Digital camera with good macro facility?

Question

I really want a digital camera that has a GOOD macro facility as all the ones I've had in the past have been useless. Want to be able to take very close up photos of plants and butterflies etc. Can you recommend a make and model to go for or at least tell me what I should be looking for when buying a camera, other than the tulip symbol.

Thanks

Oh dear - all sounds very complicated ! Is there NO point and shoot that is even any good at all?

Answer 1

Canon S5 iS... with is super macro mode that let you take picture at 0 cm focus distance... ok dslr with macro lens can do better but I dont think its what you are looking for...

Answer 2

A DSLR with a proper macro lens which you buy seperate is the best option but also the most expensive as good macro lens tends to be pricey.

In terms of an all in one the best option new could be a Panasonic FZ50 which is an all in one solution, with a macro facility. If you want to get even closer than the camera allows simply buy a close up lens which attaches onto the camera
lens.

Answer 3

A short answer is. Look for a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera and a Macro lens.

Leaders in Macro-Photography equipment for FILM cameras were, in alphabetical order, Minolta, Nikon and Olympus. Minolta merged with Konica several years ago and the company has stopped manufacturing cameras so I would look at Nikon or Olympus because they have many products that can be adapted from their film cameras to the newer digital cameras. Nikon will have more used equipment and both Nikon and Olympus have significant markets in the medical field so they stay current with high magnification products. Olympus will usually be less expensive and has two nice Macro Lenses for their DSLRs.

Hope this helps.

Email if you have specific questions or want me to send examples of pictures I have done.

Answer 4

fuji F10 and F11.check them out at a camera shop .
try before you buy.
they are point and shoot cameras but take very good `macro` .
if you want SLR try tameron 90mm dedicated macro lense,i use mine with a two times convertor.
before enlarging a butterflys eye fills a 6 x 4 print.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

Do you want new or would second-hand do? Do you want simplicity or are you going all out for absolute techno perfection. S/h I'd go for one of the Konica-Minolta Z series or Fuji Finepix, (all-in-one compact slr type), both about 6m pixel and with out accessories go down to about 2cm. S/h they can be picked up for about the £100 mark or even less. I got my Fuji S5700 for £80.

Answer 7

I'll completely change my answer for the point and shoot world. MOST point and shoots are good for macro if you use them correctly. Here's an item I wrote about taking photos of jewelry for eBay and MOST of it applies to your question.

I use a Canon SD900 for my current "pocket camera," but I have used half a dozen others down to the lowly Nikon Coolpix 4600 with good results. I'll add one or two examples from that camera.

Tom's recommendation for a Canon A570 is good and the A560 would be pretty good also. Both are less than $200.
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://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/1190290008/

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.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/1296244675/ (light box)
800 x 800 http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/1296276707/ (light box)
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 back in July: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:11&item=200126973404

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.


These were taken with a Nikon D200 or D70s and the 60 mm macro lens:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/1296244675/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/814790123/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/487790706/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/515054905/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/412244168/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/412244164/

Then again, here are some point and shoot macro shots, mostly taken with the Canon SD900 in macro mode:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/1134723332/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/1133803909/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/1024874030/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/691503224/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/843563558/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/873645534/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/872732755/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/636589061/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/516855394/

Canon SD700-IS:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/636835995/

Nikon Coolpix 4600:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/441244818/
These two are "nothing fancy," because I was trying to show how quickly this could be done:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/577501964/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/577501976/

Answer 8

try any Canon digital SLR camera with interchangable lenses. you may have to purchase a differnt lense but it will do the trick.

Don't be fooled by the point and shoot they won't do what you want.

Answer 9

Visit steves-digicams.com/closeups.html to see actual pictures made with various digicams. You can pick 3 or 4 brands and then search his site for more information. You can also take your list to shutterbug.com or popphoto.com or americanphotomag.com and search their sites for reviews.

Happy shopping! :)

Answer 10

canon a570