Forgot Password
Pentax Camera Forums Home
 

Reply
Show Printable Version Search this Thread
10-02-2014, 06:44 PM - 10 Likes   #1
Veteran Member
Heie's Avatar

Join Date: Nov 2011
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 968
Holy Scheisse... (K-3 Print Quality)

Staff note: This post may contain affiliate links, which means Pentax Forums may earn a small commission if a visitor clicks through and makes a purchase. If you would like to support the forum directly, you may also make a donation here.


The following tidbits were shared on two other threads of mine (https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/12-post-your-photos/260768-travel-scotlan...62-images.html and https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/137-photographic-industry-professionals/2...nt-sale-2.html), however I doubt many of you even saw those, so I wanted to share this here with you.




Jenny had been bugging me to get some of my images printed for our bare walls for quite a while (over a year lol). Because I hadn't even gotten any before, we were about to get our first print for the house (I know....I know)

So, I asked her if the image of us overlooking Edinburgh would be good, and after getting her approval, I decided to go for gold - the largest print size that I could order from the partner labs with Zenfolio (where my prints can be ordered from through my Zenfolio website). I went with the largest size to not only have a great "mantle photo" of us, but honestly I wanted to test how the K-3 would hold up to such a huge print, not only for my own curiosity, but to see if it would be worthwhile to offer prints that large for sale.

In good conscience I would not be able to offer the size if I didn't know, so I bit the bullet, and not even a week later (!) it arrived:

Jenny thinking she's Vanna White:



It needed two people to hold it it was so big:



That's a 30x45 inch (76x114 cm) print, aka A ZERO.

And let me tell you - it looks abso-f'ing-lutely incredible!! At this size, it's approximately 133 dpi. Even from close up inspection, you can still make out the windows and which ones have blinds up/down. Unbelievable.

I am now, if I wasn't before, 100% a believer in the power of the K-3. Just.....wow....

Anyway, wanted to share that with you all.

-Heie

10-02-2014, 07:01 PM   #2
Veteran Member
JinDesu's Avatar

Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: New York City
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 5,638
Alex, you take some fantastic shots, but gosh your wall colour!

The k-3 astounds me everytime I hit 100% zoom in Lightroom. I can't wait to do prints with it sometime.
10-02-2014, 07:06 PM - 2 Likes   #3
Site Supporter
Site Supporter
LaurenOE's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Back in Florida, but worldwide gigs!
Photos: Albums
Posts: 3,690
Yup.
I live by my K3 cameras.
Only flaw is on the back of them!

10-02-2014, 07:13 PM   #4
Site Supporter
Site Supporter
jpzk's Avatar

Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Québec
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 8,251
That is one heck of a print !!

Looks like a fine image for that print too ... except, as it was mentioned by JinDesu .... can you clone out the wall behind?
((Just kidding !! ))

Thanks for sharing !!

10-02-2014, 07:33 PM   #5
Site Supporter
Site Supporter
Eagle94VT's Avatar

Join Date: Dec 2010
Photos: Albums
Posts: 291
That looks awesome! Thanks for the update. My wife is an artist and has our walls covered, but she agreed to make a couple spaces free for me to try a larger print as well.
10-02-2014, 07:38 PM   #6
Forum Member
Megapixelmk's Avatar

Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 84
Thanks for sharing.
It only confirms my decision that my next camera will be likely be the K3, as opposed to a full frame (with its supposed advantages!)
10-02-2014, 07:46 PM - 5 Likes   #7
Pentaxian
calsan's Avatar

Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Perth, Australia
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 1,543
QuoteOriginally posted by Megapixelmk Quote
Thanks for sharing.
It only confirms my decision that my next camera will be likely be the K3, as opposed to a full frame (with its supposed advantages!)
Get onto it ASAP! Every day without the K3 is a day without the K3!

10-02-2014, 08:23 PM   #8
Veteran Member




Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Tennessee
Posts: 6,617
Great shot. Very few things are as satisfying as really large print.
10-02-2014, 08:32 PM   #9
Site Supporter
Site Supporter
Stavri's Avatar

Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: at a Bean & Leaf
Photos: Albums
Posts: 1,832
QuoteOriginally posted by Winder Quote
Great shot. Very few things are as satisfying as really large print.
equally large mamaries, J/k, impressive photo and print size too. I for one like the wall color....(you can always cover it with large prints though...) Thanks for sharing (Let's see those snow covered landscape prints now....)

Last edited by Stavri; 10-03-2014 at 05:35 AM.
10-02-2014, 09:30 PM - 1 Like   #10
Veteran Member
johnmflores's Avatar

Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Somerville, NJ
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 5,361
Very cool and just what I needed to know as I am about to print a couple of K-3 shots at 20"x30" for a show. I'm doing a K-5 as well at 20"x30" so we'll soon see how 16 megapickles scales.

