megapixels for commercial architecture photography

[MHB]

basically my question is, how much is enough? Ive never been one to worry about how many megapixels my dslr has but I know for commercial architecture they are more important. Is 24mp good?

 

[tirediron]

Depends... 2MP might be good. What are the requirements of the job?

 

[KmH]

Or use a cell phone.

 

[TreeofLifeStairs]

Are you making prints or just shown on the computer?

 

[Derrel]

There was a well-known architecture specialist with a couple decades' worth of experience, based in the American Southwest, who wrote a guest column for The Online Photographer a few years back; he mentioned that he had transitioned from using a 4x5 film camera to the Canon EOS 5D Mark II for over 90% of his paying jobs, using both software corrections, and Canon's tilt/shift lenses. That camera had I think it was 21 megapixels, so....

 

[SCraig]

A 24mp Nikon APS-C camera records images that are 6000 x 4000 pixels. If you shoot a scene that is, say, 75' wide then each pixel will cover (75 / 6000 = 0.0125 foot = 0.15 inch = 3.81mm) assuming that the lens is capable of resolving that much. So you tell me: Is that enough?

 

[DSRay]

If your client wants a billboard sized print, a DSLR isn't going to work. It really depends on the requirements of the job.

Having said that, I shoot roughly 90% of my work with a DSLR because it's for the local paper, tourist sales paper or realtors which use a lot for online purposes and I can easily cover the image requirements with my 18MP Canon T2i (soon going to the Nikon D800). If I need more I have a Mamiya RB67 for medium format which I almost never use (and will be sold when the Nikon shows up) because if I need more than a DSLR and I'm going to use film I just go with my Calumet 4x5.

So don't worry about the MPs just get started and if you need more, rent until your collection grows. If you want something to worry about, worry about lighting equipment... :mrgreen:

 

[sfaust]

If your client wants a billboard sized print, a DSLR isn't going to work. It really depends on the requirements of the job.

I've shoot billboards with DSLRs with great success. The viewing distance will be the deciding factor. If people will be viewing the billboard from a long distance, you can use a low megapixel camera and have it still look great. If they are going to be viewing it from 5', it's going to look terrible.

Typically, a high res DSLR is fine for billboards, and that is what I generally shoot for that application (I do a few each year). Yet the very same image printed at a smaller size on the side of a bus looked marginal because the viewing distance was much closer. So while I'll use a DSLR for a billboard, I now use 50MP+ medium format for the bus graphics.

When assessing print quality and the best format to use, viewing distance is more important than megapixels, although both need to be considered.

 

[KmH]

Yep, because of the viewing distance billboards get printed at very low print resolutions - like 10 ppi.

5000 px @ 10 ppi will print 500 inches (41.67 feet) wide.