Good digital camera for extreme close-ups?

[mrbungel]

I have a Canon Power Shot S-50, about 5 years old.
A decent camera, but I can't get it to focus once I'm around 6 inches away, or less. With flash, without flash, doesn't matter, always blurry. I've tried the close-up setting and every other setting in the book. Yes, I use a tripod. The manual is a nightmare, probably written in China.
So, what's a reasonably priced camera that will do the crystal clear close-up shots that I see here all the time?
Thanks in advance.

[txfrc]

actual sensor on the camera probably has nothing to do with it. what your talking about is that stock lens will not focus that close, no matter what.
i'm not into macro photography, but research teleconverters and see if they make any leans add-ons for that camera.

and most of those shots your seeing aren't inches away, just fyi.

if you really want to get a new camera, how much do you have to spend?

[mrbungel]

Around 2 hundred buckaroos.
Thanks for the info.

[Polynitro]

Nikon Coolpix S3
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p161/cgravier_bucket/nikoncoolpixs3.jpg

[mrbungel]

Nikon Coolpix S3


YEAH!
How close was camera from subject?

[Polynitro]

YEAH!
How close was camera from subject?

Dunno, I didn't take it lol...Its from this thread at Reranch:
http://www.reranch.com/reranch/viewtopic.php?t=21243&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=60

I need a new camera as well, mine is like 3 mega pixels...This Nikon would be perfect for what I need. I saw this guys pics and saved the thread so Id rememebr what camera it was. (Actually when I refinished my Tele I used this guys final buff/polish procedure...check out around page 7 IIRC this Tele came out beautiful, as did mine))

[RobT]

Check out this web site for cameras with good macro capabilities.

http://www.imaging-resource.com/WB/WB.HTM?view=dp_macro

[Polynitro]

Check out this web site for cameras with good macro capabilities.

http://www.imaging-resource.com/WB/WB.HTM?view=dp_macro

Thats pretty cool! I was looking at those Sony Cybershots and the Canon Powershot hes got listed as well. They get good reviews elsewhere.

[ducatisteve]

I remember the old Sony DSC-T1 had this magnifying glass mode that would allow you to get as physically close as possible (so that light would still hit the lens) and still focus. I'm talking distances of ~1cm....now that's macro.

edit: Did a quick Google search and it turns out a ton of the cybershots had this capability. Might be something worth checking out.

[GAD]

If you want an extreme close-up effect, take a normal pic and crop. You'd probably be surprised how many extreme close ups are crops.

You can do this by stepping *back* from the subject, then zoom in. You'll likely get a well defined image. With some cropping you'd get a good "close-up" look.

Here's a quick and dirty example:

The whole image:

http://www.gad.net/GAD/Guitar/Misc/P1050261-800.jpg

A 100% crop of the same image:

http://www.gad.net/GAD/Guitar/Misc/P1050261-800-2.jpg

This was a quick example in a dark room with crappy lighting. With better lighting it would look much better.

GAD

[908SSP]

Cropping is great if the camera has enough pixels to start with and you're going to see the picture on the web or computer. But if you want to print cropping is out of the question. You need every pixel you can get to make a sharp 8x10. So an SLR with lots of pixels and a decent lens and manual focus.