What is a good digital camera for taking pictures of paintings to post on the internet?

Question

I would like to purchase a digital camera that is as uncomplicated as possible, but still takes good quality pictures of oil/watercolor paintings to post on the internet.

Answer 1

For posting pictures on a website, you don't need gobs of megapixels. That's marketing hype. In fact, if you do just the slightest bit of research on it, you'll realize that today's ultra-high megapixel cameras suffer from highlight clipping, and reduced dynamic range, which would actually negatively affect your goal--posting nice pictures of paintings. You would lose detail in the shadows, which would otherwise add depth to your shots. Unless you plan to crop a whole lot, or you plan to print at 24x36" sizes, you really don't benefit much from a 10megapixel camera (and as an aside, many 10mp cameras don't offer the full 10mp resolution at apertures smaller than f2.0 since they're differaction limited to lower resolutions).

In fact, your needs are pretty simple to meet. You could even get a 2 megapixel camera and have enough to publish pics on the web (a 1280x1024 screen will only require a 1.3megapixel image to totally fill up its screen). You don't need a super zoom, you don't need image stabilization. What you really want to focus on is this:

1) manual controls that allow you to adjust color balance details...not just white balance, but contrast, sharpness, and color emphasis.

2) Consider cameras that don't employ significant noise reduction. Some cameras are more "consumer" oriented in terms of the manufacturer's choices of how much noise reduction to employ, and how much color manipulation to employ. Often, manipulated pictures will be appealing to the general public because they will have "punchy" dramatic colors, and the image will seem pretty smooth. But I would recommend a cameral that lets you decide which colors to emphasize. Furthermore, the smoothness of a picture that has had significant noise reduction applied to it gains its smoothness at the expense of detail. If you want to catch the details of your paintings' brush stroke, and canvas texture, you'll want as little noise reduction as possible, because it will rob you of those details.

3) I'd lean towards larger sensor sizes versus smaller ones. Remember the comment on reduced dynamic range? Well, the loss of dynamic range is dependent on how concentrated the photoreceptors are on the sensor. If it's a real small sensor, the individual photosites don't do a very good job at picking up details. So, infallibly, you will find the larger sensor sizes offer better dynamic range. (Fuji's SuperCCD sensor is the one exception, and I usually recommend those, but not in your case) I don't know if size is a priority, but that typically means I'm not in favor of the really small subcompacts.

4) Stick with cameras that have proven to have good image quality. Image quality is more than just the quality of the lens. It's the quality of the lens and the quality of the camera's ability to focus, and the camera's sensor ability, and the in-camera noise processing. Sites like DPreview and Image Resource do thorough image quality tests on many levels. You can get a sense of what you can do there.

Specific cameras? There are many I would think that you would find adequate. If you want to go fancy, off the cuff, here are a feww I'd throw out there.

Canon Pro1 for its ISO 50 performance

Canon Powershot G6

Canon Powershot A640

Possibly the Fuji E550

Answer 2

Please forget all the high mega-pixel talk unless you want people to spend 5 minutes uploading a picture that is 4 times bigger than the computer screen. For the internet you need to drastically reduce your settings to make pictures fit on the screen. A full screen is usually less than one megapixel, so buy any camera you like. Canon is my favorite.

Answer 3

Kodak is the best digital out there, But I have HP and it works for me! What really matters is the printer, you have to have good photo paper and a printer that works well with what picture you've taken!

Answer 4

I use Nikon Coolpix 7600. You can vary the settings for whatever you want to compose.

Answer 5

Sony Mavica with a floppy or a Fuji Film s3500 fine pix.

Answer 6

for around $130.00
sony dsc-s600
take pics without flash
in a bright room

Answer 7

The higher the resolution the better. 5 megapixles or better at the highest resolution. Also, check your local laws about what is legal for your application.