I am a former photographer turned Painter, and I have come up with an idea of using photos on my large canvas's that are as big as 72" x 60" the subjects would range from full lengths to portraits of women. My main concern is that these prints would have to be quite clear at that large size, and sometimes might be viewed within 5 or 8 ft distance, so I am wondering what type of Camera might be able to accomplish this, and also within a reasonable cost! Opinions would be appreciated!
First reco would be a 150 mp PhaseOne medium format digital back on a Phase camera. Probably set you back $50-$75K but that'd be the best way to go. Next step down would be something like a Sony A7r4 at around 60 mp. A lot less money but a lot less resolution too. You might get one with a couple of lenses in the $5-6K range. You might want to rent one and do a test to see if it'll work for your needs.
Nightshots wrote:
I am a former photographer turned Painter, and I have come up with an idea of using photos on my large canvas's that are as big as 72" x 60" the subjects would range from full lengths to portraits of women. My main concern is that these prints would have to be quite clear at that large size, and sometimes might be viewed within 5 or 8 ft distance, so I am wondering what type of Camera might be able to accomplish this, and also within a reasonable cost! Opinions would be appreciated!
NS, Get a Canon 5Ds!
You should be able to find one here for a $1000 and LOTS of used lenses to pick from.
This is a small crop from a larger image. Lens is a cheap 85 f1.8, shot at f8. Is this enough detail for ya??
John
Edit, I knew someone would ask. This is slightly bigger than a 100% crop. This shot could be a 40x50 and you could get as CLOSE as you want and this is what you would see!!!
John
OP you're only getting humorous answers because you have neither clearly defined what your goal is nor have you given a budget.
"It should be sharp" is no criterion at all since sharpness can be procedually generated. Images out of a smartphone are still sharp.
"reasonable budget" is no criterion whatsoever. For example if asked to get a high resultion set, I would get Nikon D850, Zeiss Distagon 35mm f2, and Zeiss APO Sonnar 135mm f2, plus a lighting setup. Thats what, like $5000 combined ?
Sauseschritt wrote:
OP you're only getting humorous answers because you have neither clearly defined what your goal is nor have you given a budget.
"It should be sharp" is no criterion at all since sharpness can be procedually generated. Images out of a smartphone are still sharp.
"reasonable budget" is no criterion whatsoever. For example if asked to get a high resultion set, I would get Nikon D850, Zeiss Distagon 35mm f2, and Zeiss APO Sonnar 135mm f2, plus a lighting setup. Thats what, like $5000 combined ?
Thank You Sauseschritt My Goal is to get a Sharp Image! on a very large Print ..Yes! something like that eye shot quality, that was uploaded, except I'm sure that's not anywhere near the size I mentioned!
Yes I realize images out of smartphones or other cameras are sharp, but they would not be that sharp at 5ft X. 6ft. printed and viewed up close like in an art gallery?
And of course I don't want to spend $50-$75K on a Leaf Valeo or Phase one rig!
I just hoped to get some educated opinions about this problem, and I appreciate yours being the only one! ..maybe there is no way to do it within a sensible lets say $5000.00 budget? ...Thanks John
Having a 5Ds and a Canon LF Pro 4000 44inch printer, I can assure you that the combo will easily meet your requirements. Even at 150 dpi and standard quality settings on the printer, an eight foot print on the long end will be sharp even at a one foot viewing distance (note that photoshop - set correctly - will up-rez very effectively if you insist on printing at 300 dpi, but you may or may not be able to discern the difference). Even my lowly G9 at 20MP will look pretty good, but will easily appear sharp at your 5 ft viewing distance. You are not asking for a lot in reality as many combos will satisfy your needs - just make certain your lenses are capable depending on the system you purchase.
Having owned a 5Ds --- you can buy one for a decent price these days. If you want a camera that can do everything the 5Ds can do and much more... look for the Nikon D850. It's 5mpx less than the 5Ds but that is negligible IMO. I currently have a 5' x 4' canvas print of a butterfly on my office wall. You can see very fine details in the wings... from up close. The files from the camera are great and can be blown up to enormous sizes with tons of great detail.
