Just got the D50...some questions.

[JennRoseFX]

Hello everyone! I just purchased a Nikon D50 yesterday...it's my first SLR camera. I'm really excited and have gotten some wonderful results so far.

But, there's two little things I have questions about.


1. It's a 6 Megapixel camera...and according to the manual, that means if I'm taking pictures in the "Large" setting (3008 x 2000) and in "Fine" mode, the printed image should be around 10" x 15". Now, I'm taking my pics in those settings, but when I upload them and open them in photoshop, the printed size is around 6" x 10"....and if I crop it, even smaller. Is this correct? How do I get that 10" x 15" image? What am I doing wrong?


2. When the pictures are stored on the card, they are automatically numbered ( DSC_0001, DSC_0002, DSC_0003, etc.) With my old camera, these numbers were forever increasing...so, if I uploaded the group of pics to my computer, the next time I shot images, the numbers would pic off where they left off. But for some reason, here, they start from the begining each time...which is annoying because then they want to replace the images I previously uploaded on my computer and I have to make a new fold EACH time I upload ANYTHING...which is fine, but if I'm in a hurry, I want to be able to just plug it in and upload. How do I change this?

Any advice would be WONDERFUL! :)

I'm sure they're simple things and I look like an idiot...heh. But, I'm new at this and hungry to learn...so, all I can do is ask! :)

Thank you!!

-Jenn Rose

[Balrog]

The number of pixels in your image does NOT automatically determine a printed size. You have a 3008*2000 pixel image - when you print you get to pick how many of those pixels you want to put in each inch of the print. For high quality prints, 300ppi (pixels per inch) is a commonly quoted figure - that would give you a 10 by 6.6inch print. However, if you printed at 250ppi, you would get a 12*8. 200ppi would result in a 15*10 print.
You can pretty much print at any size you want - as the print size goes up, your pixel density would go down, eventually to the point where you would be able to distinguish the individual pixels when you look at the print.. that's about the farthest you want to go in terms of enlargement. Of course, that also depends on how far away you'll typically be looking at it from. If you print a 30*20 inch poster, it'd be at 100ppi, which is really low - however if you only ever looked at it from 5 feet away, it'd likely be good enough.
In fact, if you really want to print at larger sizes, it's usually good to digitally "resample" the original file up to a larger resolution on your computer - interpolation functions can increase the size significantly while maintaining decent quality. So you could resample that 3000*2000 image to 9000*6000 and then print your 30*20 poster at 300ppi and it'd look better than the 100ppi one.

About the file naming issues, sorry - I don't have a D50, so can't really say.. it does strike me as unusual though, since most every camera I've used preserves file naming across uploads. It could be a menu setting or a custom function...

[JennRoseFX]

Boy do I have alot to learn.

Okay, so when I go to alter the print size from 300 to 200 and I then print, the image size doesn't change. Is there somewhere else where I should be changing the pixels per inch?


I will read over what you said about "sampling" a few more times to absorb it better before asking any questions about that...

[K1W1]

2. When the pictures are stored on the card, they are automatically numbered ( DSC_0001, DSC_0002, DSC_0003, etc.) With my old camera, these numbers were forever increasing...so, if I uploaded the group of pics to my computer, the next time I shot images, the numbers would pic off where they left off. But for some reason, here, they start from the begining each time...which is annoying because then they want to replace the images I previously uploaded on my computer and I have to make a new fold EACH time I upload ANYTHING...which is fine, but if I'm in a hurry, I want to be able to just plug it in and upload. How do I change this?


There is a menu setting.
Go to the fourth option down on the left (looks like a spanner)
Scroll down to "File No. Seq"
Turn the option to "ON"

Your photos will continue to number sequentially up to DSC_9999

I had the exact same problem BTW,

[JennRoseFX]

Thank you!!! I guess I had the "menu" on simple instead of "detailed" so I never even saw the file sequence option. Yeay! It was making me crazy.

[yonidass]

Regarding file size, keep in mind there are three Fine, Normal, and Basic sizes. That means three of each. Next to the quality setting on the control panel you'll see either an L, an M or and S (Large-Fine, Medium-Fine or Small-Fine). If you hold the Qual button and turn the command dial you'll go through all the different sizes.

[brandname]

good choice