I remember the days when the printed 8 x 10 was the decided factor for judging good rez - and going bigger than that meant you were shooting something special like exclusive 25 ASA or Medium Format. And not too long ago many enthusiasts were arguing about 4mp vs. 12mp. There were those who lamented over the D2h which had 4mp but could shoot very high ISO and those who scoffed at anything less than the D2x 12mp but was crippled past 800 iso.

That was 2006.

Now I'm staring at the first prints from the P330 - and I'm flabbergasted. The print is the proof - where you can stare all you want on screen - zoom in - zoom out, blah.. blahh.. blahh..

And here are the results

4x6 - Excellent - and that's a given. Most everything will look good at 4x6

5x7 - Excellent - I had my doubts going into this - and I wasn't too sure but I had a good feeling the 5x7 would be ok.

12x18 - Excellent - hard to believe - I've looked at them more than once - and then I look again - and I say - I can really print at this size.

All were all 80 iso, except one -- so I thought I was setting myself up for failure thinking anything else would look poorly. But the Barista photo was at 400, and it's slightly off of critical focus, and shows just a touch of noise / grain.

Printed at Costco - with Luster finish - and I'm not bagging on Costco by any means - they do an excellent job for a $2.99 12x18 print. I can do better with the Epson R2880, and so can Miller's or MPix etc -- I just wanted to make it clear I know the difference.

I'm starting to wonder if this is all I take to France in a month.

So let's review:

This camera is f1.8 on the wide at 24mm and 5.6 on the long at 120mm
Autofocus sometimes hunts before the lock
It shoots RAW
It is sharp as anything I've shot
And it fits in your pocket.

Wow….