Has anyone had really big prints with the nikon D200 or D80 - are they ok? Talking 4 ft size approx.?

Question

I've been trying to decide what camera to buy. I'm edging towards the Nikon D80 (seems pretty similar in quality of photos to the D200) and spend the money on some good lenses then upgrade the body in the next couple of years rather than buy a more expensive body (like the Canon EOS D5), but I want to blow up some shots to around four feet high if I want to (saw some shots of someones child this large which looked amazing) but don't know if the Nikons can cut it. Any advice?

Answer 1

None of those cameras are the right tool for the job. For poster size prints, you want the resolution of a medium format camera. That was true for film and it still is for digital. It's well within your means, too. If you can afford a 5D with a decent lens, you can also afford a used Bronica, Mamiya, or even a Hasselblad system.
The Nikon D80 is a smart choice for general photography and enlargements up to 2 ft. You CAN print larger, and from half way across the living room it will look fine - but up close the picture will be soft.
I personally use a D200. The D200 offers better build quality, a more durable shutter mechanism, 5 FPS vs. 3, slightly better AF, etc. but the resolution and the final prints are identical. It's just a better camera for action photography.
The Canon 5D has a bigger & better sensor than the D80/ D200. You will notice a difference with large prints (at 3x the price of a D80, you'd better) but even the 5D can't produce prints THAT big.
You're also right about lenses. For under $2000 you can get a D80 with a Nikon 85mm f/1.4 portrait lens. That combo will beat the D200 / 5D with a $200 consumer lens, any day.
For less than the price of the 5D body, you could get a D80 with either a Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 zoom for walk around purposes, or a Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 for sports. These are both professional quality zooms. That's the way I'd go.

Answer 2

I bought a D80 in 12/06, I sold it a few months later for a D200. The main reason for this was that I was not a fan of the meter of the D80. The D80's meter tends to blow out your highlights in favor of preserving the shadows. To give you an example of this, picture a landscape of a grassy field and a bright blue sky. The D80 would choose to make your grass vibrant and nuke the sky. This is unacceptable. You can work around this through your exposure compensation. But when you are buying a $1000 (now it is about $900) camera, you expect the camera to do this for you. The D200, on the other hand, gets the exposure right. Here are some pros and cons for the D80 and D200 D80 Pros: Better battery life Better high ISO performance Smaller Controls easier to understand Cheaper If you like to take pictures and print out of the camera, the D80 is a better choice. D80 also has in camera editing which, if you have the time, actually works. Cons: Strange meter Plastic (really really good plastic) Only 3FPS Not as many dedicated buttons D200 Pros Metal build 5FPS Great meter More dedicated buttons Feels better in your hand Center wheel is 8 way as opposed to 4 way and it has a center click Highly customizable through memory banks Cons Poor ISO performance even at 400! Battery life is not as good as D80. With the D200, I would suggest you get a second battery. I would skip the D80 and pick up a D200. The D200 only weights a little more. The D200 is not a camera I would want if I were going on vacation and had to keep it around my neck for an extended period of time. If that was the case, I would actually go for a D40. If a successor comes out, it won't be in the same price range anyway. I haven't met one person that said the D200 was a bad camera. As long as you don't crank up the ISO, the D200 is the best camera I have ever owned. Just remember don't skimp on the lens. If you are on a budget, I would get the best lens and the D80. If you don't really have a budget buy the D200 but pick up a really good lens like a 17-35 or 17-55.

Answer 3

That's quite a challenge. I'd say that you could use maybe 100 dpi, assuming the image will be viewed from a distance, and blow a full-frame shot up to about 30-32", but 48" is huge. You might want more pixels. Or film.

One caution. You can NOT mix Canon bodies and Nikon lenses, so decide which family you want and start out there. If you aspire to own a D5, start with a Canon or your lenses will become obsolete once you finally get your D5. Or D8...

Addition:

I decided to do a test for you. I took a full format image from my D200 (10 MP) and cropped a small section to print at 80 dpi, which would give you the size you are looking for. I'd say that it looks "okay" from about 4 feet away. Maybe 10 MP would work out for you, in which case the D80 would be fine.

Answer 4

Believe it or not, I once print a 24X36 poster using an image that was taken from my Fujifilm S5100 4Mega Pixel camera (using RAW) a few months back. The result was great. The detail was way better than I expected from a 4 MP image. I haven't try to print any poster size with my Canon 30D yet but I'll assume it will be better than my last poster. Therefore, I don't think you will have a problem with the Nikon D80.

However, as Dr. Sam points out, you should decide what brand do you want to invest in unless you have the money to burn as lenses are expensive.

Answer 5

When you get to such large pixel counts, there really is not that much of a difference. Generally, any of today's DSLR's will give you film quality prints up to around 20x30 inch prints. However, blowing up a shot to 4 feet (48 inches) may be stretching it a bit. Remember that you are working with a limited number of pixels. The number of pixels won't change, but as you go up in print size, the size of each individual pixel will go up. At some point the pixel will become so large that they begin to appear as squares. One thing to keep in mind is when you have a large print hanging on a wall, you generally view the print at a further distance away from the print than a smaller print (i.e. a 4x6). So while you may view a small print at arm's length, a large 4 foot print being hung on the wall will most likely be viewed from at least 6 feet away. So don't get hung up if you are looking at the print from inches away and you notice pixelation.