The average magazine prints in 300 dpi and is 11″ tall by 17″ wide. If you do the math on that, it comes out to a 3,300 X 5,100 pixel image. Multiply the two together and you get a 16.8MP chipset to make a native 11″ x 17″ image.

Of course, you’d actually need just a hair more (say 17.something MP) in order to make up for the fact that the chips have 3:2 ratios, which are slightly fatter than the more rectangular “box” of a magazine spread open).

But, the good news is, almost every magazine is currently printing anything larger than 10MP images as a double truck. Being willing to accept up to a 40% enlargement so far has been something of a compromise, and you can definitely see those double-truck images getting soft. As more photographers have access to cameras in the 15-17MP range, I expect that magazines will tighten up their double truck submission guidelines.

My only concern here is that if D400 is a DX camera (which is likely), then we’re going to have some noise problems. Nikon has gotten better and better at dealing with noise digitally, but at the end of the day, a bigger chip makes a better image, period. We’re probably still 4 years from an FX-sized prosumer camera (meaning under $1500), and when we get it it will definitely be the 12MP chip. But this is certainly looking like the beginning of the endgame to the megapixel wars. We certainly don’t need medium format to do magazine journalism but there is still a little room for growth. When 17MP FX cameras are in everyone’s hands, there will be no need to get any larger chip.

Zach