Digital Cameras help

[Duende]

OK, I\'ve begun saving for a new digital camera, since my old one takes such crappy pics (well it\'s good for things bigger than a few inches). My husband heard that Sony Mavica is good for taking mini pictures, so I just wanted to get input from others.
So, anyone know a good camera that\'s good to get nice close-up shots and doesn\'t cost an arm and a leg (does one exist?). Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[BrianFowler713]

For my pictures, Ive been using a Pentax Optio 430RS with 4.0 Megapixel( whatever that means). I think it been doing good, but I had to figure out how to use it properly.

 

[Gin1906]

OK, I\'ve begun saving for a new digital camera, since my old one takes such crappy pics (well it\'s good for things bigger than a few inches). My husband heard that Sony Mavica is good for taking mini pictures, so I just wanted to get input from others.
So, anyone know a good camera that\'s good to get nice close-up shots and doesn\'t cost an arm and a leg (does one exist?). Thanks for any suggestions!


Duende
Hi, Ok so what is your budget, (define an arm and leg)
As for a good camera I recently purchaced on ebay for $250. a very nice cannon power shot A70, takes super nice close up, has a macro that focuses up to 2 inches, cannon also makes a power shot A60 that does the same thing that you can get new off of ebay for less than $200. BTW, I just got mine so have not uploaded any pics taken with it. But can if that would help.
Hope that helps!

 

[klute_in_the_valute]

basic requirements.
2 megapixels
macro
timer helps as does a tripod.

software that lets you fiddle with it. ie.auto colour balance is good,cropping,resizing,jpeg optimiser is invaluable in my eyes.
I use fuji finepix a204 approx £70 new.
Paint shop pro 8, 7 will do fine as will loads other progs even free ones.(gimp is one often mentioned)
One thing that most new posters overlook is to use a good backdrop.Anything but the paint table.I printed out a blue gradient a4 for mine but tend to use plain card as well.
Remember you dont need to spend a fortune.

 

[Duende]

Well, I think I found one

I found a well-priced Fuji FinePix 2800 2.1MP Zoom Digital Camera. It seems to be what I want but I don\'t want to buy it and find out it sucks and go through returning it and having to pay shipping fees and restockings fees and whatnot.

Does anyone know anything about this camera? Here\'s some of the specs:

Features include:
2.1MP CCD
6x optical zoom
2.5x digital zoom
16MB SmartMedia card
USB interface
Focal distance: Normal- 0.8m to infinity, Macro- 10cm to 0.8m
Aperture: F2.8/F4.8/F8.2

I\'m not listing all the features (like the LCD screen size). Just the ones I think are important to mini picture-taking. I\'m not even sure what some of this stuff means (like what does aperture have to do with it?).

Would this be a good buy? I just need it primarily for taking pics of my minis. My current camera mangles small pics so badly that I won\'t post them here (which is why I only have 2 pics in my account, I actually have a bunch of painted minis).

Any opinions would be appreciated! (Maybe \"Finding and Using the Right Camera\" could be an article put in next years CMON Annual!)

 

[Sand Rat]

Originally posted by Duende
I found a well-priced Fuji FinePix 2800 2.1MP Zoom Digital Camera. It seems to be what I want but I don\'t want to buy it and find out it sucks and go through returning it and having to pay shipping fees and restockings fees and whatnot.

Does anyone know anything about this camera? Here\'s some of the specs:

Features include:
2.1MP CCD
6x optical zoom
2.5x digital zoom
16MB SmartMedia card
USB interface
Focal distance: Normal- 0.8m to infinity, Macro- 10cm to 0.8m
Aperture: F2.8/F4.8/F8.2

I\'m not listing all the features (like the LCD screen size). Just the ones I think are important to mini picture-taking. I\'m not even sure what some of this stuff means (like what does aperture have to do with it?).

Would this be a good buy? I just need it primarily for taking pics of my minis. My current camera mangles small pics so badly that I won\'t post them here (which is why I only have 2 pics in my account, I actually have a bunch of painted minis).

Any opinions would be appreciated! (Maybe \"Finding and Using the Right Camera\" could be an article put in next years CMON Annual!)

Dont know what your budget is overall Duende but got a couple of suggestions -

I use an Olympus Camedia C-4000

Stats here

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_product_lobbypage.asp?l=1&p=16&bc=2&product=869&fl=4

that is priced about the same as the fuji on Amazon - the big difference is in the megapixels each camera has - the fuji has 2.1 where the olympus is 4.0. It can make a diffence in the overall picture quality.

