what camera do i us for real close up pictures for e-bay?

Question

I need close-ups of coins and stuff- for detail information. Also i want to be able to take more then 32 pictures that my camera takes now. What camera is best?

I have a Canon Power Shot A75, 3.2 mega pixels. Can i take close-ups of coins with this???

Answer 1

A good one unfortunately you get what you pay for.

Answer 2

I would suggest you go to a store that will let you try. I doubt you want to spend as much money as I did, but my Nikon Coolpix 995 will fill the frame with a coin and auto focus on that with a zoom from a foot out. A camera that takes a memory card will allow you to increase picture ability - mine now has 128M and will take over 500 XVGA pictures. I take them and cut them down for eBay.

Answer 3

Look for ANY camera with macro capabilities. It's more the technique than the camera that matters. Even if you are not planning on selling anything small, you wil find it is helpful to show detail on certain items - even clothing at times.

A 2 or 3 megapixel camera is quite adequate for eBay, but you may as well get 4 or more, since they are so cheap these days and then you could use it for something other than eBay if the mood strikes you. I have been using various cameras, but most of my eBay photos are taken with a Nikon Coolpix 5400. This camera is out dated, but it's a 5 MP camera. I have dome some with my Coolpix 4600, which is only a 4 MP camera and it's just fine. I think it's obsolete also...

Right now, I think I'd consider a Canon Powershot A550 as the buy of the season for eBay photography. It will "only" get as close as 5 cm (2 inches), but that should be quite adequate for any eBay pictures. It sells for about $160.

It's true that the large size on eBay is 800 pixels by 800 pixels and you could theoretically get that with less than 1 MP, but starting out with a good sharp image made by a camera with a decent quality lens is important.

Shop eBay for a 3 or 4 MP camera. Check to be sure that it has a macro mode. You'd like to get within a couple inches of some items or detail on some items. Stick to any of the brands that people are sure to recommend here. Nikon, Canon, Fuji, Sony, Pentax and Kodak are all well-known brand names with a good reputation.

I happen to have some photos from old auctions on an FTP site. I think that these were all taken with a 3 MP Nikon Coolpix 885, but I hope they convince you not to buy a dinky webcam.

http://members.aol.com/swf08302/carvina.jpg
http://members.aol.com/swf08302/konkontu.jpg
http://members.aol.com/swf08302/skullfront.jpg

Here's some information about taking pictures of jewelry and coins.

The best way to take photos of jewelry for a web site is with a digital SLR and a macro lens. If you are not going to go with a DSLR, almost any point and shoot with a macro mode will serve you well. The thing is, I feel that you need to use the flash to force the aperture to close while still having enough light for an exposure. Many here will tell you different, but follow this advice and see what you think.

Use your macro setting and experiment. Let's say you have a point and shoot camera with macro and a flash on the camera. You might have to go to a manual mode to do this, but...

Put your item on a nice background surface. I like to just put it in a ring box or on some velour. Zoom out at least half-way so that you will be working about a foot away from the ring. Be sure that you get focus confirmation. Shoot a picture USING flash. Check the LCD for the result. If you have overexposed the item, use the EV adjustment to reduce the exposure. For small items, I often find that I need to reduce the exposure by about 1.0 EV. (That's -1.0 EV.) It is better to have the item properly exposed and the background underexposed, so just worry about the jewelry for now. Using a deliberate underexposure will cure the "too shiny" appearance of the stones and metal.

If you know how, you can use either full manual exposure or just Aperture Priority and choose a smaller aperture (larger number) to make the ring show up in better focus.

If you have a DSLR, post your question again stating the kind of camera that you have and the lens that you are using and we will give more details.

If you are doing any image processing at all, such with Photoshop or it's cousins, you can crop the image to 800 pixels by 800 pixels and use Supersize images on eBay. I always use the Picture Pack when I am selling anything of any value.

Check out http://www.members.aol.com/swf08302/heartring.jpg which I did a while ago using a Nikon Coolpix 5400 exactly as described above. I do NOT think this is acceptable, but we decided not to sell the ring anyhow, so I didn't bother to do a better job. It's still better than some I've seen. I don't keep old photos of sold items around, so I don't have much to show you, but at least you know that it's possible to get an acceptable result even without spending huge dollars on your equipment.

The key things to remember are:
-Macro setting
-Zoom out to get about a foot away from your subject
-Use flash
-Try different EV settings and expect that you will end up with a negative EV setting, such as -1.0 EV.

I happen to have some photos from old auctions on an FTP site. I think that these were all taken with a 3 MP Nikon Coolpix 885.

http://members.aol.com/swf08302/carvina.jpg
http://members.aol.com/swf08302/skullfront.jpg
http://members.aol.com/swf08302/konkontu.jpg
(The patch is about 4 inches long.)

Here are a couple of coin photos done exactly as described, but using a D200:

http://www1.snapfish.com/slideshow/AlbumID=57759389/PictureID=2801041875/a=75953750_75953750/t_=75953750
http://www1.snapfish.com/slideshow/AlbumID=57759389/PictureID=2801041874/a=75953750_75953750/t_=75953750

I did these with my Nikon Coolpix 4600, just to show you what a really inexpensive camera can do. It's a 4 MP camera that I paid about $150 for a couple of years ago.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/577501964/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/577501976/

Here are a couple more auction photos done as described, using a 60 mm macro lens on a DSLR:

800 x 800 http://www.members.aol.com/swf08302/yorkie01.jpg
800 x 800 http://www.members.aol.com/swf08302/montblanc05.jpg
800 x 800 http://www.flickr.com/photos/7189769@N04/412244168/ (light box)
800 x 800 http://www.flickr.com/photos/7189769@N04/412244164/

If you are interested in a full description of an SLR set-up, post a new question and ask specifically for that information. I'm gathering from the nature of your question that you might be in the point and shoot market.

Answer 4

always use a digital camera but i dont what brand u like but with the digital u can see the pictures after u take them which helps a lot