What camera to buy?

[BlackSpike]

I have come into some vouchers, and am thinking of replacing my old camera with a shiny new one.

 

I know I need a decent mega-pixel, and am looking for a good optical zoom.

One thing I can't seem to find is much detail on macro settings - obviously I will be wanting to take pics of my little plastic men!

 

With a budget of around £200, I have been looking at the Panasonic Lumix TZ range.

 

I don't want to go mad on, it, and won't be using lots of special effects/long exposure/high-speed etc. Just snapshots, toy soldiers and the occasional artistic shot.

 

What advice does the all-knowing B&C have for me?

[WingsOfTheFalcon]

For the record, unless you plan on enlarging your images to larger than A4 in size, don't bother wasting money on anything higher than 7MP. Otherwise all you get is massive filesize for no real gain in photo quality/resolution.

 

I'd seriously consider this: Fujifilm FinePix S1600 especially at this price!

[BlackSpike]

Thanks for the advice.

Nice looking camera.

"the in-built "Smile Detection" will not take the photo until a smile is detected. " Handy.

"Number of effective pixels: 12.2" That can't be right? I presume they mean mega pixels?

 

As to enlarging, i may want to crop small sections and size them up (Either toy soldiers, or landscapes), so decent MP and Optical Zom is quite important (not the be-all-and-end-all, just handy).

[WingsOfTheFalcon]

Well the overview lists it as 12 MP which should happily go up to A3 without any pixellation, according to the specs it's got a 15x Optical as well.

 

I'm not an expert by any measure but I know a few guys who are and I tend to follow their advice! :whistling:

 

Actually doing a little digging, you can move up the range to the Finepix S1900 for the same price, 18 x optical, 12MP.

 

I'm almost tempted myself! ;)

[BlackSpike]

Cheers, that's looking good!

 

I wonder if the "smile detector" will work on my Marines? :D

 

Does anyone know much about Macro mode? I know it helps for close-ups (models etc) but do cameras have differing capabilities, or is it just based on the main camera specs? I don't want to buy a snazzy £150 camera, and find it is not good for Macro.

 

I'll keep an eye on those FinePix ones. Thanks.

[WingsOfTheFalcon]

Just to give you an idea, my g/f has an older 10x 7MP version of those finepix cameras, this pic was taken using the macro setting and no special attention paid to lighting etc.

 

Papa Nurgle

 

Like I say, I'm no pro but the results are fairly decent.

[Valtonis]

Panasonic has the best quality cameras other than Canon.

and although i like Fuji's camera alot i would recommend the Lumix series.

 

and i have to emphasize this, it is not about the camera but the way you take the picture.

proper lighting, framing and focusing is much more important than the camera.

a camera phone can give you better pictures if you if the shooting correctly than an expensive compact camera (which you didn't bother to use properly)

[winterdyne]

If you're after taking pictures of minis, then a reasonably cheap £60 camera is fine - I use a Canon Powershot A470.

 

What you really need (other than good lighting - which you should have for painting anyway) is a tripod. Shake reduction is not great - just use a tripod, and a slight delay to get your hands off the camera when taking pics. Sorted.

 

Edit: I inherited my tripod from my dad. I have no idea how much one costs.

[Kanazuchi]

First I posted a tutorial on how to get professional pics of your minis, with any digital camera, here: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...showarticle=126

 

As far as MP goes, yes it is true you don't NEED 12 MP, but with the cost of cameras today, there is absolutely no reason not to get one that creates photos that large.

 

For the camera itself, ignore all the fancy specs they toss your way (such as MP and zoom), what you need to look for in a point and shoot is the size of the CCD (charged couple device). The CCD is what captures the actual image itself. The larger, the better. Most point and shoots ship with a 1/2.3" CCD. You would want to look for something like 1/1.17". I know this sounds confusing, but use a website like Newegg that will let you order your searches by CCD size.

 

For your money, you would probably be looking at something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16830122258 (though it is $40 over budget). That one carries a 1/1.2" CCD. If you dropped to the 1/2.3", you have about 170 different options.

 

If you must go that route, I would go with something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16830120371 I've always liked Canon's (though they tend to be red-eye horrors some time). This one also comes with a 4x optical (this is important...do not confuse with digital zoom) and wide angle abilities.

 

Hope all this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.