what are the best digital cameras for close-ups? i need to photo typewriter print, clothes labels and coins.?

Question

in 1999 i bought a a Sony Mauvica 10X that was perfect. i got out of the business in 2004 and sold my Sony. cameras are 10 times better now but i cannot find any that do close-ups as good as my Mauvica. are any close-up cameras under $175.

Answer 1

The Pentax Optio W30 is $60 over budget. If this was $855 instead of $795, that would be no big deal, but this is another 35% over budget in this price range.

Look at the Canon Powershot A550, A560 or A570-IS. The first two are under budget.

Canon A550: http://www.steves-digicams.com/2007_reviews/a550.html
Canon A560: http://www.steves-digicams.com/2007_reviews/a560.html
Canon A570-IS: http://www.steves-digicams.com/2007_reviews/a570.html


For objects photographed from a distance of 3-4 feet, absolutely any digital camera and any "digital photographer" can get a suitable image. Don't forget that the largest picture eBay will display (unless you are hosting your own images) is 800 x 800 pixels or less than 1 megapixel. For jewelry or other small items, you have to learn macro technique. You can also do this with almost any digital camera, but here's an article that I wrote about jewelry in specific. I am sure that you will find it helpful.

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/

I finally posted that auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:11&item=200126973404

Answer 2

For $175, your options will be limited, but I think the camera in the link below may be helpful to your cause. It's a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ5, and it retails for $149.95. You can use the remaining $25 or so to find a memory card for it.

It's 6 megapixels, with a 6x optical zoom, which is pretty decent for a camera of that form factor. It has a minimum focusing distance of 2 inches according to the specifications, and it has a nice, large 2.5" LCD, which is just about the standard today. The camera also offers advanced options so if you want to take control of the picture, you can with this camera.

If there's anything different you would want from a camera, then post it, and that will help narrow things down.

Answer 3

You should get the PENTAX Optio W30. Its slim, sleek, stylish, with 7 megapixels, has lots of features like a macro setting for pictures up to half an inch away! Plus its waterproof down to 10ft for 2 hours!!

I have had the PENTAX Optio W10 for a few years and I have never had ANY problems with it at all! It is such a great camera and I LOVE it!

It has TONS of features, VERY good picture quality, its sleek & stylish. And its waterproof! You can see the camera here: http://www.pentaximaging.com/products/product_details/digital_camera--Optio_W30/reqID--9587364/subsection--optio
I have had the PENTAX Optio W10 (a slighty older version) for a few years now and I absolutely LOVE it!

Answer 4

I really believe buying a camera is an individual choice.
The person needs to read alot of reviews on cameras and learn as much as they can from the internet.
Go to the store and hold them and try them to see what they feel like and how they take pictures.
I can only give a suggestion of what to look for in a new digital camera.
Good Luck

my suggestion
go to yahoo shopping
digital cameras
digital camera GUIDE
be sure to check titles on the left side
the guide should answer your questions

Answer 5

Go to shutterbug.com and do a search for cameras with close-focusing capability.

The best set-up would be a camera with interchangeable lenses so you could use a true macro lens. Unfortunately that's something not in your price range - unless you find one on ebay.