Here is a question ive been wondering about: Will the 6 megapixel point & shoot Fuji F31 which has a 1/1.7-inch sensor natively print the same size print as 6 megapixel 1.6 crop dslr even though the dslr's sensor is physically larger?
Is the F31 really using a 1"X1.7" sensor? This is slightly larger than a full frame 35mm sensor. I'm not up on point and shoots, but this doesn't sound right.
Does my dSLR have a native print size I'm not aware of? It seems to me that it defaults jpegs to 72ppi, but I can't imagine that a 32"X48" print would look good. When I convert the raw files, it seems I can tell it to be whatever ppi and therefore "native" print size I want it to be.
There are more factors than just megapixels in the quality of a print. The quality of the capture will be the starting point for the quality of the print. The quality of lens in front of the sensor is an important factor. The physical size of the sensor may also be an important factor (because it impacts the actual enlargement factor). But more often than not, the content of the photo will determine how it will look at extreme enlargements. Photos with lots of detail can be very difficult to enlarge well.
He said 1/1.7". Thats a fraction. A little larger than 1/2".
At 300 dpi (or whatever as long as they are the same), two 6-MP photos from different cameras with the same aspect ratio should print the exact same size image.
Now the smaller sensor will have closer pixel sites, which usually causes more noise. Plus, at a lower price range (assuming the P&S is), manufacturing quality might be degraded.
I'm seeing what he is talking about. 1/1.7 relating to the aspect ratio.
At 300dpi, for a full frame, I think they will not print the same size image. The 6MP digital slr has a 3:2 aspect ratio, it looks like the F31 has a 4:3 ratio sensor. The slr will print an 6.82" X 10.24" or something along those lines at 300ppi and the the P&S will print a 7.12" X 9.49" print at 300ppi.
Some sort of cropping would be required to make them print the same "size" images. Both images would have roughly the same total area though.
At 300ppi, I'm not sure that you'd see a major difference in print quality between the two, but it should become apparent as you work towards larger print sizes. Generally, the point and shoots do not produce image quality on par with the digital SLRs unless the P&S has a really nice lens and the SLR is attached to a rather poor lens. The point about signal to noise ratio is also there. Most P&S images fall apart at higher ISO settings (400 and up) and look rather poor next to an SLR image. The F31 is supposed to be one of the best high ISO P&S cameras out there though.
mrladewig wrote:
I'm seeing what he is talking about. 1/1.7 relating to the aspect ratio.
At 300dpi, for a full frame, I think they will not print the same size image. The 6MP digital slr has a 3:2 aspect ratio, it looks like the F31 has a 4:3 ratio sensor. The slr will print an 6.82" X 10.24" or something along those lines at 300ppi and the the P&S will print a 7.12" X 9.49" print at 300ppi.
Some sort of cropping would be required to make them print the same "size" images. Both images would have roughly the same total area though.
At 300ppi, I'm not sure that you'd see a major difference in print quality between the two, but it should become apparent as you work towards larger print sizes. Generally, the point and shoots do not produce image quality on par with the digital SLRs unless the P&S has a really nice lens and the SLR is attached to a rather poor lens. The point about signal to noise ratio is also there. Most P&S images fall apart at higher ISO settings (400 and up) and look rather poor next to an SLR image. The F31 is supposed to be one of the best high ISO P&S cameras out there though....Show more →
Yes that was the info i wanted...thanks.
You are taking a sensor that is about 1/4 inch on a side and blowing it up?
The 1/1.7 sensor is blown up 24 times the original size on the long side. A DSLR sensor is blown up 8 times for the same print size. ANY softness in the lens is going to magnified 24 times, compared to the DSLR's 8 times. A full-frme sensor is magnified only 4 times for a 4x6 print.
Pixels are not the only measure of a photo. You have to remember the magnification levels involved. It would probably take a stellar lens on a P&S to equal an average lens on a DSLR camera. The laws of physics work against the P&S.
Basically what runamuck said. The other difference is the 1.6 crop dslr will have much better image quality at high iso, because of the larger photo sites.
