I typically scan regular photos at 150dpi and then print them to a black and white 600 dpi laser printer(HP-6MP). The end product is a halftone used as camera-ready artwork for newsprint. I want to buy a digital camera to skip the scanning step all together. I would think a low resolution unit would do the trick. Any enlightening info is appreciated. Thank you.

-- Dan Holland (oconews@home.com), December 04, 1998

Answers

Dan- You didn't mention what size your final images would be, an important distinction. Also, for more background information, try the "search" function on this forum, at the top of the entry screen - type the word "halftone", and you'll find several articles with more background info.

Bottom line, you can get very good megapixel units for $300-400, so I don't think it's worth the risk of going with a VGA-level camera for printed output, even from a laserprinter. (Just for comparison, to keep parity with what you're currently doing, if you divide a 640x480 image by 150 dpi, you'll end up with a ~3x4 image size. If that's acceptable for your use, then a 640x480 camera would do fine.)

-- Dave Etchells (web@imaging-resource.com), December 09, 1998.