Does anyone know of a standard point and shoot digital camera that produces excelle quality print enlargments?

Question

I really want a DSLR professional camera but I can't afford one. Anyone out there who are into taking lots of pictures please help. I want a point and shoot camera that produces almost same quality as DSLRs.

Answer 1

you are going to be limited by how much information can be captured by your camera.

2 ways to improve the image capture:

1) optical zoom lenses (as opposed to digital zoom)

2) as many mega pixels as you can afford, and use the larger picture files which will save your pics in bigger files, but will also save more info which will improve your enlargements.


If you skimp out too much, your enlargements will be pixellated and you will be disappointed. There will only be so much you can do with a point-and-shoot.

Good Luck.

Answer 2

This is the holy grail for the digital camera world: a compact point and shoot that delivers professional DSLR quality images.

Unfortunately, you pay for what you get. There are a few high end Point and Shoot cameras out there that are close to a DSLR. As a Canon fan myself, I would recommend off the top of my head (though there will be ones from other brands):

- Powershot G7
- Powershot S3 IS (with a decent zoom and good image stabiliser)
- Powershot Pro 1 (with "L" series professional lens)

Though some of these are almost the same price as an entry level DSLR.

Have you considered buying a second hand entry level DSLR (such as the Canon Rebel/300D or Rebel XT/350D, Nikon D50 or D70)? They're still fantastic cameras and going for around US$350 on eBay nowadays. You can also upgrade with more lenses over time.

Answer 3

Your qualification "highest quality" is difficult to respond to. It usually means "image quality" in this case, but it may also mean "product quality" in terms of craftmanship, useful features and ease of handling. For the last 7 years, I have used many digital cameras of various manufacturers, and found that Canon and Nikon cameras produce images that are most natural and pleasing to the eyes. Fuji cameras tend to over-process the images, which introduces noise and "purple" fringing. Nikon cameras tend to be faster, and the delay between two consecutive shots is usually brief. On the other hand, I find Canon cameras easiest to operate. My DSLRs are used only on special occasions. Most of my "top 100" were shot with the small point-and-shoot cameras. For a good point-and-shoot digital camera that is small enough to fit in a "large" pocket, I would recommend either of the following: Canon PowerShot A570 IS Canon PowerShot SD800 IS Granted, my answer is anecdotal and based on subjective experience. For detailed technical reviews, you may want to google on "digital photography review" and visit the top 3 results.

Answer 4

hi,

that depends largely on what is the size of your print enlargement. i have a rough gauge here, which is for a D80 camera :

image size -------- dimension ------- appr size when printed
(megapixel) --------- (pixels) -------------- at 200 dpi
10.0 M ----------- 3,872 x 2,592 ------ 49.2 x 32.9 cm
5.6 M ------------- 2,896 x 1,944 ------ 36.8 x 24.7 cm
2.5 M ------------- 1,936 x 1,296 ------ 24.6 x 16.5 cm

what you need to look out for is a compact camera offering high resolution. using the rough gauge above, you can cross reference and find out what resolution you require for what print out sizes. but in general, the higher the resolution, the better the quality of the printouts, but of course the more costly it is too.

another thing to note is zooming. if you need to zoom in on your subject, use optical zoom, and not digital zoom. the latter causes your photo to be pixellated - meaning the more you zoom in using the digital zoom, the less sharp and defined your photo will become. so if you think you need to zoom in, either you get a camera that has a good optical zoom factor, or move closer to your subject.

hope this helps !