Huge posters with the Nikon D70

I'm having a little trouble getting serious resolution with my D70.
Normally I shoot small product shots but a number of times a year I
have to blow the photos up to about 7' x 7'. We use a tradeshow house
for the printing...they're quite used to doing huge prints like that.

I tested to see which aperature was the sharpest (f16), focused on an
area to provide optimal depth of field and dropped the ASA down to as
low as it would go (200). I'm using the 18 - 70 mm lens that came with
the camera and on my last shot, I was shooting at about 39 mm. The
table top set was about 18" deep.

Even in the theoretical sharpest area, the image is a bit soft. (I'm
comparing it mentally to images I used to get from another photographer
who shot exclusively 4 x 5 transparencies) I have the Nikon loupe that
fits over the viewing window and even manually focusing doesn't make
much difference.

Am I trying to get too much out of the camera? Does anyone have any
suggestions about what camera I should get if the D70 can't handle
these huge posters?

Depends on the intended viewing distance. I think you are wildly optomistic
if you expect any 6-12 MP digital camera to look good in 7' x 7' prints.

Doug


wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm having a little trouble getting serious resolution with my D70.
Normally I shoot small product shots but a number of times a year I
have to blow the photos up to about 7' x 7'. We use a tradeshow house
for the printing...they're quite used to doing huge prints like that.

I tested to see which aperature was the sharpest (f16), focused on an
area to provide optimal depth of field and dropped the ASA down to as
low as it would go (200). I'm using the 18 - 70 mm lens that came with
the camera and on my last shot, I was shooting at about 39 mm. The
table top set was about 18" deep.

Even in the theoretical sharpest area, the image is a bit soft. (I'm
comparing it mentally to images I used to get from another photographer
who shot exclusively 4 x 5 transparencies) I have the Nikon loupe that
fits over the viewing window and even manually focusing doesn't make
much difference.

Am I trying to get too much out of the camera? Does anyone have any
suggestions about what camera I should get if the D70 can't handle
these huge posters?

Have worked with 4x5 and digital, unfortunately digital can't hold
water to 4x5. We worked with jewelry, using a Kodak DCS460 and 760,
digital just couldn't hack it compared to 4x5. We were just doing
indexed pages, not 7' x 7'. We would have loved it to work so we
wouldn't have such a big bill with our processor, which of course was
passed to our customer. A friend used an industrial camera back,
Megavision I believe, on his 4x5 and was a little more successful
($20K).
You also need a decent lens, a 60 macro should about right. But with
35mm (well APS) digital you don't have the schleimfug adjustment you do
on a 4x5.
Caution using f16 on digital, can bring out the worst in a sensor.

Tom

I'm using the 18 - 70 mm lens that came with the camera

Well, if the Nikon kit lens is anything like the Canon kit lens I don't
think it's going to be the strongest part of your equipment.

--
Paul ============}
o o

// Live fast, die old //
Visit the gallery at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pcbradley/NewGallery2.htm

In article . com,
wrote:

I'm having a little trouble getting serious resolution with my D70.
Normally I shoot small product shots but a number of times a year I
have to blow the photos up to about 7' x 7'. We use a tradeshow house
for the printing...they're quite used to doing huge prints like that.

I tested to see which aperature was the sharpest (f16), focused on an
area to provide optimal depth of field and dropped the ASA down to as
low as it would go (200). I'm using the 18 - 70 mm lens that came with
the camera and on my last shot, I was shooting at about 39 mm. The
table top set was about 18" deep.

Even in the theoretical sharpest area, the image is a bit soft. (I'm
comparing it mentally to images I used to get from another photographer
who shot exclusively 4 x 5 transparencies) I have the Nikon loupe that
fits over the viewing window and even manually focusing doesn't make
much difference.

Am I trying to get too much out of the camera? Does anyone have any
suggestions about what camera I should get if the D70 can't handle
these huge posters?

The problem is trying to compare something to 4x5, you won't match 4x5
using any digital camera currently offered and that includes Better
Light backs which are actually MF backs adapted to 4x5 cameras. 4x5 just
plain and simple holds more detail in the film.

And as some one else stated with 4x5 you have perspective controls.
--
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President,
or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong,
is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable
to the American public."--Theodore Roosevelt, May 7, 1918

www.gregblankphoto(dot)com

You're asking a lot of 6M pixels...

You could make a composite pic with four shots and stitch them into a 24Mp
image...
Or use something like PhotoZoom Pro to up the resolution - this works rather
well on many images up to 300%

Or use a Mamiya/Hasselblad medium format digital...