Well done! And I for one dig the wall color - my office stool is the same!
10-02-2014, 10:23 PM   #11
Veteran Member




Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 11,913
A useful reminder of the capabilities of the camera. People get bogged down sometimes in non-issues, but big prints are the real deal.

Oh, and such qt's too.
10-03-2014, 05:26 AM - 1 Like   #12
New Member




Join Date: Oct 2012
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 6
QuoteOriginally posted by johnmflores Quote
I'm doing a K-5 as well at 20"x30" so we'll soon see how 16 megapickles scales.
According to imaging-resource.com K-3 prints (ISO 100/200) are excellent at 30 x 40 inches, wall display prints are possible at 36 x 48 inches.
16MP prints (ISO 80/100/200) are excellent at 24 x 36 inches, wall display images are possible 30 x 40 inches.
Not so big difference by the way
10-03-2014, 06:41 AM - 1 Like   #13
Veteran Member




Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: WV
Posts: 1,495
I work for a company that operates several businesses, including a real estate company. Recently the real estate company opened a new office in Greencastle PA and wanted to decorate the walls of the office with photos of local landmarks. Using my K-7 and 18-135, I delivered a number of photos to them to choose from. They picked seven photos and had me convert them to black and white and print canvas gallery wraps as large as 40"x60".

That's right, 40"x60". With a K-7 and 18-135. I admit I was a little nervous about how the final product would look.

The printed photos were stunning. I mean they blew me away. Even when "pixel peeping" they were amazing.

So, yeah, the K-3 will deliver the goods on large prints, no doubt about it.
10-03-2014, 08:04 AM   #14
Veteran Member




Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Texas
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 517
Heie that's great news. Which lens did you use for that shot. Makes me want to print some of mine. Thanks
10-03-2014, 02:47 PM   #15
PT1
Forum Member




Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Somerset, UK
Posts: 54
In Lightroom you can export with a different resolution. If you export as 12032 X and 8000 Y, it interpolates between each pixel, and quadruples the resolution to 96 Mpixels, giving an approx 34MB JPEG at 100% quality level. The reduction in blockiness when pixel peeping is very noticeable.

Here's a downloadable full-size approx 96 Mpixel 34MB exported 12032x8000 JPG: https://www.amazon.co.uk/clouddrive/share/oZkLZBEwVJ6vNlJHmFBr9OhTi-pcQexSTMsAq42rVdE

12032 pixels = 40.1 inches wide at 300 dpi.

I've tried exporting to TIFF instead of JPG, but by eye there wasn't a great difference, only in the huge file size.


Unsurprisingly, trying to use Lightroom to quadruple the X to 24064 and the Y to 16000 didn't look good, at least when trying to do so in one step.

But exporting with double X and double Y, then importing this JPG, then exporting again with double X and double Y a second time gives a reasonable result.

Here's a downloadable full-size approx 370 Mpixel 100MB exported 24064x16000 JPG: https://www.amazon.co.uk/clouddrive/share/49F44o9dq5j_jhj1lX3QEHkXsmAIqf_yogBKn5qZ7P8

Shown below is a 'pixel peep' screenshot of the 96MP and 370MP jpg's. I didn't keep the original 24MP from the k-3, so I exported the 96 MP as 24 MP to show how blocky it looks.

Whether the 96MP looks softer overall due to blurred colour transitions than the original 24MP might be a possibility. It is probably better to export to uncompressed dng instead of jpg.

The 370 Mpixel jpg is probably unnecessarily fine

Obviously the more you zoom in, the more the noise is noticeable.
Attached Images
 
Reply

Bookmarks
  • Submit Thread to Facebook Facebook
  • Submit Thread to Twitter Twitter
  • Submit Thread to Digg Digg
Tags - Make this thread easier to find by adding keywords to it!
dslr, epson, experts, export, grain, guys, image, inch, inches, jenny, k-3, k3, lightroom, offer, pentax k-3, print, prints, share, size, steve, strokes, zenfolio
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Print quality from K-3 TaiChiTom Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 9 11-15-2013 03:58 AM
K-3 Build Quality BlakeShellman Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 35 11-10-2013 05:54 AM
Pentax k-3 audio recording quality vjacesslav Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 4 11-03-2013 06:12 PM
16x22 Print Quality bethtphotos Pentax DSLR Discussion 30 12-31-2008 07:53 AM
Print Quality montezuma Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras 2 06-20-2008 11:49 AM



All times are GMT -7. The time now is 02:42 PM. | See also: NikonForums.com, CanonForums.com part of our network of photo forums!
  • Red (Default)
  • Green
  • Gray
  • Dark
  • Dark Yellow
  • Dark Blue
  • Old Red
  • Old Green
  • Old Gray
  • Dial-Up Style
Hello! It's great to see you back on the forum! Have you considered joining the community?
register
Creating a FREE ACCOUNT takes under a minute, removes ads, and lets you post! [Dismiss]
Top