How Much Resolution Do You Want or Need? Read OP before posting.

haroldp

Hmmm... Mesoamericans were using natural plastics in 1600 BC so you must be quite old :-)

Ask Mel Brooks, he was there...

H

Snowleopard

Lets not forget diffraction, a common mistake by photographers trying to get too high a DOF from their lenses can effect sharpness.
The Zeiss Otus range of lenses was specifically designed for 35 mm high resolution pixel cameras.

From what I have seen 80-90% of diffraction goes away with minor post sharpening, and the exta mp still produces a better image than a lower mp image. There was a video about that somewhere....

donaldejose

I just ran a quick test this morning. Used a D800 with Sigma 35mm Art lens. Raw files were about 45 mb each. JPEG files were about 30 mb each. I stitched together two JPEG files to get a an 82 mb image and three JPEG files to get a 135 mb image. The two file image would print 37 inches by 24 inches at 300 dpi. The three file image would print 58 inches wide and 24 inches tall at 300dpi. It seems to me we can make massive images with the current inexpensive equipment (D800, D800e, D810 and Sigma Art lenses) if we are willing to use a stitching technique.

rmp

With a D800e and a 50 mm lens, I have worked on a single frame image (45mb) in Lightroom that produced a 1.5 Gb "tiff" file that was printed on metal at 2 feet by 6 feet at 360 dpi (Epson's maximum). Up close, with a loupe the metal print still looked sharp. I can see how a little stitching would produce files that exceed the tiff maximum of 4GB -- Maybe 6 x 18 feet, and still be tack sharp for pixel peepers (like me).

Ironheart

http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/176485
Panorama from slope overlooking Rodeo Beach at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, also called Marin Headlands.
200mm, 161 frames, f/11 @1/160th seconds per frame. Nikon D800E on Gigapan Epic Pro.
2.12 GigaPixels (takes a few minutes to load)




Also look at:
http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans?query=nikon

donaldejose

That gigapan epic pro rig and software looks really great!

rmp

Love it -- but where and how do you display it?

donaldejose

rmp: I am thinking a bit differently. Rather than use the rig and software to shoot a 200 image panoramic I would use it with a D800/Sigma 50mm or 85mm Art lens to shoot 6 or 8 or 10 or 12 images I can combine and print about four feet by five or six feet with incredible detail. Rather than massive panorama I would try to produce huge size prints with incredible detail. I ordered one and will see what I can do with it. I should be able to produce large prints which have detail well beyond what a single frame can capture.

haroldp

I regularly shoot 7 frame pano's in portrait mode which at 28mm and 20% overlap cover 220 deg. an yield bout 180 - 200mpx when merged.

This my my large format camera.

Prints at 44 in. are awesome.

.... H

donaldejose

I am thinking I will capture more detail if use a sharp 50 or 85mm lens and take twice as many images in a double row than if I used a 28 or 30mm lens. There just has to be more detail in 14 85mm images merged than there is in 7 28mm images merged. The automated precision of the Gigapan Epic Pro and its specialized stitching software has to make taking a double height pano easlier. We will see how it goes.

haroldp

@donaldejose

You are absolutely correct, more frames with a longer lens will give you more detail.
Since I have no continuous wall space larger than 46 in., I cannot display a print larger than 44.

The results at 44 in of a 200mp pano are stunning, and I strike a balance (for me) between results and effort.

I sometimes bracket each frame (for HDR) as well for difficult subjects which triple the number frames to handle.

When I was shooting with a 12mp D2x, I often used 27 frames (9 horizontal rows, 3 high). With a D810 I use 7 across in portrait mode. Much Easier shooting and stitching. I use autopano to stitch and shoot with a RRS full nodal pano rig, no automation.

Of course that best balance is a highly personal decision and testing the state of the art is always rewarding.

I am very interested in the results you get and particularly in how the Gigapan Epic Pro system facilitates it.

Best of luck ... Harold

Snowleopard

I shoot pano's all the time with my D700 and D810, the thing is, Pano's are great for stationairy objects or landscapes...... Try tracking a basketball player for 4-8 frames to create a pano while they are moving....... Sometimes 1 sensor with a higher mp count matters.... I would say more often than not.

And that gigapan Epic Pro is nice, but not $1000 (US) nice....

snakebunk

The need for pixels is larger than I thought.

donaldejose

As to the price of a gigapan epic pro . . . what if you could buy a wide angle landscape lens which produced 200 mp images out of your 36mp sensor? Would $1,000 be a really cheap price for such a magic lens? Seen that way the gigapan epic pro is not expensive.

FreezeAction

I would not upgrade to a 50+ MP sensor from the D810 if the sensor's physical format remained a 3:2. A 2:1 format with the same area as the 3:2 sensor and 72MP would get my attention as I could justify that. Stitching will not always work for pans. I don't think that is possible so I'm not wishing.

Snowleopard

So here is a silly question when it comes to more MP....... Lets face it, to the naked eye, our lenses are smooth and polished, well how many MP would it take to show the actual defects in the glass elements it self from the sensor's perspective..... not putting the glass under a microcope?

And have it show up in your photo's when zoomed in at 100%..... :-)

WestEndFoto

Unless you have something really wide, say wider than 10mm on FX, nothing on your glass will be in focus. Have you noticed that you never see the dust on your lens in your pictures?

TomB

http://www.dslrbodies.com/cameras/camera-articles/image-quality/how-big-can-i-print.html

spraynpray

Good link @TomB.

Snowleopard

http://www.dslrbodies.com/cameras/camera-articles/image-quality/how-big-can-i-print.html

According to that link, I will be looking for my 72mp-150mp Nikon DSLR sometime in the next couple years.

donaldejose

If the lenses can resolve the image sufficiently sensors won't end in the 50 megapixel range.

donaldejose

Quite interesting article.

http://www.themarketbusiness.com/2015-09-08-canon-showcases-its-250-megapixel-sensor-in-the-extremely-high-resolution-camera

haroldp

Bakelite ....but we called it Polyoxybenzyllmethylenglgcolanhydride ..bit like lan fair gooly goch

Easy for you to say ..

.... H

Msmoto

Interesting question the need vs. want.... but....one fact remains. It is not always the resolution, but the information, especially in the shadows and highlights, i.e., dynamic range which is increased with format size and number of pixels. So, for the best quality, I need 36 MP, D800E, but for faster action, the 16MP. The 1.5 MP of my iPhone 6 Plus simply does not provide anything but a rough approximation when I compare it to the above bodies.

As I recall, the comparison between a D800 and medium format saw the skin tone was the area where the medium format was superior.

Many years ago I shot 11' x 14" Ektachrome, because the client wanted this size as it showed the fine variation in wood grain, color, etc., better than if shot in 4" x 5" format.

Now, the other side of the coin is, for a heck of a lot of images, the small format of a 4/3rds sensor is entirely adequate. Maybe in the end it is all down to what I want, not at all about what I need.

paulr

Msmoto What I need is equipment to do my work, What I want is just wishful thinking, a dream, then reality kicks in.