petego4it Loc: NY

I have a Canon Pixma ix6820 that does quite a decent job on photos. But I would like to display some landscapes and some portraits taken at high res settings out of Nikon D850 and would like candid comment on how much better, sharper, etc. going to a lab would give noticeable improvement in display results and also who to pick and how best to interact for notable enlargements such as a 36" pano landscape?

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Very candid:
Unless the viewer has something with which to compare, how would they know if it's the absolute sharpest or not?

Only the photographer knows for sure, and is probably the one most worried about it.

I have a lab print most of mine because I don't want to go through ink like there is no tomorrow.

And, the ideal viewing distance for a 36" pano is not one foot.

Strodav Loc: Houston, Tx

I have a D850 at 8256 x 5504 pixels or 45.7mp. At 300 pixels / inch you can get very, very high quality 27 1/2" x 18 1/3" prints. I have gotten very good results at 180 pixels / inch or 46" x 30 1/2" inch prints. What's acceptable to you is very subjective and depends on how critical you are and the viewing distance. For panoramas I use a 24mm prime, turn the camera vertical and take overlapping shots horizontally for very high resolution photos. You can do the same with a lower mp camera.

For prints up 17" x 22" I print in house. The reason is that my printer has a wider color space than the srgb color space used by most photo labs and I was spending too much money outsourcing larger prints. I was able to buy a 12 color printer with the money I saved by printing in house. I think my prints look better than the ones I was getting from a lab. With that said, for stuff larger than 17" x 22" I use mpix.com. I have gotten very good results using them.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

The Canon Pixma ix6820 is a "business printer" with three colors plus black. It can do photos but not like a "photo printer" with up to 10 colors. I don't see how you can get D850 quality without going to a lab.

Print a favorite image best you can on your printer and have a lab do one to match and compare for yourself.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Which 17" x 22" printer to you have?

coolhanduke Loc: Redondo Beach, CA

I don't think sharpness should be any different if you have a good home printer. Maybe if you use a magnifying glass.
But before you send a print off to a photo lab, make sure they are using a silver halide professional printer. Otherwise you will just be getting an ink jet print.
The color gamet should be much better because an inkjet printer is only as good as how many ink jet cartridges it has (cyan/light cyan, magenta/light magenta etc.).
A professional silver halide printer uses a laser capable of millions of colors reproduction. Also, silver halide paper will give you a much better print.

Strodav Loc: Houston, Tx

Canon Pro-1000

yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey

The Pro-1000 is my favorite printer. Did you do the firmware update that allows for printing panoramas? It extends the maximum page length to something like 45 inches.

Strodav Loc: Houston, Tx

I know it can do 17x25, but didn’t know it can go longer. Thanks for the tip.

yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey

Strodav - I've printed some panoramas with the Pro1000 and they look really nice.

petego4it Loc: NY

thanks! good concrete info!

petego4it Loc: NY

thanks, useful.

petego4it Loc: NY

I had that printer. I found it made better prints than the current one that is called "business" above. But honestly not that much better in most cases and unless I used it regularly full color the ink would dry or "cake" and therefore it's very very expensive to keep replacing most or all of the 10 cartridges and refresh the nozzles too.

A normal amateur problem!

petego4it Loc: NY

This (silver halide) info is good and valuable I think. Do you other Hogs agree?

MJPerini

When you say "does a decent job" the question is compared to what ? If you are genuinely satisfied with the output of your printer, That is what counts the most. If you are interested in showing the maximum possible quality available from a camera like a D850, the answer is you can do significantly better.
True large format , wide Gamut photographic printers can make really wonderful and noticeably superior prints in an optimized workflow. Which includes providing an optimized file --usually a 16bit TIFF in the appropriate color space, and density.
Many labs work mostly from JPEGs which limits your color space to sRGB. The D850 files can exceed Adobe RGB.
However it is unlikely that any file you send to a lab will be the best possible file for the way they are set up. That's why people 'soft proof' to dial in an optimized file, or have printers controlled by RIP (Raster image Processor) software like Image Print.
If you are serious about getting the best quality, pick a lab that Accepts TIFFS in at least ADOBE RGB and speak to them about making some test prints. Once you dial in your file prep and you get good tests, order the big print and then stick with that lab. (---You may be able to try soft proofing in your editing software)
The most important thing is how much effort you want to put into the process. There is no wrong answer, they are your prints and it is your money. Very nice prints can be made from JPEGS. Depending on the file, not all pictures necessarily need a wide gamut printer, others benefit a great deal.
It takes time and effort to find out.
The best place to start is by looking at great prints.
Like many things, getting to 80% of possible quality is easy, getting to 90% is much harder, above that Harder still.
Nowadays, 80% looks very good vs any historical comparison, but you will know when you see the really good ones.