Hey,

I just ordered the Canon Powershot A570IS and I am planning to use it as a everyday camera and probably occasionally use some of the photos for microstock.

So my plan is to take the 7Mpix photos and resize them to 4Mpix (or even less for iStock) to get rid of the noise. What is the best software to resize images to achieve good (noise-free/less) results for microstock?

Do you think that the results would be decent? I have the 20D with very good glass for serious work so if you think that it will look cr@p don't hesitate and let me know (I can take the truth).

I have the latest version of photoshop. Is there a setting that is favorable for resizing pictures from a point & shoot (i.e. oversharpened pictures)?

I am open to all comments. Anyway, when I get it I will try to process some pictures and try to get them accepted to see how much you can push the agencies.

Oversharpened?  I don't think my Canon A620 gives me oversharpened images.  Noise may be an issue indeed, even if shooting at ISO50.

When I downsize, I use PSP7 (my regular editor).  I don't think it's necessary to have a special tool for that. 

Regards,
Adelaide

This is mostly to Francisco (but applies to everyone else who is thinking the same).

I was misunderstood and I am sorry (I should have been more clear).

What I meant by "serious work" is serious microstock.
I plan on using my current setup (20D) for pictures I planned to take (e.g. setup shoots, nice well composed landscapes,...)

And I plan to use the A570IS (compact) for times when I don't have the 20D on me and I happen to take an interesting picture (e.g. I am commuting and I take a picture of something that I wouldn't anticipate)

So I would imagine that 95% of my picture for microstock would be still taken with the 20D and the 5% will be these "chance pictures".

OK... understood....

I'm also sorry for misunderstanding and ranting on you like that, but i freaked out when i saw the "serious work" sentence... After all you also said that you would use it occasionally and i haven't read that... sorry for that.

As for your question, Neat Image or noise ninja are great photoshop plugins to get rid of the noise. I use neat image and it's fine. The catch is that it softens the image as much as the quantity of noise the pic has... Is the amount of noise on your P&S too much for the pic to be "uploadable" after you run noise reduction on it ? I dont know... only someone with that experience may help... or you trying... Nevertheless there are many guys using P&S for stock and they get their pics approved so... why can't you ?

Regards

Francisco Leit�o

Maco,
Hey, I understood you first time around.  :-)  I do the same thing as you plan to...carry my A640 all the time for personal snapshots and whatever comes up.  I've gotten some good stock shots from it along the way.  You should be able to turn off the in-camera sharpening, even in the P&S.  I use the bicubic sharpen when I resize in Photoshop and haven't had a problem, but I do have in-camera sharpening off.  My 640 has 10mp, so there's plenty of room for resizing.  I do get that dreadful chromatic aberration on occasions, sometimes irretrievably.  When that happens, it's a bummer...makes me wish I had my regular gear.  I do haul it around most of the time, but sometimes it's just too much.