Hobby & Craft Forums

Ok... for all the budding photographers. I need some digital camera advice please. I need to take some really good close up pictures and my current cameras are just not up to the task. I have 3 digital nikons and have to say the macro feature is awful. I don't have a big budget so as much as I'd like an all singing all dancing Digital SLR it's not going to happen.

Any help greatly received.

I have the all singing, all dancing SLR . . . . but use my battered fuji compact more!! lol!

A trick i have found is to use the macro mode, zoom in as far as the optical zoom will go (dont use the digital zoom . . . . . ever!!) then move yourself and the camera around to frame whatever you are photographing!

This way the flash shouldnt overpower or leave a huge shadow on your product. It makes it easier to frame the shot too as you arent just a couple of inches away from the product! lol!

Just an aside, the fuji was about £80 from argos a few years back (about 3 years now) it is battered and in places the covering is chipped off, it is scratched and battered and a total embarrasment to look at - but i have always had a great picture from it and in compact cameras cant praise fuji enough! (for SLR's I am a canon girl through and through!)

Oddly enough, I use the fuji too, its a finepix. Its great camera but unfortunatly mine developed a fault on it which makes the screen go blank (well stripey blnk actually) and I hve to turn it off and on again a few times till it clears - apart from that its been a great camers - also bought from argos few years ago in a sale. A camera is a business expense too, as you will probably know.

makeitbig wrote:Oddly enough, I use the fuji too, its a finepix. Its great camera but unfortunatly mine developed a fault on it which makes the screen go blank (well stripey blnk actually) and I hve to turn it off and on again a few times till it clears - apart from that its been a great camers - also bought from argos few years ago in a sale. A camera is a business expense too, as you will probably know.

Habe you checked to see if this is a known fault? I had something similar with my little canon (Powershot a300) and I was just able to send it off to get it repaired for free (well out of warrantee too!)...I found out I could do this with a quick google search...may be worth looking it up..

Jude x

I didn't think of that, might be worth having a look, I've nursed it along for quite a while and was going to get another in the January sales, but I'll have a look and see, good thinking.

Carl Martin wrote:Ok... for all the budding photographers. I need some digital camera advice please. I need to take some really good close up pictures and my current cameras are just not up to the task. I have 3 digital nikons and have to say the macro feature is awful. I don't have a big budget so as much as I'd like an all singing all dancing Digital SLR it's not going to happen.

Any help greatly received.

Depends what sort of pictures you need to take, and how you want to use them..(never a simple answer eh!)

Apologies if you "know" all the following already!

First off, if it is jewellery one problem of using macro facilities is being close to the object, and problems with camera reflection in shiny beads and metal.. not obvious when you take a pic, glaring when you view it.. simple and effective solution is to be further away, and use a good optical (NOT Digital) zoom. Digital zoom takes the image and manipulates it by expanding a part of your original image to create a close up so you lose pixel ratio and clarity, where as optical is a record of what the lens sees, the resutling image is still a 10megapixel image for example.

By being further away, you can add lighting from a distance, and reflected images are much reduced... even relatively cheap cameras have a good optical zoom these days, and mags like what camera will let you browse test results to see if there are any quality issues with a particular type of picture - some are better at daylight images, some better at flash, and so on. As you want good closeups you might find that a 28mm lens is not as good as a 35mm lens as it may give more of a fisheye effect on real macro images.

One technique a lot of folk swear by is actually to use a scanner and either a black cloth or a black box! - arrange the pice on the scanner glass, cover it with the cloth and scan as normal, or get a box, paint the inside with matt black paint and place it over - anything that blocks out any ambient light. This is particulalry good if you have a program like photoshop elements or other photo manipulation software, as you can enhance the resutling image, add backgrounds, correct errors, create artifical lighting effects, and add shadows to create a more realistic image.

Another option for good jewellery pics is a tent or cube diffuser - the tent/bag type allow you to isolate the subject from its surroundings, you can use quite powerful lighting because it is diffused through the fabric it is much more even, and there are no distracting flares or reflections.

And if that's all stuff you have contemplated and invetigated, then my basic thoughts on cameras would be Pentax.. I have an old S50 model (5megapixel) with a good 2 stage macro that gives some great quality shots - I can send you some close ups to have a look at if you like. I bought it a few years ago for £150, and a second hand one is possibly a good buy if you cant stretch to a newer model..

I would also be tempted by a Panasonic Lumix camera.. they have Leica lenses - very highly regarded.. and although you can pay £400 for the top of the range ones, they have far cheaper options too!..

Another tip is, to eliminate the glare or reflective problem with shiny items, ensure they are in the pic, but aim the lense and flash above instead of directly at.

I believe light tents eliminate all the glare from jewelllery- I looked into them some time ago and a lot of people recommended them. The lights are outside the tent and not directly on the jewellery and the fabric distributes the light so there's no need for a flash on your camera. My fella is looking into buying a new one for Christmas- needless to say, I'll be using it more than he will, he just doesn't know it yet lol!

Thank you for all the advice . I'm going to have a go tomorrow and see what i can come up with. The best camera i had for pictures of jewellery was n old nikon 950 with a 2meg capacity, crap for long distance but the best macro ever. I have a nikon 5400 coolpix and its just not the same or more than likely i have no idea how to get the best out of it. Anyhow will post some shots tomorrow and see how i get on.

Nickie - borrow my light tent before you decide - I didn't get results from it, I then invested in a light box with the uv moveable bulbs and spotlights etc - no joy there either - in fact I had better luck just moving around the place trying different light places and shade places with just the camera. I sold the light box in the end.