No need for anything like a Phase or Leaf medium format back. Any high mega pixel Nikon DSLR, D850 or even a D810 will do the job.
At 5 to 8 feet viewing distance the DPI required is much lower than 300, somewhere around 150 dpi will provide quite acceptable viewing sharpness. I have a photo shot with a 12 MP FX Nikon that is 54" x 37" at 150 ppi and the print sharpness is amazing and it is printed on canvas. The original file was uprezzed in PhotoShop by 10% increments until final output size was achieved. Nik Sharpener Pro was used to adjust sharpening output.
You can pretty much guess the brand of cameras folks own by looking at the posts . But I agree that there is no need for a system using a medium format sensor to satisfy the OP’s requirement, especially if the budget is limited to approximately $5K. Yet, I would suggest to focus and expose carefully. Plus, extra care in composition to maximize the sensor real estate won’t hurt either. Good luck!
Thanks to all of You for your help! I'm glad to see this was not the end of the road for my recent idea! And lastly what would you say would be the minimum amount of MP's needed to accomplish this?
Nightshots wrote:
Thanks to all of You for your help! I'm glad to see this was not the end of the road for my recent idea! And lastly what would you say would be the minimum amount of MP's needed to accomplish this?
I have upsized 16MP crops (sharp to begin with) to the size you desire (make certain to set the appropriate enlargement interpolation method in your processing software) - 36" x 120" (10ft) 5400px high x 18,000 px across. Very acceptable viewing close up and popped at 5ft and further viewing distance.
Printing is far more forgiving at large sizes than many people think - if properly processed from ingest to output. Good luck!!
I think you need to rent 2 different setups, try them and compare.
At the high end, Phase 1 or Hassy. Do you want to own or would rentals be ok? If sporadic use is contemplated, you could rent either of these when needed.
Compare with a so-called Full Frame system that can do pixel shifts for higher resolution.
- If use will be 'continuous', then rent different FF systems.
You will also need a good tripod.
It is not Megapixels alone - you will also want a very sharp and high contrast lens, e.g. the top zooms such as Nikon's 24-70 or a good prime lens.
The subject matter will also affect the outcome as the human eye "processes" different objects differently.
Heres some imges shot with an 18MP Leica M Monochrom that final size was about 34 X 56 and you could walk right up to them. These were for a hospital client.
Files they printed were TIFFs and upsized with on one software. They looks really good and I am picky.
And these billboards I shot were all shot below 24MPs. Of course something like a billboard doesn't require the same resolution because of viewing distance that something you can walk right up to needs. But these were all still very sharp. Also upsize with On One software.
Nightshots wrote: Sauseschritt wrote:
OP you're only getting humorous answers because you have neither clearly defined what your goal is nor have you given a budget.
... something like that eye shot quality, that was uploaded, except I'm sure that's not anywhere near the size I mentioned!
_________
I'd say that crop photo of the eye, if the entire photo was enlarged to your specified size, would work.
NS, your link didn't work for me.
The eye shot I posted was probably cropped from a half body shot, I didn't find the original.
Here's a link, if it works, to another eye shot I posted here which shows the full image. It would represent an image about 4 feet high as a 3/4 body shot. The 1Ds files are 8688 pixels high. That's a lot of resolution. Also all modern printers will up-size an image all on their own to keep the resolution at whatever you print at!
John
tsaphoto wrote:
He could also simply stitch together multiple shots to get super-high resolution images.
Yes. Thats called shooting a panorama series - because you usually do that with a panorama.
Panorama series as well as combining multiple shots with subpixel movements is only really possible for static subjects though, such as a landscape or a product.
. But I agree that there is no need for a system using a medium format sensor to satisfy the OP’s requirement, especially if the budget is limited to approximately $5K. Yet, I would suggest to focus and expose carefully. Plus, extra care in composition to maximize the sensor real estate won’t hurt either. Good luck! 
