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How do I get a 300 dpi image?
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The Collector's Trove
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 3:08 pm

Howdy Folks,

Like the title says: When I go out and buy a digital camera or scanner I see megapixel this and 2600 dpi x 1200 dpi that. Do these have anything to do with a 300 dpi image, like a .tif or a .jpg?

My scanner is supposed to scan at 1200 dpi x 1200 dpi but I end up with 100 dpi images - not good enough. Likewise my camera, a Kodak DC215 Zoom, takes pictures that are serviceable for eBay but are clearly not 300 dpi - it does have a variable "quality" setting but that really does not seem to increase the detail or dpi.

I have been requested to provide 300 dpi images of a few items in my collection and I just don't think my current equipment is up to the task. What sort of features/capabilities do I need to have in a scanner and digital camera?

Likewise my current digital camera takes terrible pictures of miniatures. What sort of features/capabilities do I need to take extremely detailed pictures of miniatures?

Many thanks!

Futures Bright,

Paul

The Collector's Trove The online auction house that features the collections of game designers and artists.

mbassoc2003
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 3:32 pm

stormber wrote:Howdy Folks,

Like the title says: When I go out and buy a digital camera or scanner I see megapixel this and 2600 dpi x 1200 dpi that. Do these have anything to do with a 300 dpi image, like a .tif or a .jpg?

My scanner is supposed to scan at 1200 dpi x 1200 dpi but I end up with 100 dpi images - not good enough. Likewise my camera, a Kodak DC215 Zoom, takes pictures that are serviceable for eBay but are clearly not 300 dpi - it does have a variable "quality" setting but that really does not seem to increase the detail or dpi.

I have been requested to provide 300 dpi images of a few items in my collection and I just don't think my current equipment is up to the task. What sort of features/capabilities do I need to have in a scanner and digital camera?

Likewise my current digital camera takes terrible pictures of miniatures. What sort of features/capabilities do I need to take extremely detailed pictures of miniatures?

Many thanks!

Futures Bright,

Paul

I have a Sony DSC-T1. Image quality is excelent and they're about £100 cheaper now than when I bought it. My only critcism is that there's no screw port for a tripod.

I'd say that if you are thinking of buying a new digital camera, you need to buy a known name. No mega-light Metika Chiqin Masala Korean super zoom models. Stick to Sony, Canon, Nikon, HP, etc.

The best thing you can do is to do a bit of research on the internet, and read a lot of reviews. You'll get a good idea of what's good and bad.

Generally speeking, if you take the image size 2600 pixels by XXXX pixels, and devide by 300, you'll get an idea of the size in inches of a high quality photo print. IMO I wouldn't consider buying a camera below 5 Mega Pixels.

Also take note of the type of storage media the cameras take. Mine takes Sony's Memorystick Duo, and they are expensive. I'd have preferred SD cards or Compact Flash.

Don't know if any of that helps.

This week I've been mostly eating . . . The white ones with the little red flecks in them.

rosenkav
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 3:51 pm

stormber wrote:Howdy Folks,

Like the title says: When I go out and buy a digital camera or scanner I see megapixel this and 2600 dpi x 1200 dpi that. Do these have anything to do with a 300 dpi image, like a .tif or a .jpg?

My scanner is supposed to scan at 1200 dpi x 1200 dpi but I end up with 100 dpi images - not good enough. Likewise my camera, a Kodak DC215 Zoom, takes pictures that are serviceable for eBay but are clearly not 300 dpi - it does have a variable "quality" setting but that really does not seem to increase the detail or dpi.

I have been requested to provide 300 dpi images of a few items in my collection and I just don't think my current equipment is up to the task. What sort of features/capabilities do I need to have in a scanner and digital camera?

Likewise my current digital camera takes terrible pictures of miniatures. What sort of features/capabilities do I need to take extremely detailed pictures of miniatures?

Many thanks!

Futures Bright,

Paul

Actually this is quite a large topic, and I don't want to bore everyone, so I'll be very skeptical - but I hope this info will be useful to everyone.

You have to mess around somewhat with the scanner SOFTWARE to obtain more detailed images. Rummage around in the interface and take a look at the manual too.

When you say scanner resolution, you have to check if the stats are for OPTICAL or INTERPOLATED image. Many scanners in the market do reach higher resolutions, more than their optical specs, because they use interpolation - in practice, their software divides an optical pixel into - let's say - four interpolated ones based on pattern and color recognition of the pixels around. And of course it's NOT the same thing.

Tha 300 dpi resolution is the printing resolution needed to insure a good result to the scanned image - less than that and you'd notice some "blocking" in areas of the image. Digital cameras take shots at 72 dpi - the resolution of video - producing images that have to be suitably reduced in size to insure a good representation on print.
As a rough estimate, a good printed image is one fourth size in height and one fourth in base of its digital equivalent - that is, an image that is one sixteenth in size of the original image.

