P&S with good macro capabilities

[paulo_cortez]

Hi,

 

I'm looking for a P&S for my wife's birthday.

 

As she is a veterinarian pathologist, I would like to buy her a P&S suitable for

macro shots so she can take pictures of her necropsy findings - she's always

borrowing my EOS 400D for that purpose...

 

What do you recommend above 7MP, below 400 euros ($550), good macro capabilities

and easy to handle?

 

Thanks in advance for your help,

 

Paulo

[savas_kyprianides]

Check out the Nikon Coolpix S10. It takes a good macro and has a rotating lens design that

allows you to get in there and not have to crain your neck while framing.

 

Canon's G9 takes a good macro shot. You also have a hot shoe and might be able to

configure a flash using an off-camera shoe cord to position the light where you need it.

 

A superior way to go might involve a low end DSLR with macro lens and Canon's Macro Twin

LIght MT-24EX. You then have two configurable mini flash units at the end of the macro lens

for significant lighting control.

[tommyinca]

A good P&S for macro is a one that can do the following

 

a. Take external filters. This way you can stack achromate close up, enlarger and other lens in front to increase magnification and/or control working distant. You don't have to get stuck with full wide angle for maximum magnification.

 

b. One that has good high ISO noise characteristics. You will need it for natural light setting.

 

c. A flip LCD screen can avoid lying or kneeing down on places one can not or not wanting to

 

Some thing like a fujifilm S9100 will do.

[kevin_schoedel]

The Canon A630/A640 focus to 1cm, have a tilt LCD, and with third-party free software can do automatic focus bracketing for <a href="http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK/Samples:_Unlimited_DOF">extended DOF</a>.

[mike_swift1]

Had a Nikon Coolpix S50 for a little over 14 days now - very impressed with it's macro capabilities. Minimum focus distance at full zoom 1.5".

[jcuknz]

The point in taking close-ups is not how close the camera can focus but what area of subject is taken. Most cameras that focus close do so only at wide-angle setting when they do not take a very tight framing. Unless you have a 'macro' lens, extension tubes, bellows, the average DSLR is pretty useless for taking macro with a likely limit of about a foot or worse.

 

The solution, as aluded to above by Tommy, is to have a good zoom and a close-up lens, along with OIS to save using a tripod ... but here it depends on how close you want to go.

 

My limit with a 2 dioptre CU lens is a 35mm across subject, with a 4 dioptre it would be about 18mm across, when using my x12 zoomed camera from a convienient distance of about a foot/150mm with a swing and tilt LCD for reasons stated above.

 

My question is .. what subject size are neocropsy findings? .... You don't mention if you have a 'macro' lens on your 400D. If you do not then I'd guess that almost any P&S will do the job becuase the work is not that demanding becuase DSLRs are not that capable without the tools mentioned above :-) I have P&S, Pro-sumer and DSLR and all can be made to take nice close-ups with or without the correct tools but not macro with the basic camera.

 

My favourite camera for quick and easy close-ups is my Nikon 5700 with its x8 zoom and the superior Nikon focusing system. I still use a 2 dioptre to keep away from the subject.

[qtluong]

If you really need to focus super-close, the Canon S5 has a minimum focus distance of 0mm, but even the 1cm of the Canon A and G series let you fill the frame with a 24mm object, which is better than what your 400D could do with a standard macro lens that goes to 1:1.

[albert_smith]

I use a Canon A620 and A630, and both offer macro that is easy to use, and plenty sharp.

 

The A630 is 8 meg (meeting your "above 7 meg" requirement) and is now very nicely priced as it is getting close to being closed out. I paid less than 200 Dollars for mine, which is 100 Dollars less than I paid for the A620 a year before.

 

Posted is a spider molting. The spider is 3/4th of an inch (I measured the discarded exoskeleton), and I was not close to the minimum focusing distance for the overall 1 and 1/2 inch subject. I dialed in some under-exposure on the flash, and shot away. Every exposure was good and every shot was sharp (within the limits of the DOF at theis range).<div></div>

[albert_smith]

... And here is a detail from that reduced JPEG. The overall full sized image allowed for nice enlargements that printed up very well.

 

I might add that the pivoting finder screen allowed me to compose on this spider a lot easier than if I had to get my eye directly behind the camera. I had it facing up like a waist-level finder.<div></div>

[michael s.]

Albert -- well done.