Just recently got my first-ever set of big prints back from the lab – what can I say? The D300 may be an old, clanking, obsolete Yugo of a camera but the quality amazes me! On a set of 16x24 prints, the detail is beautiful to behold. The lab seems to use some sort of inkjet process, and the resolution is actually limited by individual dots of ink – the original D300 file has detail to spare. And then there’s the magic of holding an actual print in your hands…

Feel free to excommunicate me from this gear forum, but this has gone a long way towards eliminating the lust for whatever happens to be the latest body, for a long time to come (even if I could afford it). Rationally, I simply don’t need any more than this!

Ok, most of you have been years and years at this game, so forgive me for gushing about something that isn’t news to you. It’s just that the D300 is such a huge jump in quality for me – you really don’t wanna know what I upgraded from

But I don’t want to bore you with a simple monologue – so here are some examples

Hi Richard, nice shots and a great way of getting rid of camera lust. Where are these taken, I'm a yorkshire fella and I think these can't be that far away.

Tim

Nice shots and nice to hear how well they printed that big! I'm with you on this gear race. I'm glad I own the D300 but I was just as happy with my D2H and printed some huge tradeshow booth bkgs with that thing (7ft by 10-15ft!!).
One of my favorite prints is an 11 x 14 of a 1947 plymouth coupe that was shot with a canon g2 (sorry to blaspheme here on nikon gear forum! ha ha) 4mp P&S camera!!

Keep up the incredible work!

nice photos, second one is awesome

The pictures are great and I had the same feeling when I got back an art print in 24x36 from my D80 and it looked spectacular. I was not expecting such good quality at that size but for the venue I needed a large print and took a risk. Nikon delivered with what I consider to be an entry level camera ( only thing I can afford at this moment ) Its good to hear that we push our gear and printers deliver results.

Great image!
I get 20x30" prints all the time (D200annd D300) and have always thought the reults were excellent. I have 4 prints upstairs that I just received last week when Adorama was having their $13 sale on that size - thought I would try them to see how they looked. The Metallic images I received were very good, but the color images were a little muted in the colors...so I will most likely not order from them again. But these were just prints of the kids for the basement so these are nnot critical prints.

Michael

Excellent shots, love that B & W!

Terry

Very very nice, the third one with the rolling hills is my favorite. Majestic and subtle looking

These things print much better than their little sensors have any right to don't they! I don't really miss scanning medium format chromes these days... well ok sometimes I do...

Edit: @ OP: What's the link to your flickr stream? I'd like to see more.

Edited by Jammy Straub on Jul 09, 2008 at 06:10 PM GMT

i also dig the 2nd. cool contrast. And i print on a regular basis. real prints look better than thos websized images. It's cool to look at a large print.
Enjoy your camera and print more

Thanks for the kind comments everyone - this has been an entirely new experience for me - in fact these are my first "professionally done" enlargements of any size.

Tim: Nope, I've never actually set foot in Yorkshire - a big blank on my wishlist of places to shoot #2 is Pevensey Castle (Sussex) and the other three are Dartmoor.

pontmercy: 7x10 feet is insane! Makes you wonder about our level of sanity in lusting for pixels...

linathael: Thank you, it's a 1-raw, three-exposure blend. The fortress is a blend too: part-Roman (to keep out the Saxons), part-mediaeval (to keep out the French)

nreeque: I was wondering whether "entry-level" prints might not look very similar (similar sensors after all). Gives me a guilty conscience at not having gone for a humble D40X!

Michael: These were done by a German pharmacy chain who, however, subcontract this sort of print to a good professional lab. I'm not sure exactly how much mine cost, since it was my grandparents (yes, still young enough to have them ) who got them done for me. Wasn't much more, though.

Terry: Thanks - my fixation with NX picture controls seems to be bearing fruit

Jammy: Thank you; certainly was surprised at the performance of this obsolete Sony sensor
I don't have a link to my Flickr stream because, well, I've only been taking photographs as a *serious* hobby since last November - I simply don't have a lot to show, and much of the early stuff isn't good. The stream itself is a mess too, full of cheesy 100% crops And the less is said about my website, the better. I'll put in a permanent link once I've built up the beginnings of a portfolio. With those caveats, here you go http://www.flickr.com/photos/22017937@N05/sets/72157603526903856/ [sry, the"@" always seems to break the link]

R. Francois: Thanks, and I certainly will

You are certainly doing very well with your old D300! Let me take a wild guess; you updated from a 6 megapixels camera. If a D40, 50 ergonomics along are a big jump. A double of the pixels count certainly gives you better quality.
Those cameras are also capable of beautiful enlargements if you use good optics.
I like the pictures and the conversions have been superb.
Congratulations!
William Rodriguez
Miami, Florida.

I have noticed this too. The D300 has given me everything I could want in a camera and more. The D200 just wasn't cutting it in a few areas and I upgraded to the D300 and love every moment with it. I haven't printed my 20x30 prints but on 16x20, I notice the D300 vs. the D200 has finer detail when looked at closely and from afar.

Chris

Chris, I've never used a D200, but the detail that high-density 12mp sensor resolves is staggering. In #1, those tiiiny white spots near the beginning of the left stone row are actually little flowers. On the print I can count their four petals

Camerapapi, thanks for the compliments! Good guess about the 6mp D50/40, but not quite Keep tryin'

Richard.P wrote:
Chris, I've never used a D200, but the detail that high-density 12mp sensor resolves is staggering. In #1, those tiiiny white spots near the beginning of the left stone row are actually little flowers. On the print I can count their four petals

Camerapapi, thanks for the compliments! Good guess about the 6mp D50/40, but not quite Keep tryin'


D70?

Chris

Chris Langer wrote:
I have noticed this too. The D300 has given me everything I could want in a camera and more. The D200 just wasn't cutting it in a few areas and I upgraded to the D300 and love every moment with it. I haven't printed my 20x30 prints but on 16x20, I notice the D300 vs. the D200 has finer detail when looked at closely and from afar.

Chris

Chris,

I have to disagree on that. I still have both the D200 and D300, and the difference in detail for large print sizes assuming good optics are completely negligible. I had four 17x25.5 inch prints sitting out that were all top quality (made on my own Epson 4800), and all had extremely good fine detail throughout the image. I challenged my wife and a friend of mine who is a long time photographer to tell which prints came from which camera, and no one could tell.

Both the D200 and D300 make phenomenal prints with wonderful fine detail. Also, properly processed RAW images from both cameras produce excellent colors and snap.

Gerald

Richard,

I very much like the work you're showing us here. Nice tonal qualities on your B&W images! Very nice countryside! I hope you show us more of your work.

Gerald

I dig the images - particularly the second... awesome stuff - and echo your thoughts on enjoying the gear we have today before today is gone... cheers!

Wonderful simplicity, which lens did you shoot with?
Also will you frame them and put them at the wall? I hope so

wow... excellent photos deserve big prints...

I wanna see the real print...

16 x 24? is that A2 size?

I want to get an Epson 3800 so that i don't have to send my prints out...

Whew - on the verge of dashing out, but saw the replies.

Chris, not a D70 either

Dj and zane, thank you! Hard to convey the feeling of an ink-on-paper print, but I'll try later

Cencored - #1 and #3 are Nikkor 27-70, #2 and #4 Sigma 10-20.

Zane, I think A2 it is. 2xA3 looks about right...

And the answer to the upgrade riddle - try not to reel in horror - not a DSLR at all but this