As photographers we all want magic solutions — the lens that's sharper than any other, the 6MP digital camera that will outresolve the 11MP model that costs 5X as much. Or, the software program that will allow us to enlarge our files to huge sizes with no loss in quality. Psychologists call it "magical thinking", and most of us fall prey to it sometimes. Indeed manufacturers count on it when they try and sell you products that overpromise but underdeliver.

Extensis pxl SmartScaleis a USD $199 Photoshop plug-in (Mac OSX & Windows) that promises a lot — "Users can now scale images up to 1600% with no discernible loss in printed quality" — saysExtensis. But can the product really deliver?

What's it For?SmartScaleis designed to allow image files to be scaled upwards. Why would one want to do this? Three reasons, usually. The first is because the original file is small or low resolution. Images taken with the 1 to 3 Megapixel cameras of the ...