 

[IronWorker]

If you can find one that you can manual focus, custom white balance, and set your on f stop on you will get better results. I have no idea what to suggest though.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by IronWorker
If you can find one that you can manual focus, custom white balance, and set your on f stop on you will get better results. I have no idea what to suggest though.

That would be a Nikon F3 35mm camera then :LOL

 

[Sand Rat]

Well, I was thinking it was close to my Nikon F or my Speed Graphlex, unless you count the auto white balence part.

 

[Duende]

Well, I checked about the specs again on the camera I mentioned before, and it does have an automatic AND manual white balance. What\'s that for anyway? All these camera terms... I\'m not a professional, my regular (film) camera is just a point-and-shoot.

My budget is $200 or less and I\'m shopping at discount online stores and eBay (eBay would be last resort, I\'d rather use a store with a returns policy).

I just need a good pic and I don\'t want to end up with another crappy digital camera (my first is a Hewlett-Packard 1.0MP and 2X digital zoom, I don\'t recommend it).

I\'m just hesitant about spending the little extra money I have on a new camera since the last one was such a disappiontment.
If someone here is a bit more knowledgeable about digital cameras than me (which is most, I think), can you please look at this link to the specs page (it\'s a .pdf format) and give me your opinion if this is a good buy for the money. I found a good price online and am ready to purchase this particular model, but I\'m just gun-shy.
Help me please?? ???

Link:
http://www.fujifilm.com/JSP/fuji/epartners/bin/fx2800z_catalog.pdf

 

[IronWorker]

Originally posted by Dragonsreach

Originally posted by IronWorker
If you can find one that you can manual focus, custom white balance, and set your on f stop on you will get better results. I have no idea what to suggest though.

That would be a Nikon F3 35mm camera then :LOL

Well I don\'t know. We shoot a Fuji S2 Pro at our studio but that\'s way out of the range of most non professional photographers. The only other digital camera I have is a little 1.2 megapixle auto everything camera I got for christmas a couple years ago. I\'m not too familier with what is in between the two.

 

[Sand Rat]

In my semi professional digital camera tolerating but not loving opinion ( hows that for hedging) yes, that is a good buy for the money - if you get everything with it.

Edit - Now, IW - the camera that makes me all warm and gooey inside is from Hasselbad - and if you buy the $27000 Leaf/Mamyia 20 Mega Pixel digital back one of the local camera shops will knock $3000 off the price of the camera.

 

[Chrispy]

I also have a Fuji, a Finepix A201 (the one they discontinued). I got it on Half.com for arounf $150 with a small tripod (which still gives me shake blurs from pushing teh button) and I upgraded the card to teh biggest memory possible. It\'s got a macro lens which is good for most work, but dragons and things are a little hardr with the regular lens, and there\'s no way to adjust shutter time and the light focus is wierd, but it gets me by..

 

[Mungo Zen]

I have a Canon A70 like Gin1906 has and it is wonderful. It has a ton of features for making all the auto stuff manual like Fstop, white balance, zoom etc etc and can have additional lenses attached to it. It basically can be used by anyone and get great images. It is a bit above your budget but it may be worth it.

I suggest checking a site such as epinions.com and searching through there for their top rated cameras. Look within your budget, but remember, that unless you view cameras for $200 as disposable, try and get something that will last you a few years.

I paid about $500 Canadian for my A70 (in January) and I feel it is worth it, because I know not only can I use this camera for years to come, but I can grow into it when I find my needs changing.

If you have any specific questions about my camera , then ask away.

 

[t_haye2]

I actua;lly went totally overboard with mine, sinse I needed a camera that would do decent prinitng quality as well(writing for magazines and such you know ), so I got myself a monster, the Fuji finepix s7000. gorgeous little thing, double macro setting, telelens, completely manual aparture setting...actrually completey manual everything. Took a while to get used to, but I\'m really happy with it. so what does that have to do with your Q? Absolutely nothing, I just like to brag
What you need, as been said before, is a minimum of 2 megapixel, a macro or double macro setting, if possible a manual aperture(helps with getting big things in focus) setting, custom white balance, and, this is important, you need to check the minimum distance you can shoot from in macro setting. anything further away that say5 or 6 cm isn\'t very usefull, unless the camera can take piccies with very large pixel dimentions, and you can edit the shot afterwards(photoshop, fireworks, anything that lets you colourbalance and crop shots really) i hope you\'ll have luck with your hunt for the perfect mini camera!

