty much every Medium Format camera and digital back available.

I JUST DON’T SEE ANY SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ANY OF THEM WHEN PRINTED TO A LARGER THAN STANDARD MAGAZINE FORMAT!!!  Perhaps color nuance and some grain differences when I shot at 400 or 800 iso.

I have been published with all of the above camera’s. All of the magazine’s I have been published in are very high grade Trendy Press book quality magazines. The output out of all of the above camera’s were more than adequate for my needs.

My point is this. In terms of resolving power and for most support that most of us would imagine being published in,  pretty much all of the newer DSLR’s out today could be used for professional application, if you know their limitations.

In fact my last shoot I did with the Pentax K20D was over kill considering the size of the support i.e. about 8×10 inches. In fact I had to reduce the image size to get down to 300 dpi for Pre Press.  I would have been quite comfortable with a 8-10 mega pixel DSLR. The only grain I see when published with a 10 mega pixel camera in double page landscape format is the “tram” grain of the printing press of around 133 dpi.

Why do I bring all of this up…Pixel Peeping is a total waste of time.

Go out and enjoy your toy and use it to express who and what you are.

That’s All Folks…

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"Pixel Peeping" or "Why am I so Anal about How Many Pixels I Have?", 8.5 out of 10 based on 6 ratings

7 Comments Post a Comment
  1. Makes me feel better about my 450D…but I’m still itching for the 5DMkII

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  2. Benjamin Kanarek says:

    @:

    I can’t count how many magazine I have shot for, but in most cases the output is rarely more than 133 dpi. All you see is the tram of the ink. I have had Billboards blow up to 3×5 meters shot with a 10 megapixel camera, because the output was around 18-25 dpi. I therefore beg to differ. :-)

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  3. GRISHA says:

    YOU ARE WRONG.

    YOU NEED THE S2 LEICA.

    YOU NEED 50+ MP

    OR YOU ARE A NOBODY

    HERE’S WHY

    http://fotopro.lefora.com/2009/06/28/why-the-d300-is-the-last-dslr-90-of-shooters-will-/

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  4. Elena says:

    That’s right. But cameras vary in image quality when you have to use higher ISO – my 50D performs better in low light conditions than my old 350D would (sold ages ago). I guess it is not so much abouyt megapixels, but about the updated technlology… At the end of the day – any camera is just a tool and a good photographer will take saleable images with ANY camera. :)

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  5. roentarre says:

    Hehe

    Ben, glad to have discovered your blog here. Regarding pixel peeping fetish, it is unfortunately an exercise for people with inadequacy

    Your writing is so Benjikan in deed. The pixel count is already at 22 mega pixel range so far. Maybe one day, camera making business is targeting on the infinity

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  6. daacon says:

    Exactly – I have seen stunning shots with a 4mp camera printed at 16×20.

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  7. Iv Merkas says:

    Hi Ben!
    Well pronounced!

    Salute from Croatia! ;)

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