Guy

wrote:
I'm having a little trouble getting serious resolution with my D70.
Normally I shoot small product shots but a number of times a year I
have to blow the photos up to about 7' x 7'. We use a tradeshow house
for the printing...they're quite used to doing huge prints like that.

I tested to see which aperature was the sharpest (f16), focused on an
area to provide optimal depth of field and dropped the ASA down to as
low as it would go (200). I'm using the 18 - 70 mm lens that came
with the camera and on my last shot, I was shooting at about 39 mm.
The table top set was about 18" deep.

Even in the theoretical sharpest area, the image is a bit soft. (I'm
comparing it mentally to images I used to get from another
photographer who shot exclusively 4 x 5 transparencies) I have the
Nikon loupe that fits over the viewing window and even manually
focusing doesn't make much difference.

Am I trying to get too much out of the camera? Does anyone have any
suggestions about what camera I should get if the D70 can't handle
these huge posters?

I'm having a little trouble getting serious resolution with my D70.
Normally I shoot small product shots but a number of times a year I
have to blow the photos up to about 7' x 7'. ... the image is a bit soft.
Am I trying to get too much out of the camera?

Yes.

Does anyone have any suggestions about what camera I should
get if the D70 can't handle these huge posters?

I saw some exceptional 6x8 ft fine art prints once, shot by Richard
Avedon with an 8x10" view camera ... maybe you can do it with a 4x5"
view camera ... I've seen prints this size from 6x7 cm (Annie Liebovitz
exhibit) and at close range the images were soft and grainy ... at
'normal viewing distances' they were OK though.

I don't think any Nikon digital camera can do this, maybe a high rez
digital back will do fair, say the 39 Mpixel Imacon.

Bill

wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm having a little trouble getting serious resolution with my D70.
Normally I shoot small product shots but a number of times a year I
have to blow the photos up to about 7' x 7'. We use a tradeshow house
for the printing...they're quite used to doing huge prints like that.

I tested to see which aperature was the sharpest (f16), focused on an
area to provide optimal depth of field and dropped the ASA down to as
low as it would go (200). I'm using the 18 - 70 mm lens that came with
the camera and on my last shot, I was shooting at about 39 mm. The
table top set was about 18" deep.

Even in the theoretical sharpest area, the image is a bit soft. (I'm
comparing it mentally to images I used to get from another photographer
who shot exclusively 4 x 5 transparencies) I have the Nikon loupe that
fits over the viewing window and even manually focusing doesn't make
much difference.

Am I trying to get too much out of the camera? Does anyone have any
suggestions about what camera I should get if the D70 can't handle
these huge posters?

Normally, the lens would be sharpest at 2-3 stops down from wide. After f/8
or so, diffraction limits the sharpness in images formed by lenses. If f/16
is the sharpest aperture, then you have a bad/defective lens.
John

635,040,000 pixels is what you are going to need to produce a 7' x 7'
print at 300ppi (doing the math, (7 feet) x (12 inches per foot) x (300
pixels per inch) [squared].

To further rectify your issue, the glass you need is much more than
what "comes with the camera". For that size picture, based on the fact
that you were shooting at 39mm, I would suggest one of the following
lenses to get the best picture out of the glass:

Manual-focus 35mm f/1.4
17-35mm f/2.8D ED-IF AF-S Zoom-Nikkor
or, step back and shoot 50mm f/1.4D AF Nikkor

Ultimately,I find the best clarity comes from 2-3 stops past the rating
of the lens; but it's specific to the shot of what actually performs.

On 14 Dec 2005 12:26:40 -0800, wrote:

I'm having a little trouble getting serious resolution with my D70.
Normally I shoot small product shots but a number of times a year I
have to blow the photos up to about 7' x 7'. We use a tradeshow house
for the printing...they're quite used to doing huge prints like that.

I tested to see which aperature was the sharpest (f16), focused on an
area to provide optimal depth of field and dropped the ASA down to as
low as it would go (200). I'm using the 18 - 70 mm lens that came with
the camera and on my last shot, I was shooting at about 39 mm. The
table top set was about 18" deep.

Even in the theoretical sharpest area, the image is a bit soft. (I'm
comparing it mentally to images I used to get from another photographer
who shot exclusively 4 x 5 transparencies) I have the Nikon loupe that
fits over the viewing window and even manually focusing doesn't make
much difference.

Am I trying to get too much out of the camera? Does anyone have any
suggestions about what camera I should get if the D70 can't handle
these huge posters?

It seems lik eyou're asking if an El Camino can carry as much as a
ten-wheel dump truck. The answer is no.
Asking a D70 to match output from a 4X5 MF camera is just asking too
much.

Now, if you had a Canon...

--
Bill Funk
Replace "g" with "a"
funktionality.blogspot.com