300D - small format picture quality?

[utkik]

Hi everyone,

I'll be taking a trip soon for a few weeks and I was wondering about the format I should take my pictures in. Basically, I'd like to take most of them in the Small Fine format, so I can fit more onto my CF card.

So my question is - how far can you enlarge a Small Fine picture without losing quality? I get most pictures developed in 5X7, but if I take a good one I'd like to get it enlarged to maybe A4 size.

Would it work, or will I be taking a bit of a risk? I took a few for expirement and they look okay enlarged on my monitor, but I'd be wary about the physical print deteriorating in quality....... :?:

[Ikinaa]

I always shoot in largest format, best quality.
Ok, it needs more space on the card, but it's easier to have a smaller picture from a large than struggle to enlargen a small picture.

You got a cam for over 1000 Euro/dollar, why not buy one or two spare cards, or an imagetank/xdrive/cdburner etc to store larger pictures...?

Don't save on the wrong place.

[CoolToolGuy]

I recommend you buy extra cards and shoot in the largest resolution. As Ikinaa says, you can always make it smaller with your photo editor, but you can't make it larger and retain the quality.

[Jesper]

What's acceptable quality and what's not, is a bit of a subjective question. So, why don't you try it out for yourself? Take photos with different size and compression settings and have them printed at small size and at A4 size, and look if they are acceptable to you or not.

[utkik]

thanks for the advice - you're right, it would be a waste not using the camera to is full capacity.

FWIW I printed out a few sample images in Small Fine format onto A4 and they looked fine. I was just using a regular printer though, so fine detail might still have been obscured.