What camera for close up (rep) pics ?

[alterego]

Whenever upload a pic on the daily wristies shots thread I feel ebarrased by the high quality of most pics compared to mine. A few days ago smebody mentioned the need of a "real camera" so as to increase the quality.  I used to have a fim Minolta with all the accesories (including filters) that probably could do the job, but, digital photography changed everything. I still would like to have a good digicamera, without spending too much, so as to keep my rep collection updated.

[hiker01]

You should be able to find some used DSLR here from time to time or google could help. The Nikon early D series would be a good start (I'm a Nikon user). Canon also have some excellent models.

 

CNET published this last July, read thru it and see if any interest you: http://reviews.cnet.com/best-entry-level-dslr-cameras

 

Good luck and hoping to see some great shots from you, soon!

[Deckard1979]

+1 what hiker said. You could also look at the bridge camera market. For example http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-cameras/panasonic-lumix-dmc-fz200/4505-6501_7-35374662.html.

 

Thats the cheaper option but the quality You will get with DSLR and macro lens will be superior to anything else. I am personally have been using Nikon D3 (which is getting sold as we speak) with different combinations of lenses.

 

Beware: Photography can be very expensive hobby too.

[cc33]

I use my iphone and get decent pics with it, Freddy uses an old 3mp and it does the trick, it's not what you have but how you use it.. That's what I realized. Here are a few taken with iPhone, I use a photoshop like app to further play with the image.

[hiker01]

BTW: If on a budget, instead of Macro Lens, try extension tubes!

[freddy333]

Good pictures are not made by good cameras, they are produced by having knowledge of your camera's capabilities & alot of practice. Most of my pics were taken with an old 4MP Canon point-&-shoot

Read your camera's user manual, get a book (or spend time browsing photo sites on the web) on photography & take lots & lots of pictures.

[TT88]

Lighting, mate.

Good lighting makes any picture good.

Sent from my Bezel using a 116610

[panerai153]

The key to me is to know the camera you are using, and that only comes from reading the manual and taking lots of photos.Great photos have been taken with simple point and shoot cameras, and awful photos have been taken with a 10K setup. So as Freddy says, it's not the camera, it's your eye. That's the neat thing about digital photography, you can take a thousand photos for the same price as 10!! I can remember not so fondly, going out and sitting  in a photo blind with a Nikon F4 and a 300mm 2.8 and a 500mm 5.6. I would usually shoot 10-15 rolls of 36 exposure slide film. After developing, those 360-500 slides would usually yield around 5-10 really outstanding shots, about 20-25 OK shots and the rest went in the trash!! Pretty expensive photography. Now you can sit there and shoot till your batteries run dead or your card fills up, and the cost is nil. 

Another very important factor is light. one of the secrets to many of these really wonderful watch photos is plenty of light, but diffuse so that glare is minimized. You can use a light box with all sorts of different lights, but an overcast day has the same effect. The right light can turn a routine photograph into something spectacular, the wrong light can ruin  even the best efforts.

There are literally thousands of "how to" books on photography, find ones that pertain to the things you are interested in, and read and practice.

[fraggle42]

Forget about getting a "good" expensive camera, if you haven't had lots and lots of practise in photography the pictures from a $10,000 camera will still be poor.

 

Buy a second hand P&S camera, you can get a good one from the last generation of P&S cameras cheaply and then practise, practise, practise.

 

Carry it around with you everywhere (so having a small camera is beneficial here) and take pics of anything that catches your eye.

 

The pictures will look boring and "holiday snap"ish at first but as you get more practise and read more and see others photos you'll learn what makes a good photo and what to avoid.

 

Lighting is the second most important thing, even at night. Again, just play around with the time of day, the lighting, indoors, outdoors, people, landscapes, macro, anything and everything.

 

As others have said you can produce absolutely stunning photos using very cheap cameras.

[alterego]

Thank you all for your comments. I shoot with a Samsung  PL140 which is a basic point and shoot, but as you say, it may be that I am not using it properly. I'll take the time to read the manual and I'll try shooting more pics. After reading your comments I realize I should take not two or three pics but two or three dozens, until I hit the right ones.

I'll post new pics in a week or so, and you can judge my work.

 

Cheers.