I have a Vivitar 3100 Vivicam, with an Output Image Resolution (Software Selectable) of up to 1920 X 1600 pixels. I am printing on a Lexmark 3200 (1200 X 1200 dpi), and the quality of my photos is marginal at best. Do I need special software to get the full (quality) potential from my camera and/or printer? Any advice or help you can give will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Gary Wolfsberger

-- Gary Wolfsberger (Gwolfsberger@worldnet.att.net), October 25, 1999

Answers

Can you be more specific? What exactly is the problem?

Is the Vivitar3100 the one that's based on Soundvision's 800x600 res. CMOS sensor reference design/prototype camera? The one with the pastel 4 color filters on the sensor? If so, you're actually working with a resolution of 800x600 pixels and interpolation won't add picture detail. Sampling the images larger will tend to make the images "softer" and require you to do some sharpening via software. However, the images should be decent up to at least 3x5 or 4x6, maybe higher. I can get a pretty decent 8x10 print from my Toshiba PDR-M1 and it only has a 1280x1024 sensor, and that's only a 1.3MP unit.

What size are you printing them at? How many PPI? What paper? Are the images pleasing on your computer monitor, but duller on the printed output? -that last one is a toughy, since it has to do with prints being a reflective medium and CRTs being transmissive/ transflective devices. [B4 someone jumps on me, yes, I said transflective. Never seen glare? Just checking to see if you're awake... :-) ] You'll never get the brightness and color from a reflective print that you can get from a good crt image.

As you can see, there are a LOT of variables. Tell us more, and I'll bet you'll find some help. :-)

-- Gerald Payne (gmp@francorp.francomm.com), October 25, 1999.

Whoops, I actually think the soundvision design was an 800x1000 pixel cmos? Anybody remember?

-- Gerald Payne (gmp@francorp.francomm.com), October 25, 1999.