When is enough enough (resolution) ?

Hi Doug:

I don't think so, IOW I agree with you...

What you run into is folks who *REGULARLY* print at 40x50 inches feel they need everything they can get because you can actually "see" the difference if you compare prints side-by-side and up close. My response to that is, first it takes an experienced photographer and/or printer to detect the differences, and second how often will anybody -- let alone a customer -- actually do a side-by-side comparison? I think virtually never .

So IMO at some level of resolution we hit a point of greatly diminishing returns. As it is for me now, I am having to *downsize* my P45+ fioles to print them at my *normal* sizes, though I like the ability to print them large -- even to 40x50 -- when I want and get more than acceptable results...

I've been thinking along those lines from time to time. With 100 Mpx you can pretty much print any size you like, as viewing distance is likely to increase once you get up to billboard size prints. I scan my 8x10's at 16,000 x 20,000 pixels, save as original and then scale down to half that resolution for work, i.e. 80 Mpx.

Once viewing distance increases, sharpening can be used in a creative way to increase the appearance of detail.

BTW Doug, I feel that I have to back away to about 3 feet from my monitor for your crop to look really good, which I guess would be a normal minimum viewing distance for a 50x70" print.