re_photography

I was going to be a jerk and give you the "tip" of buying an Epson printer (as much as I love Canon DSLR's). On second thought, I decided to research the printer on Canon's website, and I'll be right back.......

Canon Spec Page for this Printer:

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelTechSpecsSupportAct&fcategoryid=232&modelid=8738

First of all, I don't imagine that it would be a compatability issue, since you are using it normally under other conditions. The specs rate it with compatable as-is with up to OS 10.2.x, but as said if it is working fine with OSX 3.9, then so be it.

Second, it lists as paper sizes:

Paper Sizes

Letter, legal, A3+ (13" x 19"), ledger (11" x 17"), A4, A5, 4" x 6", 5" x 7", U.S. #10 or European envelopes

No mention of custom paper size capability and the wording for the PIXMA Pro9000 is "Support for fine art paper <b><i>up to</b></i> 13" x 19"" makes it sound discouraging.....

There might be some way of fooling the software, but I don't know of it without having it on hand to screw around with.

On rereading your post, I see that you are looking to shoot and have printed a portrait of your child instead of paying a professional photographer to shoot it and have it printed.

Could you do this on your own sure, probably............

The fact that you don't already own a camera would leed me however to say that it is not advisable to buy a camera thinking that the camera will allow you in-and-of-itself to take a great photo. If you are interested in photography and plan on buying a camera anyway, then by all means buy the camera, but don't expect it to take photos for you. The 10.1MP resolution of the Rebel xti would probably suffice for the size print on canvas as long as it is not viewed from half a foot away.

Consider:

Taking the Photo:

- Do I own a capable camera/lens?

- Do I own a light meter?

- Do I have a suitable setting?

- Do I own lighting or have a good natural lighting location?

- Can I light the photo properly?

- Can I get the subject to pose properly? (honestly this is something I have had trouble with in some portraits too)

- Do I know how to properly adress the camera functions needed?

Postprocessing:

- Do I own a capable computer/monitor, considering that a 20"x24" 300dpi file will likely be a couple hundre MB while working on it?

- Do I own digital editing/retouching software?

- Do I know how to use said software?

- Do I know a reputable professional photo lab that will print canvas at the desired size? (assuming that you do not own a large format printer)

- Do I have the capability to adjust the color profiles settings of my software/equipment to match that of the lab?

Assuming that you were happy with the initial portrait, there is a reason why photographers charge as much as they do, though in my opinion that is a bit excessive depending on your market and the "fame" of the photographer. That said, if your reasoning for buying a camera would be simply to produce said wall portrait (and similar photos in the future) I would probably advise that you'd be better using a professional photographer instead, but perhaps a less expensive one.

I think I need some clarification before offering a coherent response:

Are you looking to shoot a portrait of your child sitting as the subject and have it printed 20x24 on canvas, or are you looking to take a photo of an existing 20x24 painting or canvas print of your child for purposes of reproduction?

Dust with digital sensors is a real problem certainly and some campanies have tried to address this with various "anti-dust" solutions. The reality is, that whenever there is dust, given enough time and lens changes, there will be dust on your sensor. I primarilly shoot with a 1DsMII which is long overdue for a cleaning, however, only a few of the many spots really show up at all unless shooting over f8 with a light background. As stated, just as the problem is not confined to one brand or another (brands have lessened the problem, but not avoided it), you must realize that if anything dust is much more an issue with traditional film photography and traditional printing than it is with DSLR and digital back photography.

There are of course simple remedies to dust problems, remedies, not solutions:

In my experience, the majority of dust enters the camera body when changing lenses as opposed to actual shooting or storage; this is especially true with the 1DsMII, since all openings and L lenses are gasketed. This being said, professionals shooting outside of a studio have the advantage of many times having multiple camera bodies for each lens used, thus eliminating on-location lens changes. Personally, I have a main body and a 20D as a backup (as far as DSLR's) but I generally use at least 3 lenses at each shoot to cover the range of 16-200mm at F2.8. This necessitates a number of lens changes in a short period of time, especially since it's obviously not practical to shoot everything at once with each lens. I now make sure to turn the power off (static electricity attracts dust) and point the body down when shooting. I should be having the sensor professionally cleaned soon.

If you do not own a gasketted camera body and are planning on shooting in a particularly dusty area, may I suggest a few things;

1) Consider purchasing an inexpensive weather cover for your camera/lens. These are also good in rain and snow if you don't have a sealed camera body.

2) Beyond changing lenses with the body pointed down, if you have to change at all in the particularly dusty area, isolate the camera/lens as much as possible from the environment while changing; i.e. place items in a bag, change in a car, etc.......

3) On a paid shoot, itemize/budget a camera cleaning fee.

4) As a temporary help, many descent DSLR's will include a "sensor clean" function which is intended to lock open the shutter so that you can swab the sensor. While I personally have no intension of physically touching the sensor in my camera which I think alone might be worth around $5000, I have used this a few times to open the shutter without passing electricity through it; I have then been able to physically shake free some dust while holding the camera face-down with a body cap or lens on while gently, yet abruptly tapping/hitting the body.

I guess my point, if anything, is that "dust prevention" should not factor into your decision in which DSLR to buy when compared with so many other more relevent topics, and it should certainly not be a reason to keep you shooting film if you otherwise have the desire/intension of shooting digitally. That said, when shooting on vacation and a few things for myself mountain climbing I've chosen to go back to my Sony F828 from time to time for both convenience and lack of possibility of dust; of course it does have other problems such as basically unusable images when set to an ISO higher than 200, but a 28-200 F2-2.8 permanently attached to the sensor is OK by me works for me in such cases.