best compact camera for macro

[ward_stepman2]

Hi all,

 

For work purposes I have used a Ricoh Caplio R1 for the last 4 years. I mainly take shots of crops in greenhouses

and close-ups of pests & damages caused by pests. The Ricoh R1 was quite good for this purpose with the 28mm

wide angle and a macro of up to 1 cm. Problem is the Ricoh stopped working and I need to buy a new one.

 

My question is shall I go for the new Ricoh R10 which should be a significant improvement compared to the R1 or are

there other camera's out there with the following features: zoom starting at 28mm or wider, macro of 1 cm, image

stabilizer, decent quality shots (of course) and not too expensive.

 

Many thanks for your help.

 

Regards,

 

Ward

[oofoto]

You could pick up a second hand GX100 which is great for macro due to moveable focus point and manual focus if desired. The GX200 doesn't give any significant image quality over GX100.

There is also the Panasonic LX3 which is expensive depending on budget. All 3 cameras start at 24mm wide.

[myount777]

There are still some R8's out there, with excellent macro abilities. Seen some for around 270. shipped.

[jcuknz]

I enjoyed using my Canon s20 for close shots such as you take with the addition of a 3 dioptre or so close-up lens ... just a 'plastic hobby-glass lens' ... so any P&S will do the job so long as it has an LCD to frame and focus. The close-up lens overcomes the problem that the cameras only focus close at wide-angle and permit you to use the zoom to get tight framing.

 

The thing to remember is that we are after tight framing, not the ability to come in close to the subject, which is why longer focal length lens are popular for taking close-ups and depth of field is pretty much the same for a given image size with any focal length..

[josephwalsh]

"depth of field is pretty much the same for a given image size with any focal length."

 

Right you are, JC.

 

Most folks do not grasp this. Thus the "wide angle lenses have lots of D of F. Telephotos have shallow D of F." myth. Yes, the D of F of a wide angle and a tele are quite different but so is the subject size _if you shoot from the same position_.

[wilt]

http://home.freeuk.com/wlt001/stripedbug.jpg<div></div>

[obakesan]

Hi

<P>

if you don't mind second hand, my favourite is the Nikon Coolpix 5000. Slightly larger sensor though smaller

number of pixels. Using RAW (NEF) makes a great difference. Here's another image just like the one above. Check

out my gallery in the Macro section. (http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=768854) for more

<P>

This happens to be taken with the older 990, but both have 2cm close focus and Manual focus. You'll really want

to use manual and make minor adjustments in focus by adjusting working distance, as focus incriment is by cm.

<P>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/6460210-md.jpg" alt="no different to other bees" width="680" border="0"

height="928">

[jcuknz]

I thought that my Nikon 5700 with its very special focusing system was the best I have struck for taking close-ups to fill the sensor with a subject around an inch and a half across ... and almost touching the front of the lens ... so I normally used a two dioptre CU lens to keep back to about nine or ten inches front element to subject distance to get the same image. Nikon made a good camera with the 5700 but subsequent models didn't progress, so I left Nikon. Sadly one hears comments about them biting the dust for various reasons and that happened to mine too late last year after about 6000 shots .... sad..

 

Four dioptre would have given me about a 3/4 inch subject filling the frame from around five or six inches. { sucfj as the Raynox 250 lens ... four dioptre focal length is 250mm ... but you can add on the focusing power of the main lens which brings you closer].<div></div>

[jcuknz]

I guess I'm cheating there becuase mine is the larger bumblebee and not a smaller ordinary bee as Chris gives us, and I didn't enlarge it as much, it has also been worked up in editing as I remember :-)

But William's is really nice and crisp, maybe double the pixels does help :-)

[ward_stepman2]

Thanks for the advice. I ordered the Panasonic MC LX3 as it has a 24mm and 2.0 lens with 1 cm close up capabilities. Should do the job for me.

 

Regards,

 

Ward