How big of a photo can I develop with a Nikon D5100?

I have a Nikon D5100. How big of pictures can be developed with the picture still being clear and high res.

A magazine quality print is printed at 300dpi (dots per inch) and is intended to be viewed from a close distance. A picture on a billboard
is printed at 20dpi to 30dpi and intended to be viewed from a very long distance - several hundred feet.

With a resolution of 4928 x 3264 you could print a 24" x 16" print at 200dpi (4928/200 = 24.6''; 3264/200 = 16.3'') and at 100dpi you could print a 49'' x 32'' print (4928/100 = 49.3''; 3264/100 = 32.6'').

Just keep in mind that the lower the dpi and the bigger the print the greater the viewing distance. As you get closer more and more pixelation will be noticeable. A general guideline is the smaller the print the closer the viewing distance and the larger the print the greater the viewing distance.

Also, you need as near a perfect image file as possible. It must be perfectly focused, and your camera and subject must be rock-steady. The tiniest bit of camera or subject movement or any other flaw will be magnified exponentially the bigger the enlargement.

Here's what I've come up with.
The Nikon D5100 can produce a picture 4928 pixels by 3264 pixels in the (L) JPEG setting. I have attached a screenshot from Walgreen's website showing there image size recommendations for poster printing. If you take an otherwise perfect picture it looks like you could print up to a 24" x 36".

Best guess, 11x14. You could try larger but the pixels may begin to show.

Big enough.

With the price of prints as cheap as they are why not try for yourself? I have always advocated making an 11x14 print to check the quality of the camera you just bought (while you can still return it, if you don't like it).

In the USA you can go to a one hour lab like Costco has and get an 11x14 print for just $4.00. And I believe a 16x20 is around $6.00. In fact I just bought a Pentax X-5 camera that the stupid manufactuer just distcontinued. I went for broke and had a 16x20 made. WOW, oh WOW, I was blown away by the wonderful quality. It was sharp as tack of two Manderian Ducks I shot at a wild animal park!

So with the price of prints so cottonpicking reasonable, YOU should try some big prints and I'll bet you will be smiling ear to ear! (as the saying goes).

Good Luck

NOTICE: All I said is great, but it is based on using the cameras highest/best resolution setting and a reasonable ISO (200 or less).