quick question on enlargement

[Brendan Mulachy]

at the moment ive got a cannon 450D combined with the usual 18-55 lens and a nifty fifty on the way, i shoot in RAW

what would be the biggest size i could blow my pics up to so that they have an acceptable image with this combination, could i for example be able to blow them up to say A3 or maybe bigger or am i better keeping them to A4

 

[Nikon Fan]

You can easily go to 12in x 18in, as I have using my 6mp Nikon D70.

 

[Chappers]

Dave

The 450 has a decent sensor, however you may find the limiting factor may be the kit lens. However the 50mm will probably yield better results. You may get up to A3 from the 450, as I have had bigger prints from an aging 300D. It did have a decent bit of glass on the front though. The trick is not to over process the image,and be careful of excessive sharpening. This can ruin a good image

 

[coldpenguin]

You can get an A3+ (that is 13"x19") easily from a good picture with that setup (I have printed out a couple of pictures from my 400D, the previous model and they are good at A3+).

You could probably go to A2, so long as viewed at normal distance (i.e. more than 1" away!)
It needs to be a good image though. Would suggest that you resize to output size (13"x19", or 26"x19") @300 (or 350) dpi prior to doing any editing. Then you can sharpen whilst looking at your monitor (I zoom my monitor to 66% for proofing [this is 1:1 to print size on my monitor] and to 300% when checking for blemishes)

By good image, I mean it will need to be spot on. There will be no room for cropping. It must not be blurred.
I think that the 450d was better than the 400d when dealing with noise, but I reckon your exposure will need to be almost perfect as-shot, and probably 400 ISO or less.