Do I need a full frame camera...?

[veritasimagery]

Right now I am shooting with a T3i that I love. The issue I have is that I have heard that to get "good" prints larger than 11x14 I need to have a full-frame sensor camera. Is that true?

The reason I ask is that at some point down the road I want to be able to provide those larger prints for some of my car/motorcycle clients, or even some of the landscapes. And this may influence my next camera body purchase.

Thanks

[IABoomer]

No. I printed a 20x30 of this image:


Frozen water by IABoomerFlickr, on Flickr

taken with a D5000 (12 megapixel cropped body) with no problems whatsoever.

I also made an 18x24 print of this:


Girls running in B&W by IABoomerFlickr, on Flickr

taken with a D40 (6 megapixel cropped body).

[BuddhaPi]

I've printed 16x20's with a nikon coolpix 4500 with no problem..only 4 mp

[veritasimagery]

That's what I thought, but have heard it a few times that you need a full frame to produce nice poster sized prints. That helps out a lot, thanks. Now I know I don't need to jump all the way to a 5D.

[cyber3d]

You know, if you re doing cars and going to such large format prints, you might consider renting a medium format Digital Camera to shoot along side your regular camera.

In truth there is no substitute for size - the bigger the better (as far as sensor size is concerned). I used to shoot film with a Hasselblad and for poster prints my 4x5 beat it solidly ( I used to be commercial photographer in the 70s/80s).

May be you could post a file that we could examine.

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by veritasimagery

Right now I am shooting with a T3i that I love. The issue I have is that I have heard that to get "good" prints larger than 11x14 I need to have a full-frame sensor camera. Is that true?

Where did you get this from? Is there any way for you to slap the originator of that information upside the head? Repeatedly?

[veritasimagery]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

Where did you get this from? Is there any way for you to slap the originator of that information upside the head? Repeatedly?

I don't remember, exactly, but it was on one of these forum threads. I just can't remember which. It was a comment made in-regards to someone with a "crop" body. It was something like "they're fine, as long as you don't want anything larger than 11x14." Which was seconded by a few people.

Just wanted to ask the question myself.

[veritasimagery]

Originally Posted by cyber3d

May be you could post a file that we could examine.

Here's one.

[arlon]

Done a lot of 16x20s with my D90. As long as the original was good the prints were good.

I have been in some situations where I'll take a picture I think has the potential to be a wall hanger and if conditions allow, I'll shoot it in several frames to stitch into a larger picture for larger prints. If you have the right conditions and enough patience, you can get a lot of pixels into one picture.

[kcoppock]

Originally Posted by veritasimagery

I don't remember, exactly, but it was on one of these forum threads. I just can't remember which. It was a comment made in-regards to someone with a "crop" body. It was something like "they're fine, as long as you don't want anything larger than 11x14." Which was seconded by a few people.

Just wanted to ask the question myself.

Yeah, they're definitely mistaken. I've printed 24x36s of mine before from my 6 MP Nikon D40. Granted, the quality wasn't stellar by any stretch, but considering the distance they would be viewed from, the resolution wasn't so important.

Here's an article (from DPS, coincidentally ) that helps explain the difference.