How Far Can You Push a 5 MP Raw File With Modern Upscaling Software?

Megapixel count is one of the most debated specs in photography, and the question of how few you can get away with for large prints is one that rarely gets a straight answer. Keith Cooper put that question to a real test using a camera from 2002 and actual prints made today, and the results are worth seeing.

Coming to you from Keith Cooper, this detailed video walks through the full process of taking raw files from an Olympus E-20 — a 5 MP, CCD-sensor camera from around 2002 — and printing them at A3+ (13 x 19 in) on metallic paper using an Epson ET-8550. The files are 2,560 x 1,920 pixels. That's it. And Cooper prints them large anyway. He runs them through Topaz Gigapixel AI (version 8) at 4x to 6x enlargement, which takes the pixel count up to roughly 10,000 x 8,000 before any output sharpening. That's a big ask from such a small file, and part of what makes this worth watching is seeing how far modern upscaling software can actually carry a 20-year-old image.

One thing Cooper addresses early is raw compatibility. Camera Raw supports the E-20's raw files, but DxO PhotoLab does not, and neither does most of the original software that shipped with the camera. If you're working with old files from discontinued cameras, that's a real limitation. He also flags a specific optical issue with this camera: blue and purple fringing that shows up near bright areas like sky. It's not chromatic aberration in the traditional sense, and Camera Raw's standard chromatic aberration checkbox won't fully fix it on its own. You have to use the fringing correction separately, and pushing it too hard clips blue from the sky. Cooper explains the tradeoff clearly and shows what it looks like at high magnification before and after correction.

What's less obvious going in is how much of the final result comes down to decisions made after the upscaling. Cooper opens the enlarged file in Photoshop, applies levels and curves adjustments, and then uses Nik Collection (version 9) to add a subtle layer of film grain. The reasoning is practical: the grain softens some of the flatness that upscaling can introduce, and at print size, it's invisible without a magnifying glass. He also covers print sharpening, including the often-ignored point that sharpening on screen should look slightly overdone because the print will render it differently than your monitor does. He's also deliberate about which areas of an image need no sharpening at all, specifically smooth areas like clear sky, where sharpening only amplifies grain.

Check out the video above for the full rundown from Cooper, including his side-by-side comparisons of different Gigapixel AI settings and his take on whether a 5 MP print can realistically hold up next to output from a modern camera.