16MP mirrorless quality enough for documentary project and 30x40 print?

Iodosan · Mar 30, 2022

Good morning
I am planning a documentary photographic project, with landscapes, street portraits. I was considering using a fujifilm x-a2 with a 28mm and 50mm pentax lenses Pair with a turbo lens adapter to maintain the focal length. Since I'm not going to do any extra shopping on cameras, is the quality of 16mp enough to create a photo book and quality prints up to 30x40 cm? Or should I invest in rolls rather and do the whole project with the pentax slr (or a Canon Rangefinder), thus maintaining, if not the quality, at least the analog character?

5150Bronco · Mar 30, 2022

Hello,

Based on my knowledge and taking a professional print making course, I would say yes.

Craig75 · Mar 30, 2022

Best way to find out is to do it. Just get a test print made at a print bureau to largest size you want and see if you are happy. Viewing distance is going to make a difference to. Nose up against print and it might not stand to full frame 60mp or enlarged large format but why you would want to be standing doing that in first place is questionable.

Apsc fuji should hold its self easily against a 35mm camera with 400 speed fill in it tho

DonW · Mar 30, 2022

I have made very sharp prints at that size for commercial clients using a 16mp sensor camera. As with any image, camera shake is the biggest problem when it comes to image sharpness.

mtnbkr · Mar 30, 2022

FWIW, Steve O'Nions has a video on YT on this very subject (published some time ago, but I only saw it the other night). I don't think his print was quite as large, but it did show how a 16mp (M4/3 in his case) was capable of delivering good results with larger prints.

Chris

MattKing · Mar 30, 2022

I've made very satisfactory 12"x16" (30cm x 40cm) prints from jpegs straight out of my wife's Micro 4/3 Olympus OMD. If you are content with 1/4 inch borders, the native resolution of that sensor translates directly to that print size, at 300 dpi.
The smaller sensors are slightly more prone to noise, and if you find yourself needing to crop you may be forced into something less than 300 dpi, but the portability of the camera probably outweighs that.
I would be more concerned with the lenses and turbo adapter.

Iodosan · Mar 31, 2022

MattKing said:
I've made very satisfactory 12"x16" (30cm x 40cm) prints from jpegs straight out of my wife's Micro 4/3 Olympus OMD. If you are content with 1/4 inch borders, the native resolution of that sensor translates directly to that print size, at 300 dpi.
The smaller sensors are slightly more prone to noise, and if you find yourself needing to crop you may be forced into something less than 300 dpi, but the portability of the camera probably outweighs that.
I would be more concerned with the lenses and turbo adapter.

Do you think a Chinese lens type ttartisan/meike have better quality than turbo lens + smc pentax lenses? I use it to help have a more "analog" Aspect. But maybe I'm wrong.

Craig75 · Mar 31, 2022

Personally I wouldn't bother with focal length adapter.

If you already have a 28mm takumar that will give you about 40mm fov on a fuji. A $20 k to x adapter and you're good to go. A lot of people's favourite focal length for street too.

I'd try that combo and make a big print and then see what you think.

Iodosan · Mar 31, 2022

Craig75 said:
Personally I wouldn't bother with focal length adapter.

If you already have a 28mm takumar that will give you about 40mm fov on a fuji. A $20 k to x adapter and you're good to go. A lot of people's favourite focal length for street too.

I'd try that combo and make a big print and then see what you think.

I have the 28/2.8. I already have the tuebo lens adapter, a cheap pentax to fuji adapter and 28/2.8 and 40mm pancake too. I could try to follow your advice and use the combo 28mm+cheap adapter and 40mm + turbo lens and make print confrontation

Craig75 · Mar 31, 2022

Yes that seems best starting point if you already have the gear.

Obviously a disadvantage of adapted lenses is that size and weight increase versus dedicated x mount lens which can be a pain for street.

Big advantage is if you like manual focus or zone focus then the film lenses are so nice to use and you don't end up with lenses in multiple mounts.

Test it all out and see if it works for you. Hopefully you enjoy results and then you can get to work on your project very quickly.

Nothing wrong in mixing it up too. Some work on fuji, some on the pentax with scanned negatives. Pentax made (and still make) great lenses - can't argue with a nice takumar.

MattKing · Mar 31, 2022

Adapted lenses are fun, and they are frequently at least competent.
But a lens designed to image to one size of frame is not going to perform as well imaging to a smaller size of frame - even the best adapters will introduce aberrations and reduce resolution.
The fujifilm lenses designed for the camera are likely to perform better.

grat · Apr 3, 2022

With one caveat, yes. Keep in mind that 40x30 is 4:3 ratio, and your sensor is 3:2 ratio. If you want actual edge-to-edge on 40x30, you'll have to crop the image from the camera, which will reduce the overall resolution. Some quick scribbling says you'll wind up at ~ 275 DPI instead of 300 DPI-- there are tools now that can do a remarkable job of recovering that resolution, but you'll want to start with as high a quality image as possible, given that you'll produce a "slightly" soft image for the final product.

I think if I were you, I'd pay to have one image printed from your equipment at the desired size, and see if it meets your expectations.

16MP mirrorless quality enough for documentary project and 30x40 print?

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16MP mirrorless quality enough for documentary project and 30x40 print?

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