Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello, I thought this may be a good place to ask about cameras. I'm looking for a digital camera mainly for taking macro pictures of small reptiles. My budget is about $300. Right now we have an older HP 1.3 megapixel camera. We have looked at the 5 megapixel Kodak easy share and the Panasonic 3.2 megapixel Lumix. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Derek Moynihan
fat flat lizard ranch

Check out the Minolta Z-1. It's an updated version of the Dimage 5, which I use.
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Lamar, Debbie, Nathaniel and Iggi :>~

Best macro for the money is the coolpix line up by Nikon. Even the low end models do better macro work than most other brands.

Phil

You can get some of the Nikon Coolpix series for around $300. Especially if you shop EBay or something similar. I have a Nikon Coolpix 4300, although it's near $400, you might be able to find it cheaper online.

You can check out a lot of photos I've taken with it on my webpage linked below.

Also, I saw your page and noticed San Antonio broadband copperheads. Are they common? I'm looking for one to photograph, but have had no luck (except for a DOR on highway 16 south of town). BTW, I'm here in San Antonio, just haven't changed my user name.
My Online Snake Lifelist (photos, trips, etc)

Erik,

Nice website with some excellent photography you've got there!

Broad-banded Copperheads are very abundant in the sandy Post Oak Belt in southern Bexar and northern Atascosa counties, although they are not the easiest snakes to find by road cruising.

I have lived near Pleasanton for the last twenty years and cannot remember ever seeing one on roads around here, although I sure they occasionally do cross. However, last May I found seven in my backyard without even looking for them (haven't seen one since, and only a handful before then).

On some property I own between Seguin and Stockdale, they are easily the most commonly seen snakes (even more than garter snakes). I have found them in every month of the year except for January but, unlike many snakes around here, they don't seem to surface much during the winter, even on the warmer days. They tend to reappear by the end of February in normal years however.

Tom Lott

Sent you an e-mail by kingsnake.com
My Online Snake Lifelist (photos, trips, etc)

I have been south of S.A. in broadband habitat and haven't been able to find one. I always hear stories of areas over run with laticinctus and I have followed up on a few leads but they never produced any copperheads. The 4 that I have from this area were rescues. -Derek

Derek,

A couple of months ago, my wife noticed the trouble I was having trying to frame and focus on a small cottonmouth with my old 1.2 MP camera, which had only a LCD display--virtually useless in daylight! She actually said, "I guess you need to get a new digital camera!" Who can resist an opening like that! I began researching almost immediately and found the selection to be extremely confusing

If macro work is your priority, I would strongly suggest going with a camera that has an electronic view finder (EFV) as well as the prevalent LCD. This makes shooting in bright light situations much easier. For macro work you also want to make sure that the viewfinder is providing a "through the lens" view. Many otherwise very good cameras have "optical" viewfinders that are just little "windows" through to the front of the camera. These introduce too much parallax into the shot, throwing your framing completely off.

I found the dpreview site (link) to be very helpful in making a decision. I was a life-long Nikon film camera addict, but this site convinced me to go with the Sony DSC-F717 and I have not regretted it for a second; a fantastic camera!

Tom Lott
dpreview website

I have read a lot of good things about the Nikon 4300 so I think that may be the winner.