Best prosumer digital for macro--flowers, etc?

Of the major prosumer cameras (Canon G3/G5, Minolta DiMAGE 7Hi, Nikon

Coolpix 5700, Olympus C5050 and Sony DSC-F717), which of these is the

best in terms of strictly macro use only for beginners? Either the

built in lens must reach macro or have a standard filer thread

allowing a diopter close-up filter to be screwed on--I'm guessing

this rules out the Canon G3/G5(?)! Are there any other considerations

that weigh-in in terms of ease-of-use or sheer practicality?

 

My initial guess is that the Sony DSC-F717 is the best for macro as-

is, despite it's lack of RAW format and use of Sony's despised

proprietary memory-sticks--neither of which should hurt it's macro

performance. But I just want to make sure I haven't overlooked

anything!

 

Thanks.

A LensMate adapter on the G3 would give you the ability to add diopter close-up filters or even used a reversed 50mm lens. Based on my experience using a Canon G2 for photographing flowers in my wife's garden, I would not consider the G series an optimal choice for macro work. The AF is very unsatisfactory in macro mode and it's extremely difficult to judge what's in focus on the LCD. Otherwise the G2 is a very nice camera. Earlier versions of Nikon were touted to have excellent macro characteristics. Haven't heard much about macro on the 5700. Haven't used Olympus or Sony.

Just adding to the previous answer, I've shot somewhat with a Canon G2 and now I've played with my friend's Nikon 4500 and the Nikon seems to be more geared towards macro, with a very good magnification ratio and apparently good image quality in macro mode (it also has manual focus, though quite unconvenient to use). I'm aware that this is not the model you asked about, but Nikon has generally had good macro capabilities in their digicams.

 

I understand that the Canon's are pretty decent with close-up lenses or stacked lenses, but I have no experience of using them that way.

 

One thing to note is that for some macro work flash might be essential - at least Nikon and Canon support their flash lines while the Sony has somewhat limited flash options (in practice, TTL flash is not a bad idea for certain macro work)

The performance of my Olympus C-3040Z indicates that Olympus has optimized the performance for close ups at the expense of distance resolution. Excellent macros, mediocre landscapes. That has to be a function of optical design, not the sensor.

 

Anyway, that'd be in keeping with Olympus' tradition as a maker of fine microscopes and their early emphasis on macro- and microphotography with the OM SLRs.

 

For my C-3040Z I added the CLA-1 adapter, a simple aluminum tube that covers the full length of the fully extended zoom. On the end of the CLA-1 I've added a 43-49mm step-up ring and an always-affixed Olympus protective filter.

 

The step-up ring allows me to use the 49mm Olympus Close Up f=40cm diopter or other attachments. For greater than 1:1 magnification I use a normal lens like the 50/1.8 Zuiko or 50/2 Nikkor with a reversing ring. The only penalty is vignetting but those two lenses allow for excellent, high-resolution, well-corrected, flat-field macrophotography. Can't beat the price, either, since all I had to buy was the step-up ring. I already had the reversing ring and other goodies.

 

Dead-on exposures are easily obtained whether with ambient light or flash, averaging or spot metering. I find the "manual" focus mode practically useless so for tricky situations I switch to spot focus mode.<div></div>

Nikon 5700 gives good macro shots. see attached.

second shot

William, did you use any lens attachments, like close-up lenses, or is the picture from the camera without any attachments? And is that natural only?

 

Lex, have you tried whether a faster lens would remove vignetting? I regularly shoot in 35 mm with a Nikon 135/2.8 stacked with a 50/1.4 and vignetting is quite mild.

"And is that natural only?" should have read "And is that natural light only?"

fast,

 

I have the C5050; however, I can't compare it to the other cameras you mention as I have no experience with them. The C5050 has a number of macro modes, including a mode with manual focus and a magnified image on the LCD screen for fine-tuning the focusing. You can get get as close as 1.2in to subject using this mode (might be a bit awkward for beginners). Autofocus is maintained in all other macro modes.

 

With an adapter, the C5050 will accept screw-in filters, such as close-up lenses. Olympus has a number of close-up / macro accessories that you can read about at their website. I don't use any of these, but have been considering some sort of close-up attachment. I do use the adapter for a polarizing lens and find it pretty convenient for attaching the filter as well as a lens hood.

 

The C5050 also has RAW mode and Olympus supplies a Photoshop plug-in for importing RAW files into Photoshop (works with Elements, too). Olympus' Camedia Master software reads the RAW format and lets you browse thumbnails of RAW files, which you can't do in Photoshop without first importing them.

 

The C5050 takes the Fuji / Olympus xD memory cards as well as SmartMedia cards, and CF cards. I think you can toss in a Microdrive as well. A 512MB xD card will be available at the end of July. Current maximum capacity is 256MB, which is good for 34 images in RAW format.

 

Let us know what you decide.

 

-Nick

the shots were made with a tripod.....natural light.....subject a potted flowering plant positioned on a table on my back deck, in shade.....what I discovered during this session with the 5700 is how to do macro without using autofocus.....

 

You use manual focus and set the manual focus to the minimum focusing distance and then move the camera+tripod back and forth as needed - this worked well on the LCD display.

 

for exposure... I used matrix metering in some shots and in others centre-weighted but always with underexposure dialed in (various settings from -0.3 to -1.3) I don't recall exactly which settings for which shots.

 

hope that helps.....one last thing, the water drops are from light overnight rain, I didnt mist the plant.

 

regards

Bill

forgot to say that this was done with just the standard lens.....

 

one thing I did have on the camera was the adapter to take the wide angle lens, I didnt have the lens on. I used the adapter as a kind of lens shade/protector, although the lens when zoomed will go past the end of this adapter.

 

There are some other adapters available for the 5700 not from Nikon: see

 

http://members.rogers.com/nextphoto/order5700.htm

 

I have no connection to them.

 

regards

 

Bill

Fuji S602z has two macro modes. One allows you to focus as near as 20cm, the other, super macro, allows you to focus in as close as 2cm.

 

Steve Coburn

I just have a little Canon A70 that does surprisingly well with flowers using its built-in macro mode--no attachments. I'll try to post an example of my wife's pansies.<div></div>

Oskar, a faster lens might reduce physical vignetting. So might a larger diameter lens barrel. I don't own either.

 

Another factor is proximity of the stacked lenses. Imagine peeping through a hole in a wall. The nearer your eye to the hole in the wall, the more you can see on the other side.

 

I can influence the proximity factor to some extent by removing the protective UV filter for macrophotography sessions with a reversed lens. But that's about all. If I used a lens with a larger barrel size and larger internal diameter, the stepping ring required to mate the two would still be a limiting factor.

 

Appropriate mating of lenses is also a factor. Stacking a normal lens on top of a telephoto on the camera body will tend to minimize physical vignetting. Stacking a telephoto on top of a wide angle would emphasize vignetting.

 

In the case of my C-3040Z digicam I'm limited by the non-detachable zoom. It extends only just so far to it's 105mm maximum focal length (35mm film equivalent). I also got some vignetting with an Olympus teleconverter designed for the iS-2 ZLR attached to my digicam via the CLA-1 tube.

FWIW, in my (limited)experience the Olympus C5050Z is not only a great macro shooter for a beginner but also a good fun to use all-rounder. It does suffer from noise, especially when the lens is focused on infinity (i.e. landscapes)or in low light conditions, but this is not a problem with macro shots and it really is its only weakness. A tripod is obviously recommendable, but the camera is light enough for handheld shots. As already mentioned, it features several macro modes and the software that comes with it is really straight forward and useful.