Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone. I was wondering if I can get some input about digital cameras from you all. I want one with a good macro feature and about 4 megapixel. Im coincidering the Nikon coolpix 4300. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Steve

2 megapixels minimum
Macro
Zoom
Do not let digital zoom influence you. DZ is garbage.

Steven-RGR

I have the Nikon Coolpix 5700 and it takes awesome macros and is very good for general use too. I have taken amazing closeups of one small section of a flower that really knocks people's socks off. I am still using it on point and shoot mode, I wonder what I can do once I actually learn something about photography! The tradeoff is that it is a little slower, particularly in lowlight situations. I think that any of the coolpix family is a good choice - features and price vary.

How many mega pixels you need depends on your planned usage. If you want a camera for web and email postings - 2 MP is enough. the 5700 has 5 - only a benefit if you intend to print 11x17 or above. I love the optical zoom and I have a steady hand so I can use it without a tripod. Some people have difficulty getting a nice shot without the tripod on full zoom but I personally think that is exagerated as I took a clear picture of a moving boat from a rocking floating dock on full zoom.

Another piece of advice I would give is to actually hold the camera before buying. I ruled out the Sony equivelent because it was uncomfortable in my hand.

There are many good cameras in a huge price range so it really depends on what you want and if you are more of a point and shooter or you want something with controls to play with. I would look seriously at the Cannon family too but they are not as geared toward macro pictures. Even so, if your interest is in taking pictures of Leos, the Cannons will do just fine in my opinion. They are also awesome for general photography.

Check out Steve's digicam website and the dpreviews.com (do a search for the links) to get way more info then you ever imagined existed!
Sheryl

Lots of good cameras out there actually. Canon makes some really sweet ones as well as Olympus, Nikon, Sony...etc etc.

I recently purchased an Olympus C740 UltraZoom specifically to get better pictures of my new baby girl and my geckos. It's a 3.2 Megapixel with a 10x Optical zoom. It uses the new XD Media card which allows the camera to write the picture to the card faster. It also has a Movie Mode which lets me do a few seconds of "live footage" if ya will.

IMO.. since you're doing what I would call Hobby-Use for a Dig camera. Stick with anything 3.0 Megapixels and higher because there's no reason to buy less(3.0 is a very affordable range right now). Optical Zoom is key cause Digital Zoom just means the camera is blowing up the current image you're looking at and is subject to resolution/pixel problems, it's easy to find cameras that do 10x or higher Optical in the less than $500 range. Any Media card type will work. I got the XD cause the write speed of the camera has greatly improved allowing me to take more pics with less time in between.

Difference in Megapixels? At 1.8 Megapixels you can blow a photo up to 8x10 and not see any severe distortions. The picture will start looking grainy at this pt but nothing that's picture-ruining. Any pictures you blow up past 8x10 will start to look real shoddy real fast. 3.2 MP's start to wear thin in the 11x17 range. 5.0 MP's is rated for 13x20 prints. The catch being these are manufacturer specs which IMO can be a bit misleading, so chop off about an inch at each level of Megapixels.

Unless you're doing posters skip the price of the 5.0's and put the money into a higher Optical Zoom.

Something else that's a nice feature you will want to look into is Flash settings... It's very hard to get a good gecko pic if you're flash is whiting out your gecko at close range. Optical zoom helps this a ton. However, some cameras actually have variable flash settings on the cameras(Olympus, Canon, Nikon various models, etc).

I should actually post a pic after all this now eh? Heh...

Cinman

Thanks for all the info everyone.There are so many cameras and it gets confusing to say the least

Cinman, I read that the 730 UZ has sound and the one you have (740) doenst. What does the 740 UZ have that the 730 doesnt? Thanks for the info!

Correct, no sound on the 740 but I have a decent Dig Camcorder for stuff like that...

The 740 let's you adjust the shutter speed up to 16 seconds, great for panoramic shots(sunsets etc..) and the 730 would only go up to 8 seconds.

The 740 also has an Aspherical "ED" glass lens. The ED stands for extra dispersion. Basically it spreads the light out more evenly across the "film" or photo. This helps with:

Auto white balancing. The 730 let you manually set the white balancing which was not easy to do. So they made the function auto for the 740.

There is an external 5pin connection on the 730 that allows you to control the flash quite a bit and this isn't on the 740. The 740 has more internal flash control so the connection isn't needed to get more flash control.

They also got the 740 in a smaller lighter package than the 730. It's nothing drastic in size change but it's noticable to some ppl...

Cinman

Personally I would not be suggesting long zoom cameras that lack image stablization.... my preference would be a Fuji S602z over the Oly UZ series for the action, macro, and low light photos that are likely to be the primary use.

Slow shutter speed long zoom = blur without a tripod or VERY steady hand on the Oly.... although it's a top notch camera in many ways as well.
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You're not comparing the same class of camera really now are ya?

Fuji makes a great camera, they do, but don't get all crazy on the stats and numbers which you will never use..

1/1000th and 1/2000th in the greater scheme of things are a wash...unless of course you're taking pictures of someone pitching a baseball at 90 miles an hour eh?

Both cameras use an image stabilization(if the Fuji you listed actually has it..it's not listed in the tech specs..).

I have no problems with using the Zoom on my camera with shaking/fuzzy/blurry etc. Digital Zoom is garbage, everyone will agree and the S602Z is 6x optical which could be better IMO for a camera of this usage.

Low light? Can't find what it's called for the Fuji...for the 740 it falls under white balance I do believe. I have taken pictures in my living room in the dark, depending on adjustment of color you can see the whole room although it's in brown and orange tones...not bad for no light I would say. Anyways... on the 740 it has 14 adjustable settings if you want to do it manually as well..

I do like the double data card on that Fuji and the ability to add lenses. But you only have to add telephotos etc to compensate for the lack of zoom eh?

Macro mode?

Normal mode: 24"60 cm)– infinity
Macro mode: 2.8"–24" (7 cm – 60 cm)
Super Macro mode: 1.2"–2.8" (3 cm – 7 cm)

I don't see the listing in the specs for the S602Z but that's the listed specs for the 740 in macro etc.

Oh, I also like the Continuous shooting on the S602Z it's far better than what the 740 has but if I honestly compared apples to apples on the Cameras we'd be compairing that Fuji with something in the 4000, or 5000 class for Olympus. The C-5050 is more inline with the S602Z.

A whole $200 difference in price adds up to a few more features when comparing the 740 to the 602.

Cinman

S602z:
Macro range: 1cm
ISO rating of up to 1600
Aperture F2.8-F3.1/F11
Zoom 35-210mm

740UZ:
Macro: 3cm
ISO: Max of 400
Aperture F2.8-F3.7/F8.0
Zoom 38-380mm

Neither one has image stabilization. The old 2100UZ did.
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Ahh np... I'm thinking focus or something... Regardless... haven't had any problems while using the Zoom even adding digital on top of that. If I had the money I'd go with the E-series Olympus instead of the 740.... but I'm not a professional photographer... And then I'd have a Canon!!

Cinman