NEED HELP about DPI

[hartski]

I'm new at the Digital Camera scene but I know about resolutions. I saw some cameras with great resolutions above 2000 and supports TIFF but what I can't figure out is if they can take pictures as 300 DPI. I will currently work on brochures and flyers and need pictures in 300 DPI for good print output. When I view at Digital Cameras' specs I only see the 'megapixel' and 'resolution'. What exactly does the megapixel do? I really need to know how to determine if a certain digicam can output in 300DPI.

thanks to all who can help!

 

[Auzzie]

The standard res is 72dpi. So if you want 300dpi, you'll need to have a high resolution/megapixel camera.

 

[Auzzie]

The megapixel rating is just the resolution of the CCD detector... a two mega pixel camera has around 2 million pixels on its CCD, and will take pictures around 1600x1200. At 72 DPI, this will be 22.2" by 16.6" (1600/72, and 1200/72), but at 300 DPI, it will be 5.33" by 4". This is why you need those mega pixels when you actually want to print something out.
auz

 

[Lowlypawn]

I recently got a Fuji 2800 2 MP camera. I have printed out some pictures I took on full sheets and the results are excellent. I doubt the pictures would look any better with a 5-7MP camera because I’m limited by my printer. So unless you have a really good printer or going to print poster size more resolution is not going to make much difference IMHO.

Thx & Cya


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[hartski]

THANKS TO ALL WHO HELPED...my budget anyways is only 500 down so I guess I will hafta settle for 2 or 3MP and 72 DPI. I am printing mostly to as big as 6x6 inches and that should be no problem with a camera with 1600x1200 resolution. I do designs on 8.5"x11" canvas for brochures and catalogs. I only need the picture of the products to be clear and crisp so it will come out good on a Laser printer or those high tech printers with printing companies.

One more thing...if I have a camera with 1600x1200 reso. and I take a close-up picture of let's say a penny...that picture of the penny will have 1600x1200 pixels?

THANKS AGAIN TO ALL...YOU'VE BEEN VERY VERY HELPFUL!

 

[Lowlypawn]

Yes! Another thing is you can increase the DPI with a photo editing program (like PSP) which seems to give good results. Yes the program basically guesses what missing DPI should be but the results seem to be better then letting the printer figure it out. Maybe some one else can explain it better then me

Cya


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[hartski]

I use Photoshop and on some pictures increasing the DPI works fine but there are really other pictures that are taken poorly and increasing the DPI to 300 only makes the canvas bigger...anyway I believe 2-3MP cameras are fine as long as they have high resos...thanks again

 

[Auzzie]

about your penny... Yes, your 2MP camera has 1600x1200 pixels on its CCD, so what ever you take will have those 1600x1200 pixels, regardless of what your taking.

There are some good digital camera review sites out there, http/www.dcresource.com keeps a good list of reviews on most models.

auz

 

[jflongo]

Here's a good chart on it...
http/home.earthlink.net/~terryleedawson/dcnotes/tables.htm#ppi

However it's in PPI not DPI I know one is pixels and one is dots, not sure on the difference. Still confuses me a little.

So at 1600x1200 res, you can get a 4"x5" at 300ppi. Even a 5"x7" would be at 229ppi and may still be good enough. Looks like an 8"x10" would drop down to only 150ppi.

I think a 3.3 megapixel is probably what you are shooting for. I have a 4.1 megapixel and it does awesome 81/2"x11". It's probably hitting around 210 or 220 ppi.

Sorry if i confused the whole issue, i get confused still

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