 

[Pirate_Wench]

Why not go shopping with a mini and blue/white gradient A4 page. Go to a proper photography store and tell them what you are seeking, then ask to see how the cameras they recommend actually stand up to taking pics of minis. If they are a decent store they\'ll take a few pictures to show yo and then you can decide what will suit your purposes more. I intend to roadtest all the cameras next time I go shopping for one, I\'ve got a panasonic DMC-LC33 and it\'s not looking to be terribly promising as a close up camera (unless I really am a terrible photographer, but I prefer to blame my equipment)

 

[KatieG]

Originally posted by Duende
Features include:
2.1MP CCD
6x optical zoom
2.5x digital zoom
16MB SmartMedia card
USB interface
Focal distance: Normal- 0.8m to infinity, Macro- 10cm to 0.8m
Aperture: F2.8/F4.8/F8.2
this be a good buy? I just need it primarily for taking pics of my minis. My current camera mangles small pics so badly that I won\'t post them here (which is why I only have 2 pics in my account, I actually have a bunch of painted minis).

I would NOT recommend this camera for taking pictures of minis. The main thing I find bad: Macro - 10 cm to 0.8 m. 10 cm macro means you can\'t take a picture if a mini from closer than 10 cm away. That means you\'ll have a lot of whitespace in your picture that will need to be cropped away, and this also means less detailed pictures. My Nikon Coolpix has a macro distance of only 2 cm. I can take a picture that includes just the mini, so cropping is minimized. The Nikon Coolpix 2100 is a 2 megapixel camera with 3X optical zoom (note you cannot use this in macro mode anyways, so optical zoom does not matter for pics of minis) and a 4cm macro distance. The 2200 appears to be similiar and is a similiar price on amazon. Not as good as the higher end Nikons, but under $200 you\'re rather limited. More interestingly its on clearance at Amazon for $150. This also leaves you some cash to buy an extra memory card since most cameras come with memory cards too small for more than say 12-16 pictures. The only thing it has that I don\'t like is that it seems to use normal batteries... in my experience that means you\'ll be using a LOT of batteries, better pick up a few rechargeables... Anyways, hope this helps!
--Katie G.

 

[ZeCorto]

Consider also that you might not only want to shoot minis with this camera (I know that it might be seen as heresy but there ARE other subjects). Since you are going to spend a tidy amount of money, make sure the camera can also take nice pictures of whatever else you might one day photograph.
I went for Nikon myself because the Nikkor optics are the best you can get (unless you can go for Steelcult\'s Hasselbad or a more affordable Leica or SLR). I went for high resolution because it\'s better to reduce a large picture for posting (IrfanView has great resampling functions) than enlarge a portrait or holiday photo.
I have nothing but good to say of my Nikon Coolpix, both for minis and for portrait/scenery. My mistake was to post my minis with the highest resolution it gives, giving closeups only pros could afford. That\'s how I explain my poor ratings, blame them on the camera of course

 

[dave3555]

I was thinking of getting a new digital camera myself.... I was thinking along the lines of a high spec sony camera. I was really after a 5 or 6 million pixal jobby. I was also considering an olympus too as the current range of them seem to be quite nice.

The fuji s7000 is a cool camera. I do like the way in which it has to duel memory card slots on it as this can come in handy. The only thing that I would have liked to have seen on the camera is a lithium battery as I find these give much longer shooting time form a camera rather than standard batterys or standard rechargeable batteries.

Full manual aperture is really a must IMO as the range of options this gives you over an automatic aperture camera seems to really make the difference with getting good quality pics.

 

[Valander]

Originally posted by Chrispy
I also have a Fuji, a Finepix A201 (the one they discontinued). I got it on Half.com for arounf $150 with a small tripod (which still gives me shake blurs from pushing teh button)

Chrispy: does that camera have a timer function? If so, set that when you\'re shooting minis and have it on the tripod. After pressing it, the delay should be long enough to allow the shaking to go away!

@Duede: This sounds like a decent camera (certainly much better than mine: I have an OLD Sony Mavica FD70 (sub 1MP)). I\'ve actually gotten pretty decent with it, but would kill for a 2+MP camera. The main thing I think you need to make sure of is that it has a good macro (which this one seems to), and optical zoom (digital zooms don\'t work out very well; combo optical/digital is ok, since it uses optical zoom first, also many cameras don\'t let you use zoom when in macro mode, so this may be moot!). Also, the ability to mount it on a tripod is essential. Overall, this camera looks like a pretty good choice. However, don\'t expect instant awesome pictures! You do have to figure out how to get the right amount of lighting, what the best shutter speed is, and a host of other things to get good pictures.