i have a new 50D and frankly it's causing me to have difficulties with uploads. the pictures come out of the camera (set on large) as: total size 43.1M, width 4752 pixelsXheight 3168 pixels. in inches w 66 Xh 42. the DPI is 72. my question is does the DPI set at 72 make the image inferior? i'm used to cropping at 17X11.333 with a DPI of 300. if i do it with this camera it comes out HUGE. for those of you using this camera what DPI are you using for uploads? i'm so confused about sizing. i've never had this problem before. (i'm also sending this to a couple of people that i know have this camera. thanks, jen

I don't really know the technical aspects, but I know that its best to use different DPI depending on what you plan to do with your image. If you are printing out a good sized picture, say to frame, I believe you would use a higher DPI (I would assume the 300 like you said). But if your image is intended for web use, then 72 DPI would be ideal.

I hope some others can divulge the technical "secrets" of this, but I'm pretty sure that's the general gist of it. So, to answer your question, different DPI's would make an image inferior if used for the wrong purpose. A large art print using 72 DPI would be of inferior quality to a 300 DPI...not sure if it works the other way around for web use.

Jen, 72 DPI is ideal for posting on Caedes as bean811 stated. That works out to an image of about 250k. Assuming you have CS3, when I am ready to post and save my image, i save it under "Save for Web and devices" rather than using "save As". Then under quality, you can make the image whatever DPI you want. You can what the image size in kilobytes is going to be by looking at the lower left of your image when using "Save for Web And Devices".

You do know that an image will not post in the Upload booth that is wider than 3000 or higher than 2000 pixels. If the image size is larger than that, you must reduce it in CS3 under "Image" then "Image Size". I have had no problem loading images from my 50D. Does this help?
Pat

thanks to both of you. i've never saved as "web". i've just cropped and resized, sometimes in genuine fractals. and, i always upped the resolution so as not to lose detail when i crop and enlarge. i never had this problem with either the 5D or 10D. these files come out huge! i really appreciate what you have to say. oh, pat, i always keep it under 3000X2000. now i'm not sure how i do it.

To answer the original question, which was "my question is does the DPI set at 72 make the image inferior?"

No it doesn't. The DPI (Dots per Inch) simply tells the computer how far to spread the image. In your case it's taking the 50D's 4752 pixels and spreading then at the rate of 72 pixels to the inch. 4752 pixels at 72 DPI becomes a 66 inch photo.

For printing you would normaly use 300 DPI so 4752 pixels at 300 DPI becomes a 15.84 inch photo, which is a better quality print.

72 DPI is the recommended setting for screen displays because 72 DPI is the same as most CRT (old style) monitors use and using more won't be seen on the screen at 100% size. So it makes sense to set your wallpaper to 72 DPI too. As a bonus you also get a smaller final image size which uploads quicker :-)

So what you need to do Jen is - leave yore photos at 72 DPI and resize them to whatever size you like to display them at then save as something else. I usually append the original filename with the word wallpaper.

Even the most elementary photo software has the tools to set the DPI and size. Once you become familiar with the procedure it only takes a few seconds to do.

Reminds me this thread.
I agree with Robert. The DPI setting is just for printing.
With your Canon 50D, you have just to reduce the size from 4752x3168 to 3000x2000 or smaller. That's all!

thank you