I'm flattered Steven, but although I've checked the manual online I can't really see what the answer to this one is. I was hoping someone would know!

There's a slight misunderstanding here. 800 pixels wide is the size for the forum. The Gallery will happily take larger sizes and I find 1000 wide is ideal. If you make it too large it might slow down loading.

They are discouraged Stan, and in fact deleted where noticed.

You can find the answer to this by setting inappropriate values and seeing what happens.

Let's start with the camera, say a K20D, which has a native value of 72ppi. If we print this as it is we will get a huge print with very low resolution. It might look fine from a long distance away, but at normal distances with only 72 pixels for every inch it will be very pixelated.

So we change it for printing to 300ppi, which reduces the image size and means that each inch on the print now is made up of 300 pixels, a much more detailed image that we can view much closer.

I haven't looked up the exact values, but for this description that doesn't matter.

Now we get to our printer. If we take the 300ppi image and print it, the image is reproduced out of dots of ink. These are "dithered" to make a better continuous tone. But how may diots of ink will make up each inch of our image? Obviously the more the better. So I set my printer to reproduce the 300 pixels in my inch of image by laying down 2880 dots per inch. Each pixel is therefore made up of many dots, which makes the image look better.

Does that help?

No Algi, it's a 300ppi file. The number of pixels is defined. The size is defined.

The printer dpi has nothing whatsoever to do with this. It only changes the quality at which the 300ppi file is printed.

I really think you are confused about this.

I can assure Algi that I do not have this wrong. The confusion between ppi and dpi even crops up from time to time in magazines.

It's almost the digital equivalent of the age old confusion between depth of field and depth of focus.

Wood gives off chemicals, which is why having open shelves or racks is important. Foam should also be chemical free, otherwise the volatile gases given off might affect lenses. It's just a matter of the type of foam. After all, it is used in some camera cases.

A standard zoom is really needed, be it the 18-55mm, 16-45mm, 16-50mm, 18-135mm or 17-70mm.

The last wedding we did we both used the 18-135mm and it was brilliant. Fast, versatile and good results.

Don't be confused with ppi and dpi.

The image we handle on the computer is measured in ppi (pixels per inch) and the printer prints these pixels with dpi (dots per inch).

We need a lot more than 360dpi at the printer, otherwise we'd have one pixel represented by one dot of ink. I work at 2880dpi, which does give excellent quality prints.

When we use a lab to print, they will usually specify their ideal ppi. In the case of peak this is 240ppi. In practice 300ppi also works well with their printers.

The K-5 is very convenient if, like us, you happen to print at A3. It's already sized at about A3 and 300ppi. Perfect.

In the case of other cameras, that might have native 72 or 180ppi, for printing resizing should be done. That would apply to anything for optimum results. Letting the printer or print service sort it out is not the best route. This applies to web images in this forum as well. Resizing properly before uploading to a web hosting service is much better than letting it happen automatically.

Photoshop or equivalent is an excellent route to take.