I'd suggest you to upgrade your current digital camera, leaning towards a 4 or 5 Mb model - that should suffice for some decent shots of the miniatures. Also, read the manual and try the different options - especially the ones regarding close-range pictures (every cam, even the lowly 2Mb one I used to take the pics of my painted figures you see under collecting non tsr has an option to do this).

.tif and .jpg are two kind of photographic documents - they are essentially the same, but the former does not use a "lossy" compression on the image (that is, it stores bigger documents of better quality) and the latter instead does - obtaining smaller documents, characterized by "digital noise" a fact that is apparent once you enlarge the image.

Hope this helps - if u need more info you can mail me privately.

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Finarvyn
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 8:08 pm

Really interesting stuff. How exactly does it tie in to the Don't Give Up the Ship miniatures rules? 8O

It was just sort of an abrupt topic shift, that's all. :?

Finarvyn
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deimos3428
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 8:21 pm

Finarvyn wrote:Really interesting stuff. How exactly does it tie in to the Don't Give Up the Ship miniatures rules?

It was just sort of an abrupt topic shift, that's all.

Hmm...I was gonna ask too. Methinks stormber hit the "Post Reply" button instead of the "New Topic" button, but perhaps he's planning on taking pictures for another massive auction with a "Don't Give Up the Ship" in it. :wink:

Theleb
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Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 12:11 am

stormber wrote:Like the title says: When I go out and buy a digital camera or scanner I see megapixel this and 2600 dpi x 1200 dpi that. Do these have anything to do with a 300 dpi image, like a .tif or a .jpg?

My scanner is supposed to scan at 1200 dpi x 1200 dpi but I end up with 100 dpi images - not good enough. Likewise my camera, a Kodak DC215 Zoom, takes pictures that are serviceable for eBay but are clearly not 300 dpi - it does have a variable "quality" setting but that really does not seem to increase the detail or dpi.

I have been requested to provide 300 dpi images of a few items in my collection and I just don't think my current equipment is up to the task. What sort of features/capabilities do I need to have in a scanner and digital camera?

Likewise my current digital camera takes terrible pictures of miniatures. What sort of features/capabilities do I need to take extremely detailed pictures of miniatures?

By no means give up the ship in the meantime!

For taking pix of miniatures or other close-up photography, you'll need to use the macros setting on your camera. Not all cameras have one, and the ones that do are not always that good. I have the Minolta 7HI, which cost me over $1,000 at the time and its macros setting is abysmal. My friend's Olympus 5050 has an absolutely incredible macros setting so detailed that you can see clearly the grooves in a piece of chalk. It's simply amazing. If anyone is in the market for a digital camera the best site to read reviews is http://www.dpreview.com as it's the most thorough around. Even if you already have a camera you'll benefit from reading his reviews.

In addition for close-up photography, put your camera on manual focus, not auto focus. Manual focus will give you complete control over the precise area where the miniature is located that you want in detail. Manual focus will be listed in millimeters (mm), so we Americans will need to get out our conversion tables if we're not used to metric measurements. In addition, make sure there is ample light in the shot. Avoid the optical zoom as it accentuates camera shake from unsteady hands, and just move in close to the object without blocking the light source and causing a shadow. Always avoid the digital zoom, which is a complete waste of time, it just enlarges the pixels.

A .tif is higher quality because it is uncompressed, while a .jpg is lower quality because it is compressed by the camera's processor before sending the picture to the memory card. Of course, a .tif has a larger file size, while the .jpg is lower.

How many pixels you need depends on whether you wish to print (use more) or just view the images on a monitor (don't need very many unless you plan to do some major cropping). Roskenov gave a good treatise on pixel size's correlation to print output size when using different dpi variables.

The scanner's settings should be changeable with its OEM software. You can also change the dpi rating with Photoshop, which is a great program.

The Collector's Trove
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Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 12:16 am

Howdy,

Finarvyn wrote:Really interesting stuff. How exactly does it tie in to the Don't Give Up the Ship miniatures rules?

It was just sort of an abrupt topic shift, that's all.

Doh! I must have been in the thread when I posted my "new thread". Sorry Fin' :oops:

Oh, Scott!

Futures Bright,

Paul

The Collector's Trove The online auction house that features the collections of game designers and artists.

Finarvyn
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Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 7:06 pm

stormber wrote:Doh! I must have been in the thread when I posted my "new thread". Sorry Fin'

No problem. I just thought it would be hard for others to find your thread, that's all. :D

(Plus, there was the hope that suddenly lots of people had opinions on D.G.U.T.S.. :wink: Ah, well.)

Finarvyn
Earl of Stone Creek, C&C Society
D&D Player Since 1975

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