Request Model recommendations for MACRO shots

Looking for recommendations for specific models that take excellent
MACRO pictures.
Application is ROCKS! Small mineral clusters, rock slabs, polished
cabs, etc. Looking to find camera that will show subtle color blending

accurately, i.e., blue is blue, green is green, pink is pink, etc.
A specific problem is to get the color to show on unpolished rock the
sample must be wet which causes flashback or flash ring to show in
pictures.

There are a LOT of camera models that do a very poor job with macros.


Which cameras have any of you had success with?


tia,
Mary

Olympus 5050 excellent, 8080 takes beautiful pics, Sony H-1 and the
magnificent R-1 if you got the money!

Richard (artist-sculptor who enjoys photography)

wrote:
Looking for recommendations for specific models that take excellent
MACRO pictures.
Application is ROCKS! Small mineral clusters, rock slabs, polished
cabs, etc. Looking to find camera that will show subtle color blending

accurately, i.e., blue is blue, green is green, pink is pink, etc.
A specific problem is to get the color to show on unpolished rock the
sample must be wet which causes flashback or flash ring to show in
pictures.

There are a LOT of camera models that do a very poor job with macros.


Which cameras have any of you had success with?


tia,
Mary

You can get the best macro photos with a DSLR, all the manufacturers
have good macro lenses. 90mm or 100mm macros will give you a good
working distance. You can adapt ringlights or use more specific macro
strobes that both Canon and Nikon have.
Most P&S cameras compromise on the macro aspect of their lenses, often
they focus closer than normal but not in a true macro range, ring
lights are difficult to adapt to P&S cameras. Some are OK, just check
before you buy.

Tom

On 14 Mar 2006 10:05:40 -0800, wrote:

Looking for recommendations for specific models that take excellent
MACRO pictures.
Application is ROCKS! Small mineral clusters, rock slabs, polished
cabs, etc. Looking to find camera that will show subtle color blending

accurately, i.e., blue is blue, green is green, pink is pink, etc.
A specific problem is to get the color to show on unpolished rock the
sample must be wet which causes flashback or flash ring to show in
pictures.

There are a LOT of camera models that do a very poor job with macros.


Which cameras have any of you had success with?

There is no "best" since individuals have individual opinions, and the
amount of money involved has not been brought up.

It is *my* opinion that the Nikon cameras produce the "best" macro
results in the low-to-medium priced cameras.

Your questions about color and flash spots, though, should be
questions about lighting and not lenses. This is not controllable by
camera function other than the adjustment of white balance.

Follow some of the threads on soft boxes or light boxes or some other
means of using external illumination and diffusing it for your
questions in this area.

You're in a specialized area, and should look to people who routinely
work in this area. For example, go to
http://www.theimage.com/mineral/index.htm
and click the link "Photo Information". There's more help there than
you'll ever get in a general newsgroup on photography.




--


Tony Cooper
Orlando, FL

wrote:

Looking for recommendations for specific models that take excellent
MACRO pictures.
Application is ROCKS! Small mineral clusters, rock slabs, polished
cabs, etc. Looking to find camera that will show subtle color blending

accurately, i.e., blue is blue, green is green, pink is pink, etc.
A specific problem is to get the color to show on unpolished rock the
sample must be wet which causes flashback or flash ring to show in
pictures.

There are a LOT of camera models that do a very poor job with macros.

Which cameras have any of you had success with?

tia,
Mary

Don't be too ready to blame the camera(s). You get largely what you pay
for in cameras, as in most things. A cheap camera won't do as good a
job as a more expensive model - but that's not the camera's fault.

Lighting is the key to your problems, and that cannot be blamed on the
camera either. For a wet subject with many facets as has unpolished
rock, a direct or a ring flash is bound to give you specular
reflections. You need off-axis lighting, say at 45 deg. to the
camera-subject axis.

ALso, afterwork on the image such as increasing color saturation may be
helpful, but if these are scientific shots you will need to mention any
afterwork and why it was done.

Colin D.