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General discussion

Grainy pictures with the Sony DSC - P150

Mar 5, 2005 12:34PM PST

Looks good when taking the pictures and on the computer, but when printing, they come out very grainy. Too late to read the CNET review of "not to get this camera", anything I can do other than bite the bullet and buy another camera for $400?

Discussion is locked

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Don't Rush Out Just Yet
Mar 5, 2005 11:04PM PST

Two possibilities.

1. You have the camera set incorrectly.
2. You have the printer set incorrectly.

.............................................

Lets say you want to print a photo at approx. 8 x 10 inches:

The camera should be set to take photos at:
3072 x 2304 and quality set at "fine".

The printer should be set to glossy paper and best quality. If you have the option, set it to 300 dots per inch. And you should use glossy photo paper.

.........................................

If it takes less than a minute to print this photo, you have the printer set incorrectly.

It should take closer to two minutes to print this photo.

...
..
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No, I don't think so. Printer dpi and image dpi are NOT the
Mar 5, 2005 11:12PM PST

same thing. The printer dpi should be set considerably higher since it is trying to make the print look like a continuous tone.

Try the printer's highest setting and work down. When you notice a difference in the quality of output, you are too low. Go back up one setting. On an Epson 2200, for example, a setting of at least 1440dpi should be used.

You are using the correct color profile for the printer/paper combination I presume.

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PS: A suggestion is to have one or more photos printed by
Mar 6, 2005 3:26AM PST

a commercial service. This should give you a pretty good idea as to whether the quality problem is due to the camera. It's probably best to let them work directly with the image actually produced by the camera rather than one that has been edited.

Another problem you may be having is that your printer, ink, and/or paper may not be up to the job. The printer should be a photo printer with ink and photo quality paper produced by the printer manufacturer. If you don't have one or more of these, that could be the source of your problem.

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Not a camera issue
Apr 22, 2005 2:57PM PDT

If it looks great on your computer, then I doubt if its an issue with the camera, it obviously took a good photo because it looks great on your pc. Note that if you stretch the image larger to print it, you will lose quality (various printing programs are out there so it also depends on your printer and how you are printing this, the type of paper, etc.).