I have two things to add to the Digital cameras discussion:

First, my favorite site is http://www.dpreview.com/

Second Denys Beauchemin wrote:
>  The optimum resolution is about 300 DPI in the picture, not the printer
> itself.  So your 1600X1200 picture produces a 4X5.3 inch picture at 300.
> The resolution will drop at 5X7 and 8X10.  The printer itself will then
> render the picture at the resolution you created using its ink jets.  The
> printer resolution currently exceeds whatever picture you have, by a wide
> margin.

As I understand things, this last sentence is not strictly true.  The reason
is that you really can't compare the DPI ratings of printers and digital
cameras directly.  The DPI ratings on cameras are based on the fact that
each dot is a combination of 3 colours (Red, Green and Blue), but the DPI
ratings on printers are based on a single colour (Cyan, Magenta, or Yellow).
When you create colour photographs on an inkjet printer, the effective
resolution drops to a third because it takes three dots (one of each of the
three colours) to create the dot that the camera has recorded.

So, optimum printing size for most printers will be found by dividing your
printer's resolution by 3 and then dividing that into your camera's
resolution.  On a 1200DPIx1200DPI inkjet, Denys could print his pictures at
4X3 and get optimal resolution (400DPI).  Above that, and you're not really
getting any additional benefit.

What this also means is that a 4x6 print from my Canon Powershot G2 (which
is 2272 x 1704) is (very) roughly 400DPI when properly oriented and about
1200DPI as the printer manufacturers measure it.  This is the limit of most
of the modern inkjets.  Also note that this is roughly equivalent to the
resolution that a photo-house's digital photo lab prints its photos at as
well, although they use a dye-sublimation process which is different than
what inkjets use and they measure DPI in the more traditional way (i.e. as
400DPI).

So, printer resolutions and camera resolutions are pretty close when looking
at a 4x6 print, however at 8x10, Denys is correct that camera resolutions
don't compare to printer resolutions.

Regards,
Rob

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